A Reader’s Perspective: My Best Friend, Brenda

By Janice K. Jarosz

Santa Claus brought me my first doll when I was about six years old, and she looked just like my best friend Brenda! Her family moved into our neighborhood in early spring, right next door to me. She was the oldest daughter in her family just like me and we were the same age; we had a lot in common.

We loved playing outside in the quiet neighborhood under my grandmother’s stoop where we made mud pies with some old pans. We jumped rope with others in the neighborhood and cut out paper dolls on rainy days. It was a time when playing together with other neighborhood kids was the greatest of times. Our neighborhood was full of kids all about the same age, more or less, and all together we created our very own hometown playground.

Sadly, one day Brenda told me her family was moving back to Georgia, as her grandmother was very ill and, within a few days the whole family packed up and was gone, and I never saw or heard from her again. Even to this day, so many years ago, I think of Brenda and all the fun we shared growing up and wonder if our youthful friendship would have survived today given the different climate challenging the history and beliefs of our American culture.

In recent years, with all the news about Antifa and Critical Race Theory spreading across our country, I think of Brenda and how we would feel about each other today. Would we agree that our country is racist because I am white and Brenda is black and a victim of oppression? Could our very special relationship remain intact if we had been told that misinformation so many years ago, and even if we initially rejected that ideology, might it still plant a seed of doubt in our young minds?

Critical Race Theory (CRT) made its appearance in academia about 45 years ago. It was created by legal academics Derrick Bell, Kimberle Crenshaw and Richard Delgado, who was a professor at the University of Alabama. He migrated to the United States at 15 as an orphan. Their teachings basically tell us that our country is fundamentally racist; the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution are racist documents; and because of our white race, we are responsible for the actions committed by the color of our white skin.

Their theories have been quite successful in spreading this doctrine of so-called racism, as many universities and schools across our country have now embraced this philosophy. In many high schools today, students learn about “Confronting Whiteness in Our Classrooms,” and with lessons on “White Privilege” taken from the Southern Liberty Law Center.

I often look back to the very special friendship Brenda and I enjoyed all those many years ago and the wonderful times we shared. We were just two little girls playing together with others, unaware that someday we would be faced with theories that would try to undermine our sweet and innocent friendship. Despite the theories and propaganda out there today, I believe that Brenda and I would still be best friends today.

  Editor’s Note: Janice K. Jarosz, a Saugus native and 1961 graduate of Saugus High School, is a longtime local writer who has deep family roots in her hometown. She is a frequent contributor to The Saugus Advocate.