There is a rage building in Black America.
There is a constant re-traumatization of dehumanizing black lives. We continue to be reminded of the fact that we have no place in America.
If all lives matter, we wouldn’t have to tell you that Black lives matter.
We are growing anxious and are heading toward a tipping point.
Mothers are growing exhausted from burying their children as a result of a racist system.
There is an army mobilizing of combatants who will not chant of forgiveness or acceptance. These soldiers will wear the tear stains of grief, armed with a Kamikaze motive and demanding freedom.
These women are weary of witnessing the genocide of their children at the hands of children who look just like them.
These offspring of concrete jungles born isolated from any promise of liberty and justice adapted behaviors befitting to their environment.
“Today’s ghetto neighborhoods are populated almost exclusively by the most disadvantaged segments of the black community,” writes Dr. William Julius Wilson in The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass and Public Policy.
Wilson, a sociologist, offers some underlying explanation for behaviors of people who have been systematically cut off from opportunities:
When you cut off access to quality health care, people suffer silently in chronic pain.
When there aren’t enough stores that offer fresh fruits and vegetables, you see spikes in diabetes and heart disease.
And where you see a lack of employment opportunities, you see spikes in crime rates.
America refuses to acknowledge or face the consequences of its second-class citizens.
Black people in America are the Quasimodo of Notre Dame, the seemingly vile creatures lurking in churches across the country. We are the silent cheek turners who are growing tired of being slapped like the characters from the 3 Stooges.
White America created racism, but that doesn’t mean that every white person is racist. We just need those who are sympathetic to atrocities that we face to continue fighting with us.
When #BlackLivesMatter, then #AllLivesMatter.
We are growing tired of seeing our people lawfully massacred by police and vigilantes.
I tried to refrain from writing about Sandra Bland, but she looks like my sister, could’ve been my sister and by all means is my sister.
I will keep her name in my mouth.
I will continue to say her name along with: Trayvon Martin, Oscar Grant, Sean Bell, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Walter Scott, Freddie Gray and too many others.
There are no white people on that list. So do not pretend that every life is equated the same in the eyes of the law.
The day of reckoning is coming. We will have to have the race talk.
I doubt if everyone will have the same forgiveness as the family of the victims of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church.