This was originally published on July 16th, 2016. I’ve modified the original version because it was an angry vomit of facts and I wanted to remove some profanity and provide a little more level headed blogging. The original text was to instigate a discussion for some sort of resolution, but I think we’re past talks. Anyway, angry blogging is never good. Please enjoy and discuss.
Starting again…
There’s been a lot going on so I’m going to just put it out there.
I just paid money to watch another movie where black people sacrificed themselves for white people. Then I started thinking…we, everyone is conditioned, brainwashed, desensitized into thinking Black Lives Don’t Matter.
Black men are dying for the stupidest reasons imaginable, Air Jordans, jealousy, cars, gold chains, North Face Jackets, gang affiliation, wear a wrong color and you get a bullet in the head. Black rappers make music about murder like it’s cool, like it’s a way of life and we dance to it! It’s all for show all for bragging rights but at some point this entertainment business went too far. We rap about dying like it’s a sport, like dying is not real. That’s just dumb. You face death every day, really?!…in your Ferrari for real?! Give me a f#$%@ break. When you start making money your tone will change and you’ll start taking pictures with cops cause your agent said it’s a good idea. Yeah but I remember that thug rapper from Cali that influenced an entire generation of young black boys to smoke weed and kill other black kids on his way to the top. After his first album, “Ready to Die” The Notorious Biggie Smalls said it best, “I ain’t ready to die no more”. This statement was quoted by the rapper right before he was shot and killed. Curtis Jackson’s album titled, “Get Rich or Die Tryin'” speaks to a destructive survival mentality. Marvin Gaye said it best, “What’s going on?!” Whatever is going on is on purpose, it’s no mistake that black people fill up the prisons, it’s no mistake that our public schools are failing, that our food is s#!&, that we’re underpaid, overtaxed, our water is poison, and doctors experiment on us. This corporate, political, economic system wasn’t built for us, it depends on us.
These killings at the hands of cops is not only because cops fear us but because they too have been conditioned to believe black lives don’t matter.
Do you remember March 3, 1991, Rodney King was resisting arrest for about 8:09 minutes while he got beat, almost to death, by about 6 cops…this was BEFORE Facebook, before streaming, some of you weren’t even born yet, twenty something years ago.
What happened to those four cops…acquitted on most charges, which started the 1992 LA riots.
Feddie Grays died from a broken neck while in custody of the Baltimore police, all officers acquitted, it’s 2016 people. This also started a riot in Baltimore last year.
So…what does that tell you, that police have escalated their mistreatment of blacks, you get shot now, you don’t just get beat up.Whatever the method, you could end up dead.
Cops kill us over license tags, selling cigarettes, arguing, Amadou Diallo and Philando Castile, were BOTH killed for reaching for their wallets, this is not the first time that mistake has happened. They shot at Amadou 41 times hitting him 19 times…you think that’s a little excessive? He was 23 years old. Philando had a child in the car, you’re not supposed to take that shot with someone in the background, that’s not a safe shot. You can even hear in video where the officers yells, “F$%#” because he knows he made a mistake. My thinking is, “If you’re that scared, take that badge off and go be another civil servant, like a sanitation worker or something, any position that’s unarmed. Don’t get me wrong, I KNOW cops are on edge, you’re risking your life to protect and serve and this black bastard is talking smack about his rights, smelling like weed and driving on a suspended license…yeah he’s an idiot, but he still doesn’t deserve to die cause he’s going through a bad patch in his life. I get it but some of y’all are out of control and this s#!& has to stop.
The cop in South Carolina video taped a cop placing a stun gun in place so he can justify killing an unarmed black man running AWAY from him. The cop in Cincinnati was lying about being almost run over by the guy with a hanging license tag and the other cop drove up and started lying with him immediate saying, “Yep, I saw that”…the black unarmed driver was shot for a hanging license tag are you f$%#*# kidding me?! These people are not pit bulls or video game characters, they’re human beings you’re killing. Oh and for you white people who haven’t been paying attention, this s#!& ain’t just start happening, it’s just now being video taped.
I heard the a quote by Dr. William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, Fisk University Class of 1888,
“A system cannot fail those it was never built to protect.”
I read this when I attended an HBCU, Morgan State University. Ever since reading it, I’ve been unsuccessful in trying to deny it. WEB Du Bois graduate college in 1888! So what am I supposed to tell college grads, that things are going to be different?! If my grandfather’s grandfather warned him about white cops then this s#!& has been going on for years, decades and for that long cops black AND white have been getting away with murder, theft, bribery, you name it.
So then what…more community rallies, more marches, more We shall over comes, neighborhoods in mourning, stacks of roses and teddy bears, sensitivity training…how many more vigils, not guiltys, apologies, lawsuits can a race take…but it going to happen again. SOMEONE, whether it’s black on black crime or a cop or armed neighborhood watcher following a kid home, another black life is not going to matter.
So how do I twist this into a mentoring moment you ask?! Well…I see it as a choice. If you want to stay a nigger you want to stay ignorant, uneducated, in and out of jail, fine. Choose a life that doesn’t matter, that’s your choice, but don’t make excuses. Don’t blame your parents, just say, “I was scared to live, I was scared to fail.” There’s enough positive examples to use to make yourself better but you can’t be a coward. Cowards stay home wasting their life away on the couch comfortable playing their video games, drinking and smoking weed into ignorant nigger bliss and not leaving his neighborhood. The real black men step out of their comfort zone and make a difference with what little they have. The raise good children, they educate themselves, they pay their bills, they have white friends over, they present themselves in a positive light and constantly fight the negative stereotypes that the media, community and cinema perpetuate. So…take your pick and whatever side you choose don’t make excuses, own it.
Either your life is going to matter or it’s not, no slogan is going to make your life matter if you don’t make it matter first.
MPM
Middle Passage Mentor 