It is 2015 and America is still struggling with race relations and abuse of power. In lieu of the latest slaying of a black man by a police officer, America is up in arms about the Baltimore riots. Why? Real riots (not when white people turn over cars or burn up stuff after sporting events) are the cries of people with no voices. It is the explosion of frustration by the marginalized and oppressed. These people are not torching police cars for fun. They aren’t raising hell in the streets out of boredom. They are fed up with being profiled, abused, and seeing their loved ones killed. Am I justifying violence or damaging property? Of course not! But we must look at the cause and the effect of the situation. Is it fair for the media to descend upon Baltimore and highlight all the negativity, but ignore the fact that another an unarmed young black man was murdered by the police? Is it fair for the news to keep talking about gorilla gangs with the full intention to drive the image of black people as wild monkeys in the minds of delusional whites? Why praise a woman knocking her son upside the head for protesting when in any other circumstance the media would be calling her an unfit abusive parent? Why not highlight the peaceful protesters, the bereaved family, or the community leaders that can shed some light on the plight of the disenfranchised people of the city?
When white people riot, it is called revolution. When black people riot, it is called thuggery. Contrary to popular belief, all black men aren’t thugs, uneducated slackers, deadbeat dads, or products of the penal system. I’ve been black my whole life, and the majority of the black men I know are strong, upstanding, educated, hard working, family men. Why can’t each man be judged for his own actions? Why make sweeping generalizations when it comes to blacks? Am I saying there are not bad blacks? Of course not! There are good and evil in every group of people. The evil among blacks is no greater or lesser than any other group of people. There is black on black crime, white on white crime, Asian on Asian crime, Hispanic on Hispanic crime. This country has to stop getting drunk off of stereotypes and get sober with the truth!
What happened to liberty and justice for all? Why are our cries muted? Why is the media so slanted when telling our stories? I’ll tell you why. America is still deeply rooted in racism. Racism is at the root of employment bias, real estate bias, mass black incarceration, and the broken educational system. When we can be honest enough to admit that racism is a systematic problem and that America is just as racist as it was before the civil rights movement; that the spirit of Jim Crow and oppression still is alive and literally kicking, only then can real dialogue and change can occur.
(Dropping the mic and jumping off my soapbox.)
To learn more about Violette, visit www.violettemeier.com.
Well thought out, well said, well written, but most of all it was definitely needed! One day the blind will stop choosing to STAY BLIND and have the courage to see the unfiltered truth for what it really is!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your input.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your input.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on all points. But here we are rioting again when we have learned from the past that rioting doesn't work to bring about the change we want. How can we make the changes we are rioting over stick? How do we create that "Civil Rights movement" type change today?
ReplyDelete-Kimanthi -