Ever since the publicized beating of Rodney King, African-American have been
expected to take the high road; step out, and rise above our human emotions by putting
our voices and pained bodies out front to make pleas for calm and peace whenever it is
our humanity that has been minimized and dismissed. We are full of grief yet
EXPECTED to be full of grace.
#NOTFAIR
Maybe this is why they think or question if #blacklivesmatter because we are so quick to
offer forgiveness and pardon for their hate-filled behavior of killing, dismembering and
devaluing our communities! The ideology of nonviolence in 2020 only feels plausible if
we ALL sign on to the contract!
For generations white Americans belief of superiority and supremacy has been on
display by threatening and killing black, brown, and red men and women. If it was
thought that a white woman was mistreated, winked at, not spoken to reverently, etc.
then a black man could be stolen from his family’s home, in the middle of the night,
tortured, beaten, killed and buried in an earthen dam with no recourse. Carolyn Bryant
said Emmitt Till, a 13-year-old black child, had harassed her. Though many years later
she will confess to her lie, Emmitt was killed brutally for ultimately disrespecting a white
woman. More recently, a North Carolina sheriff’s deputy and about 15 other white men,
some armed, harassed a black teenager they mistakenly believed was involved in a
white girl’s disappearance.
Jordan Kita was eventually charged with forcible trespass, breaking and entering and
willful failure to discharge duties, after the teen’s family says he wedged his foot in the
door when 18-year-old Dameon Shepard and his mother tried to close it. These men felt
completely justified in their assertion and protection of white womanhood, yet it has
been weeks and there has still not been an arrest of Brenna Taylor&’s murderers. Then
just the idea of a white man’s authority being questioned can lead to a black jogger
being herded and shot dead in the road.
We have decades upon decades of white people displaying their notion of supremacy
and WORTH at the high cost of devaluing the lives of black and brown bodies.
Therefore, we MUST say BLACK LIVES MATTER! Chattel slavery in American was
fueled by the thought that black bodies were less attractive, felt no to little pain, did not
need as much sleep, and so on. It further believed that black families were not
connected, had no emotional love relationship and family units were viewed like packs
of dogs who could easily be torn apart for profit sake.
Every questionable police killing of a black person, the unjust citizen killings (Trevon
Martin, Mother Emanuel Church) have all served to burn deeper the ideology that black
people’s lives not only do not matter to white Americans but they are less valuable to
blacks as well; hence making this grace over grief belief prevalent within the American
society as a whole. There IS a direct connection to systematic racism and the overall
devaluing of black lives within our society where we are ALL suffering from Post-
Traumatic Slavery Syndrome.
So today I say, “I am mad as hell and I reject this packaged ill-fitting ideology! Today, I
declare we are not going to take it anymore! One way or another WE all must come to
the table of equity together and dammit, let’s get this right. What better time than now
when #COVID19 is showing it has no respect for your race, gender, sexual orientation,
financial reality or any other division causing separatist notions in this country. Remove
your protections and see what she will do to your life! Covid-19 makes the room equal
or at least it gives us an honest place to begin. And just for today….NO I DONT
FORGIVE YOU FOR YOUR HIBITUAL BEHAVIOR AND LASTING DISRESPECT or at
least not until you ask.”