It’s time (again) for racism to be addressed head on, with passion, intensity, intelligence and without any filter whatsoever. That time has presented itself again. I say “again” because throughout the history of black people being in this country since slavery there have been essential moments in history where racism and the mistreatment of black people became overwhelming and there was an eruption among the people that caused a reaction or a course of action. First reaction being slaves rebelling against their slave masters and oppressors, numbers of rebellions similar to Nat Turner’s to rebellions such as forming an entire society of runaway slaves (the maroon societies) that trained themselves for warfare and were dedicated to attacking plantations killing slave masters and freeing slaves. Then…the slaves were freed and there was a little sense of satisfaction among the majority of blacks that “things were getting better”, although things did get better, things weren’t what they were supposed to be. The continuance of racism, brutal acts of violence, mistreatment, failed promises and lack of assistance from the amerikkkan government only followed. Again, this started to overwhelm blacks in amerikkka causing 2 different reactions: marches, protests and sit-ins challenging Jim Crow laws and Civil Rights in a peaceful non-violent way, then when blacks grew frustrated of blacks STILL being assaulted and murdered. This birthed a rebellion in that era that was a more aggressive approach voicing the needs and demands for equal opportunity and treatment and defending themselves by any means necessary. Again, after this era passed there was another sense of “well, things are better now.” So now here we are, 2014 and there is still acts of racially fueled violence against blacks, police discrimination, profiling, & brutality against blacks, a justice system that is geared against poor people of color, even the government still ignores blacks in this country that still owes black people reparations that were promised to our ancestors. That is OURS to collect, think about it this way, if your parents pass away and they have a debt that’s left behind, you as the descendent, is now responsible to repay that debt, so if our ancestors are owed then it is ours to collect what was owed and the government’s to pay, being that THEIR (governmental ancestors) had the debt owed. Also keep in mind that the German government aided the Jewish people in Israel for the mass murder of approximately 6 million (depending on your source) Jewish people during the holocaust, paying $1.5 billion. The amerikkkan government has not paid a single penny to the black people for slavery and the millions and millions of racial murders and lynchings since the middle passage in 1619. Can money take away the pain or erase what happened? Hell no, but can it be used to improve our black communities and people in poverty to help advance black people in society? Hell yes. So, it’s 2014, by now we should be feeling overwhelmed by the blatant mistreatment of black people that constantly occurs in amerikkka but is looked at with blind eyes and listened to with deaf ears. We must react again, not in a provoking violent manner, but it has to be noticed, addressed and fixed. People have to recognize that the mistreatment of black people in this country is still a problem. Things might have gotten better, but not much has changed. So we can’t ignore racism when society hasn’t been fixed when we thought it was fixed, just like you can’t ignore a broken water faucet that you thought you fixed. Eventually that constant drip at night when you’re trying to rest will drive you to the point to get up and do something about getting that faucet fixed. Well racism in this society is that drip at night when I’m resting and now it’s driving me to the point to try to do something about fixing the faucet that we thought was fixed. Is it keeping you up? Or can you sleep through the leak?
Be peaceful, be safe, love your beautiful black skin and all power to the people.
“A people who have suffered so much for so long at hands of a racist society must draw the line somewhere….the black communities of America must rise up as one man to halt the progression of a trend that leads inevitably to their total destruction.” – Bobby Seale
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