How the hell can we continue to act like this is not just another (attempted) murder? Jacob Blake was walking AWAY from breaking up an altercation and got shot seven times in his back. In front of his children!
Sadly, for all of us in the black community, this has become our reality. We have come to realize that we are viewed as a ‘threat’ as soon as we walk out our front door with melanin skin. We do not have to make a threatening gesture. We do not have to be in the commission of a crime. We do not have to be a convicted criminal. It has been proven time and time again, that breathing while black might find you on the wrong end of smoking gun.
And for those of you idiots that find the need to champion piss poor policemen, get the fu*k outta here with the Blue Lives Matter rhetoric. Being a policeman is NOT an ethnicity. It does NOT mean you are an oppressed people. It does not mean that you are profiled, stereotyped, and marginalized as soon as you are born. Being a policeman is a career choice. Period. A choice that comes with inherent risks and huge societal responsibilities. I applaud the good policeman but……man…. when are we going to get past these evil men that have the unmitigated gall to commit these atrocities even while being filmed? Ya’ll do realize that since George Floyd’s murder (May 25th), we have seen three hundred more shootings at the hands of the police?
Does not the fact that the cops that commit these crimes on camera, seem to do so with zero remorse, speak to a larger issue? Can those with reasonable sense NOT comprehend that these actions have been swept aside (and perhaps sanctioned) for so long, that those charged to uphold the law use their own set of morals, or lack thereof to guide their thirst to maim, assault and even kill?
The boys in blue continue to shoot us when we are asleep in the drive thru at Wendy’s, choke us out when we are bootlegging CDs, and even break into our apartment and kill us just because. Hello! Have Breonna Taylor’s killers been brought to justice? If so, can you put their names in the comments? Don’t worry, I’ll wait.
And for all you Make America Great sheep, when the hell has America been great for minorities? Forget an Elephant, forget a Donkey, this is NOT a political question. Was it slavery? Jim Crow? Segregation? Housing Discrimination Laws? Economic Imbalance? Political Isolation? Racism?
We now must rally behind the ideal of RIGHT versus WRONG. Justice to all has to be our collective goal, or else we are simply playing out our lives in hopes that our daily existence remains tolerable, rather than trying to fulfill the promise that this is truly a land of opportunity and enrichment. And just to clarify, life is NOT good, just because we live in these fifty states. But it can become BETTER THAN good when fairness and equality become our mission.
My hope is that this hellacious year forces us to examine the very fabric of our value system. To move ahead, we must move past empty social media commitments and move into our communities. We will not all agree on politics, nor social constructs but we should find common ground in our compassion and basic human decency.
But what to do? Get active!!! A month or so ago, I detailed my numerous run-ins with Benicia Police. That post got so many reactions; it spurred a conversation with Benicia Police Chief Erik Upson. Chief Upson is cool. He is from Berkeley and is looking to make a change in his department’s interaction with minorities. He and I met two weeks ago, and I am helping craft a video piece for change. This is how a shift occurs.
The NBA, specifically the Milwaukee Bucks, made me so proud today. We must use our voice, our position, our status, our energy to alter this normal.
I challenge US to take a stand. Enough is enough. Are you not tired of the civil unrest and the social imbalances? I know I am.
Because if you are NOT, understand YOU ARE THE PROBLEM.