#BlackLivesNeverMattered

So before I start, I wanna preface this blog with the following:  This will not be an attempt to understand what happened nor will it be to see sides of the story.  It will be about two things, what happened in the story, and my opinion as it relates to that story.  So here goes everything!!

You know, just when I think I’m going to give the keyboard a rest, and stop blogging for good, this country goes out and does a number of things to get my “creative juices” flowing again.  I guess in the end I just can’t stay away from this blogging thing.  So over the past few weeks there have been a couple of incidents that have made me wonder where this country is and where it might be going.  The first happened in Dallas, TX, where I believe the police came to a pool party of black and white teenagers, and when attempting to subdue one of the young teenagers, who just so happened to be black, a cop uses excessive force.  Hmmm.  That’s one thing.  The next thing which makes things even worse.  Last week there was a young man, 21, who goes into a church in Charleston, SC, and shoots and kills 9 people.  Again I say Hmmm…

So…what can I say that hasn’t already been said.  Pray for Charleston.  Pray for Americans.  Be forgiving.  There are more than 9 victims, we have victims on both sides who have lost.  Nope.  All of that has actually been said.  So I guess I’ll just start with this:  Wow! Just wow.  Words can’t explain what happened, or how the people of that town must feel.  Looking at this from a far, I’ve heard people say that this is a terrorist act (maybe).  That it was terrible and could have been prevented (possibly).  How could the parents have allow this to happen (meh)?

Look ya’ll, here it is.  IT WAS A RACIST ACT!!! Bottom line.  No sugar-coating.  No making excuses.  It was just pure racism.  I would talk about how anyone could just walk in and disrespect the church in general, but I won’t go there, at least not in this blog.  I will say this though. If you don’t think this was racist, then you’re probably racist.  Yep, I said it.  If you think this wasn’t an isolated act, you’re probably diving a little too deep.  This has nothing to do with Cleveland or New York, or Dallas or any other place.  This was an act of hate by an individual.  It doesn’t matter how many racist groups or sects exist in the South.  He was the one who went in that church and opened fire.  He acted alone.  That’s a fact!  You have all these media outlets marveled at how the families forgave this young person for his crimes against them, but that’s actually supposed to be a given for the church community.  Then you have the judge asking people to think about forgiveness.  Honestly…forgiveness is great, and it is necessary, but what about justice.  Forgiveness doesn’t mean a hill of beans in this country if justice isn’t served.  Even if you remove race from the conversations all together, you can see that crimes have been committed.  Is there justice for this young kid, to go through the court system, and none for Eric Garner, who was also said to be breaking the law?  Oh yeah, he never got to see his day in court.  Do you think, that African-Americans, Black people, Colored people, Negroes (whatever they are calling us these days) can continue to forgive these acts, if there’s no justice for us?  Our children can’t even go to a pool party these days without a police thinking we’re up to no good.  And now we can’t worship.  Shoot, not just now, but historically. Churches have been burned down for years, and invaded by evil acts and just now America has something to say about it.  Oh my bad, America hasn’t said anything since maybe 2 days after the events of last week. That’s the problem with America today.  When it comes down to it, you can come up with all the unique and clever hashtags you want. But let’s be real for a second and say it.  Be honest.  #BlackLivesMatter has never been a concern of America, the self-proclaimed “Greatest Country in all the World”.

Then you have people all over the internet and TV asking for this flag to be taken down.  That’s stupid.  The Confederate flag historically represents the civil war and the flag the southern states fought under. Slavery was part of that true, but removing it changes nothing.  Where it becomes an abomination is not for its original purpose, but for its current use.  Destroying it would be silly.  That’s like taking down the Stars and Stripes for the last 400 years of black oppression, because that’s the way it’s been, right?  Afterall, the treatment of blacks and the struggle for civil rights was a part of history, right? Again, not its original purpose but that’s the way it’s being used.  Here’s a question:  Do you think that removing the symbol of the old Confederacy would remove all racial tension, or racist acts from the South, or this country for that matter?  Do you think that removing the “rainbow” flag from Pride parades would end all homosexuality?  No…No it wouldn’t.  So what’s your point?  The bottom line is that when we begin to address the bigger issues of race in this country, then we will begin to make headway on fixing the problems there are with police relations, and race relations in general.  That’s just it.  Responsibility is needed on both sides.

I try my best not to go here, but to be honest, this is something that rocks me to the core.  I just can’t understand why we are still teaching our children racist behaviors and ideologies.

Take a second to think about this one last thing.  We have a Black President in this country who is about to leave office next year.  There are tons of candidates popping up for the 2016 election.  How many of them had questions about their nationality, or where they’ve been born?  How many of them have been questioned publicly about their religion in a disrespectful way?  How many have been told to show their birth certificate to the world so that they will know exactly where they were born.  And even when they furnished it, told that it was a fake?  None of these candidates lately that I’ve seen.  Oh but there is one last detail I forgot to ask.  How many of those candidates, are black?