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For years we have watched ourselves be villainized by an injustice system set up to watch us fail. Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and George Floyd were just the latest in the many martyrs to our system's injustice before them. And they question our anger? They wonder why we have a problem continually burying our loved ones?
I'm so glad that the revolution IS being televised. Its about time that the world sees the position we have been put in as a people. Justice for some, really equals justice for none because skin color is not a defining factor to being human.
Watching George Floyd cry out to the officer for mercy, and exclaim that he could not breathe while the officer continued to apply pressure to his neck almost broke me. Then I learned that not only was he strangled to death, but also beaten by three of the officers in the back of their police cruiser before being taken down with his face to the ground; helpless, while the fourth officer stood watch. I was devastated. My mind kept going to this helpless man's face, pressed so deeply in the ground you could hardly see the whole of it. Flashes of my own son's faces flipped in and out, replacing George Floyd's. The horror and agony he must have felt in that moment. All of this happened because the cashier inside the convenience store he had just come from, thought he'd paid for his merchandise with a fake twenty dollar bill. Even with it being proven to be a real twenty in the end, was his life worth just twenty dollars? Do police really view us as that cheap, that worthless of a people?
I wonder, because since I can remember, we have been brainwashed into believing we're not enough. Its the reason why over the years we've done all we can to straighten our hair, lighten our skin, and have colorism amongst members of our own race. We've even adopted our "white speak" for when we are in the company of a lot of white people, so they don't feel uncomfortable while we're around.
As a little girl, I was told by one of the little white girls I used to play with that I was a Negro because I was a girl. The "nigger" label was reserved for my male counterparts, and I believed it back then. I believed it! Only because I was one of only two black children in my school, the other of whom was of a much lighter complexion, and came from a more well-to-do family, while I was the product of a broken home. Mama and I had barely escaped my daddy's abuse (more so her than me).
In my neighborhood, where the "good schools" Mama worked so hard to keep me in, there was no representation of anything within myself that I could look to and be proud of. Instead, I was told how to feel about how God made me. When I look back now as an adult, comfortable in the skin, and with the hair God gave me, I just wonder how I could have believed the definition of mere human beings who had nothing to do with the Divine Architect who crafted me and those like me, with His loving hands, and then said what He made was good. How could any of us believe it? But, I guess that's the power of brainwashing.
We were bought at a price, taken from our home country, delivered over to a people who call us lazy, but paid to have us work to make money for them so they wouldn't have to. Through time, as we gained our freedoms, we were told to, "go back to Africa;" since we had the legal right to live life freely, and earn money for ourselves. Black Wall Street came about not long after emancipation, but was burned to the ground with lives lost to murderous hate-filled people who couldn't stand the fact that among us were enterprising, intellectually sound, thought provoking, investors who had grown from the binds of slavery to be millionaires with land of their own which they could pass down through the generations.
We enjoyed twenty years where the wealth of our people was allowed to grow. They called it the Renaissance, and it is purposefully omitted from the lesson plans of teachers who could be showing black youth that their lives can be more than just impoverished, criminal, and confined; that their history covers more than just being somebody's slave.
Go back to Africa? For real? We were BORN here. To be honest, if we're to go back to Africa, then those who say that need to pack their bags as well. America is not your native land. You stole it from those who believed the land belonged to everyone. They wanted to share it with you, and you took it by force, killing their babies by bashing them against the stones, and taking their lives with violent force.
This morning I was led to the book of Esther in the Bible. It reminded me of the destiny those filled with hate can expect. Haman, who was second-in-command of the Persian Empire, enjoyed all the perks provided to his people. His power, prestige, and authority was flaunted over others as the expectation for reverence was impressed upon the people who they considered beneath them. Mordecai, a member of the Jewish race, and Esther's relative, refused to give Haman the reverence he desired, because Mordecai's reverence belonged to God alone. This of course did not stroke Haman's self-centered ego, and he hated Mordecai for it. Not only that, he hated all of the Jews, and wanted to kill them. His hate and desire to rid the world of the Jewish race so consumed him, he plotted and used the head of the country's government at the time (King Xerxes) to make plans to obliterate them.
I'm sure Haman expected great gain (whether financial or in power) from the enactment of his plans, but the day set aside for the Jews to be destroyed ended up being the day they were set free. In considering himself better than others because of his race, Haman ended up being punished for his arrogant attitude. All of his scheming against God's people had set him up against God, The Creator, who is Love & not hate.
The scripture note reminded me that, "God will harshly judge those who are prejudiced or whose pride causes them to look down on others." What a burden it must be as well, to carry the load of hate. People who practice it always seem to be so angry. It has to be miserable to live in anger all of the time.
I pray that all my black brothers and sisters, all my brothers and sisters of other races who stand with us in this human justice fight will not lose hope. I pray there be no more martyrs, as George Floyd's death has woken the sleeping beast of silence. Carry on in the fight because there is so much left to do. Keep traction moving forward as we strive for the equal treatment we deserve under the law. Emancipation was the break out, The Civil Rights Movement was the starting lap. Now we are in a full sprint. Don't lose hope, and please don't lose heart. Do all that is in your power to do legally, and within reason.
As we fight against an injustice system set against us and practiced by those who are considered "bad apples" in a law enforcement group meant to protect and serve the citizens of America, not just themselves; I am reminded of the words of one of my favorite comedians. "Some groups just can't afford to have bad apples."- Chris Rock.
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