McCurtain County Oklahoma county commissioner Mark Jennings, who is white, was recorded saying, “They [Black people] got more rights than we got.” Excuse me? Black people got more rights than you got? Can you explain how you arrived at this conclusion? Do you mean by this that you, as a conservative white man, have fewer rights than Black people? Because you can’t harass, arrest and lynch Black people anymore, like your good ole boys “back in the day?” By “more” rights, do you really mean the same rights that you so clearly enjoy and don’t want to share? Black people, all people, even people with vile opinions like you, have the same right to live their lives in freedom and safety. This isn’t asking too much. This isn’t “more.” And you are in the way. No, Commissioner Jennings, Black people don’t got more rights than you. Yet with this hateful rhetoric, you evidently think they should have fewer. You appear to be suffering from a misplaced sense of ill usage and unfairness, and your comments, sadly, are just another reflection of conservative rhetoric that panders to fellow cowardly white men who can’t handle the idea that their position at the top of the heap is being threatened by people who don’t look or think just like them. They are not a threat. They are a promise. And the sooner you accept this with some kind of courage and grace, the better off we will all be.