Our black children are getting gunned down in the streets every day. Statistics say literally every 29 hours. This frightens me, concerns me, so I am looking for solutions, not band-aid fixes.
To black intellectuals, please stop with the respectability bullshit. You know what I am talking about: the conversations about how voting brings change, stop sagging pants, stop watching and/or starring in reality shows, stop shaming our race. The list goes on and on.
Question for all of you pseudo intellectuals: Would you tell a rape victim to stop sleeping with men, or stop wearing short clothes to entice men? Would you blame her for her rape? No, you wouldn't! First of all, it is disgusting. Secondly, it is not the politically correct thing to do, and we all know how we love to be pc.
Well, if you wouldn't treat a rape victim in that manner, why are you blaming black people for over 400 years of systematic, institutionalized peril?
It takes all types of people to make the world what it is, from the Harvard University professor to the teen with the sagging pants, our culture is comprised of a beautiful rainbow of people, and their diversity, and their differences are what make this world so great.
We all have rights, designated by the Constitution, which should be upheld by both politicians, law enforcement, and private citizens.
Those rights include: the ability to walk to a local store and return home safely to your parents (Mike Brown, Trayvon Martin), the ability to play your music at whatever volume you choose in a public place, and still make it home safely to your parents (Jordan Davis), and the ability to have a car wreck, and knock on someone's door seeking help and not face an assassin's bullet (Renisha McBride, Jonathan Ferrell), to shop in Wal-Mart, purchase a toy gun, and not be gunned down for it in an open carry state(John Crawford), and to walk the streets of LA and know that you will go home and live another day (Ezell Ford).
Remember MLK? The man who white racists used to quell black anger when we have received some type of injustice, or the go to guy that black intellectuals use to "shame" others for their behavior. He was beyond respectable: graduated from high school at 15, had a doctorate by age 26, beautiful wife, children, didn't sag his pants, Baptist minister, freedom fighter, but it didn't stop James Earl Ray from shooting him dead at the tender age of 39.
Do you know Forest Whitaker? There is not anyone in the entertainment industry with a more impressive resume. He is both a multi-talented actor and director, but he was racially profiled in a New York deli, just one month after Trayvon Martin's murder.
So if it were as easy as respectability, most of us, would never have any worries, but the truth is whether you are wearing a three piece suit, speak the Queen's English, and have over 40 honorary degrees like the late, great Dr. Maya Angelou, to the right racist, your respectability doesn't mean a hill of beans, and could still lead you to an early grave.
So instead of respectability conversations, let's have deeper, more change inducing conversations. Let's finally confront systematic racism.
I need my fellow white brothers and sisters to speak on it, combat it. Stop worrying about your country club status, and your friends and family blacklisting you, and speak!
I need for my fellow black brothers and sisters to stop making excuses for it, pretending it doesn't exist, and shaming your fellow black brothers and sisters who don't act like you or have what you have. Mentor, give back, but stop the judgment, stop with the holier than thou attitudes.
Because if we really want to save our children, it takes a collective effort, and for the masses to give a damn!
Until next time....
No comments:
Post a Comment