Okay, good people.
The verdict is in. There will not be an indictment in the Michael Brown case. Black people all across the globe, children and youth in particular, have been reminded again, whether intentionally or not, that Black life is not valued … not valued by the system … not valued by the majority …and, most damning of all … Black life isn’t valued by an overwhelming number of Black people themselves.
We pontificate about what our young people need to do. How they lack respect for elders, for cultural mores, for education, for voting rights, for women, for men, for hard work, for patience, for wisdom, for God … and, how most of all, they lack respect for themselves.
I wonder though, how would you expect a young person to feel when, all around them, adults who should be their mentors, leaders and protecters, act powerless in the face of injustice after injustice and atrocity after atrocity. People of conscience talk a good game, but rarely do we stay organized long enough to right wrongs on a systemic level … one in which the payoff moves beyond the bank accounts of a few, and instead impacts an entire society … Black, Brown, Red, Yellow, White … women and men. Others say that we can’t do anything … that the deck is so heavily stacked against us that it would be futile to fight. Either play along to get along, they say, or die a senseless death. Or, even worse than death, face life penniless and unable to keep up with Joneses or the Combs, or the Kardashians, or what and whoever other celebrity or celebrated lifestyle they serve up for public idolatry and awe.
We opine about how Black people won’t stick together … then we go right about our business and don’t stick together.
Wake up good people. We do remember that we were legally slaves in this country and that we are not anymore, right? And, yes, I am more than familiar with the new Jim Crow.
We do know that the rights that have been slowly dismantled were not initially set up in the first place, right? And yes, I am clear that when the Constitution was written, Black people were only considered 3/5 of a human being.
But check it though. We are counted as whole now. And our advances and rights, human as well as civil, were gained because Black people demanded it … both peacefully and with a showing of force … be it physical, civil, spiritual and otherwise.
We demanded justice even in the face of what seemed like insurmountable odds. Some people say that, today, to achieve justice it will take a miracle.
Well, let me remind you, we are a miracle people … with a long history of performing miraculous acts.
The Michael Brown case is yet another in a long line of clarion calls since the turn of the century … those seemingly distant yet unceasing whispers for this generation of Black people to stand up. Let us overstand, that to stand up means not to just be seen, but to lift an entire race with us, to demonstrate the principles of Creation in a way that cannot be denied nor defeated.
Black life will matter when Black people decide that it does.
All that boss talk and gangster mentality is urgently needed now, in that we should not wait for anyone to do for us what must be done for ourselves. Go to YouTube and check out the video on the Dr. King that they don’t want you to hear.
Need a blueprint for revolution? Here are just a couple of things that, if done consistently and for the long term, will create the justice for which we so long. And you can do these without risk of arrest. But this is a justice that will not be given. It is a justice that must be borne of our own creation. Click on…
