The Hunt For Black Men...

I am angry, upset, outraged...Pissed! There is a war going on and unfortunately the hunted is none other than young black men. We keep having the same damn discussion-senseless killings of black men-whether it’s by ourselves or by those other people who feel that we don’t have the same rights to freedom and protection as others. Everyone wants us to do better, get better, achieve more, but when we do we are still hunted down in the streets like animals-and the worst part is that most of the time the people who do so get away with it. Unarmed men who “look suspicious” have to deal with shoot first, ask later and no one but us thinks it’s a problem! Amadou Diallo, Sean Bell, Trayvon Martin, Jordan Davis, Jonathan Ferrell-when will this madness end, When will stop being seen as a threat on sight, even when we are where we are supposed to be? I don’t have children currently, but I do have 3 black nephews and several young black boy cousins and it hurts me that in addition to telling them to do well in school, be chivalrous, respect their elders and authority and be respectful we now have to say: “Don’t walk through our nice neighborhood alone at night”, “Don’t wear a hoodie when it rains”, “Don’t listen to music at the level you want to”, “Don’t reach for your wallet”, “Don’t go outside the day of your wedding”, “Don’t stand in front of your own building”, “Don’t run to the police for help”. The President of the United States is a bi-racial man who is part African and still we can’t get any respect. He doesn’t get it, our kids don’t get it, our leaders don’t get it-I mean what the hell else do we need to do??

 You got people out here with degrees, jobs, families and no previous legal troubles just being dropped like stones from a mountain. We are not as far along as people like to think. A Black person in the U.S. still has to work twice as hard to prove that they belong wherever it is that they are-and I’m not talking about using affirmative action or quotas or anything else. There are plenty of people who worked hard, motivated themselves and had the skills and talents to succeed in their field and there are still people out here who want to question their credentials, success and authority. Just in my family and personal circle alone I have high ranking Military Officials, Doctors, Educators, Nurses, Lawyers, Entrepreneurs, Community Advocates, Managers, Chefs, Entertainers, Athletes…I could go on and I’m only 33. I’m sick of the notion that if I’m young and black I’m either stupid, uneducated, a criminal or a baby momma/daddy. Now, I am not naïve to the fact that those people exist but IT IS NOT EVERY BLACK PERSON! Plus, contrary to popular beliefs-WE DO NOT ALL LOOK ALIKE. We range from Midnight Black to Beige, Coffee to Banana-all just as beautiful and proud as the next.  Shoot, I'll take it a step further, 3 of my nieces and nephews are bi-racial, one of my best friends is bi-racial, my ex-boyfriend is bi-racial and NONE of them look like the other regardless to the fact that they are all mixed Black/White!  So many times you hear people say that a person “fit the description of a suspect”-well if the description is young, black, male then dammit so does my 7 year old little cousin-should he be brought in for questioning too? Let’s flip some scripts for a moment-say Trayvon is George and George is Trayvon in the situation-do any of you think for one moment that Trayvon would have left that scene without being arrested?? If you do, you are delusional. Try this one-if a white man knocked on someone’s door for help would the police be called? If he ran towards the police for help would they have shot a Taser OR a gun first without first seeing what the person wanted?? Nope.

*As an educational moment-recognize that more than 30 states have some type of stand your ground law including all but 1 state I have ever lived in and I have lived in 6…that ought to tell you something. *

People, we need to wake up, we need to stand up, we need to be outraged, we need to make an issue out of this and we need to keep going until we see a difference. These things have certainly made me take a step back and begin to research cases, stand your ground laws in my state and pay attention to little things in government and media more so than I admit I did before. Remember back in the 80’s/90’s when the black community was adamantly against the police-enough so that NWA put out a song called Fu*k Tha Police in 1988 and Public Enemy put out a song called 911 Is A Joke in 1990 (though that song was more about slow response times to black neighborhoods)-these types of things that have come back around in the 2000’s are the catalysts for those types of remarks and feelings. If the people who are supposed to protect and serve us are the ones killing us and turning a blind eye to injustice-who do we have to turn to? I have cops in my family but after seeing all that has been going on even I am a little leery of the boys in blue-at this point I may be more comfortable asking a brother passing on the street than an officer in his car the same distance away and that is a damn shame…

R.I.P to my fallen brothers/sisters and to my fellow FAMU Rattler Jonathan Ferrell-I hope one day we make enough of a change to make you proud. I shed silent tears for your injustice and innocence. I pray you were right with the Lord and are now in paradise…

Twitter: @Frommysoapbox