Control your actions…control your narrative.

I’m starting to notice something.

When cops pull over young black kids they ALWAYS have the individuals…

outside the car,

sitting on the curb,

handcuffed,

in clear view of EVERYONE passing in their cars.

What’s the first thing you think…”What did they do or what law did they break?”

Then I started thinking…black kids are not the only kids that break the law and drive…right?!  Well wait…have I EVER seen white kids outside the car, sitting on the curb, handcuffed, in clear view of everyone passing?!

No…not ever.

That doesn’t mean white, Indian, Chinese, and Latino kids don’t break the law. I’m just coming to understand that it’s a common practice to display black youth and men in a demeaning situation or publicly subjugated. Let’s be clear, I’ve always seen it but never really discussed in open forum.

Similar to the “perp walk” on tv, when they escort a handcuffed man who has been arrested. I started paying attention ever since they locked Mike Tyson up for rape. They covered his handcuffs up with a coat but he jokingly showed them to the tv cameras. That was the first time I saw a black man in handcuffs that were covered. I had never paid attention until that moment.

When it’s a black man, you will almost always see the handcuffs.

When it’s a white person, the handcuffs are usually covered by a coat or a jacket.

I’m not saying it’s all the time but just understand what the visual narrative does to minorities. What it’s been doing to us for a long time. It discredits us, it paints us as criminals, it lessens the empathy for people of color…most importantly people expect us to be violent or ignorant. It’s not just the law enforcement that paints us in a bad light, the news media has their paint on the canvas also. When there’s a mass killing you don’t see a white face for days, maybe not days but you know it’s a white perpetrator because they don’t show a face. If the subject is apprehended, he’s usually white, if he shot and killed he’s usually a person of color. When there’s a rape or murder and a black man has a actually been apprehended, you can bet his mug shot is all over the news. Everybody knows this, this is nothing new. That’s our country, I love it but it is what it is.

Fortunately technology is allowing us to tell our truth. We can now record on Facebook live a cop shooting an innocent child or police killing unarmed black men selling cds or groups of cops choking an unarmed black man to death while he repeats, “I can’t breathe”. Regardless if the jury finds them guilty or not, technology allows us to see what happened with our own eyes.

It’s been going on for years…it’s just now technology is recording it for the whole world to see. So…when you can, just control your reactions, change the narrative. Be intelligent like Donte Robinson and Rashon Nelson. They are the two gentlemen unlawfully arrested in Starbucks back in April.

They did nothing wrong.

The cops tried to provoke them…they didn’t get react.

The manager lied about what happened…they didn’t argue.

They still didn’t raise their voice and they still controlled the optics. It was recorded for the whole world to see. They didn’t get upset…they didn’t react…more importantly Donte & Rashon didn’t give the cops any reason to arrest them on some minor offense that puts them in the prison system. If they would have done anything wrong…

anything…

we wouldn’t be talking about it. The nation wouldn’t be talking about it. Starbucks CEO wouldn’t be trying to “fix” anything. They would be just like those kids outside the car, sitting on the curb, handcuffed, ready to processed and churned in the billion dollar prison industry. Donte and Rashon would be among the thousands, millions of incarcerated black men trying to get out of prison.

So…let’s take the lesson from these two mature individuals, control your narrative.

MPM

“Have you ever seen a successful person angry? It is very rare. It is extremely difficult to become successful if you go around letting others control and manipulate you, which is what happens when you let them make you angry.”