A Gen Z tale of cynicism - and hope

There is perhaps no greater example of contrast between what America is ― versus what some wish it to be ― than what occurred recently in Qatar and in a courtroom in Cleveland.

Last week during a FIFA World Cup press conference, an Iranian journalist asked U.S. Men's Team Captain Tyler Adams ― who is Black ― how he could play for a country where racism is so endemic.

The 23-year-old gave a thoughtful and graceful response worthy of a diplomat. After first apologizing for mispronouncing "Iran," Adams acknowledged that, while America is not a perfect country, it is one which always endeavors to move forward on matters of race.

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The fact that Adams is the U.S. team captain makes that patently obvious, doesn't it?

Adams also reminded the press that America is hardly the only place in the world where Black people encounter racism. You need only to hear some of the chants aimed at Black players during foreign soccer matches to know that's true.

That Adams managed to resist the temptation to start World War III by pointing out Iran's own hypocrisy and misogyny, shows why he's the captain.

At nearly the same time, political operative Jacob Wohl, 24, was in a Cleveland courtroom pleading guilty to voter fraud for bombarding Black residents in East Cleveland with 6,400 robocalls containing false information about mail-in voting during the 2020 election.

Wohl's so-called career has been one of media stunts and hustling those who share his extreme right-wing political views.

He and Adams are members of Gen Z, people born between 1995 and 2009, yet the two couldn't be more different.

One young man loves his country, albeit unrequited. Before a worldwide audience, Brown stood for American opportunity and hope. Wohl makes mockery of the idea by undermining those he has decided don't deserve a voice.

Wohl and his accomplice, Jack Burkman, 56, (which is old enough to know better) were sentenced by Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge John Sutula to six months' monitored home confinement, two years' probation, a $2,500 fine, and 500 hours of community service registering minority voters in Washington, D.C.

Seriously?

Some of us are old enough to recall when Crystal Mason, a felon on parole in Texas, was sentenced to five years in prison for trying to vote after being erroneously informed by poll worker that she was eligible. Others of us just witnessed apologetic police in Florida placing bewildered ex-felons in handcuffs for voting, even though they were qualified according to the state's own law, which was approved by voters in 2018.

Black Americans have died to exercise their vote, which makes it far more than just a civic obligation. The blood, bombings, beatings and unsolved murders which pockmarked the Jim Crow South, makes it a sacrament.

Wohl's fraud, which featured a recording by a woman named "Tamika Taylor" ― same name as the mother of Breonna Taylor ― is even more egregious given that Gen Z voters are being credited in some circles for saving democracy itself.

Remembering Pearl Harbor

Infringing on others' rights sullies our story. Today marks the 81st anniversary of Pearl Harbor, a seminal moment which bound Americans to the common cause of freedom.

Virtually every community in America has some connection to those who fought and died on that sunny Sunday morning, far from home.

The attack, and America's response to it, illustrates what Tyler Adams meant by this country's perpetual arc of growth and change.

As World War II commenced, we know the Roosevelt Administration made some grievous mistakes. It takes an audacity that can't be measured to conscript minorities into a racially-segregated military to fight for other people's freedom, yet today, the U.S. secretary of defense is Lloyd Austin, a Black man born in Mobile, Alabama.

FDR failed in his initial reticence to help imperiled European Jews living in the shadow of certain death. Yet, American Jews went to combat even as they, too, endured prejudice because of their faith. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the stepson of a Holocaust survivor and the third Jewish American to serve in the post, is a direct beneficiary of their valor.

In 1942, the government indefensibly forced Japanese Americans and even some Italian Americans into interment camps based on nothing more than their ancestry. Despite this, their sons, including the legendary 442nd Infantry Regiment, more than proved their worth.

Despite our faults, our ability to become one people in times of national crisis is the miraculous marker that sets us apart from countries where tribalism and ancestral grudges can run centuries deep.

This is the America to which Tyler Adams was referring, and that Jacob Wohl chose to ignore.

Charita M. Goshay is a Canton Repository staff writer and member of the editorial board. Reach her at 330-580-8313 or charita.goshay@cantonrep.com. On Twitter: @cgoshayREP

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Charita Goshay looks at Tyler Adams and Jacob Wohl