With the senseless killing of yet another Black man in the news I am fed up. Simply FED UP!
I've seen a few friends post that it appears to be "hunting season" on Black men, and I gotta tell ya...I'm beginning to wonder.
I mean really...
- Alton Sterling
- Philando Castile
- Micheal Brown
- Eric Garner
- Trayvon Martin
- Tamir Rice
- and now we add Terence Crutcher.
These are just a few (a very small few) whose lives have been cut short at the hands of "trigger happy" folks. If I listed them all this post would be PAGES long.
Every time I hear of yet another Black male life being lost I immediately think of my son. Only 18 years old, good kid, hard working, never been in any trouble. Yet the police don't know that when they see him. All they see when they see my son is a "Black male."
Here's the thing...
I could give him a whole list of "DOs" and "DON'Ts" when confronted by law enforcement, yet these days it seems that those things don't even matter.
Now I have to worry about how TALL he gets...how BIG he gets (weight wise), because then his SIZE (without doing ANYTHING at ALL) can be viewed as a threat.
So yes...
As a mother of a young Black male...I'm pissed.
As a woman who has brothers who are Black males...I'm pissed.
As the daughter of a Black male...I'm pissed.
As a woman who simply loves, and values Black men in general...I'm pissed.
WHEN will the "hunt" be over, and WHY does it exist in the first place?
I mean really...Somebody PLEASE tell me just WHAT exactly is so threatening about the Black male? PLEASE! Because quite honestly...I don't see it.
When I see Black males I see:
- Strength (to carry the weight of all that this unjust society places upon them)
- Intelligence
- Resilience
- Sex Appeal
- Power
- Love
- "Swag"
None of those equate to THREATS as I see them.
So really...what is it that "other folks" see that make them think the Black man has to be "taken down" like a rabid animal. Seriously...I wanna know. I need to know. Because I just don't get it.
My prayer is that we will NEVER have to hear another report of a Black male whose life has been unnecessarily taken for ANY reason. And please note that I said unnecessarily. After all, I am fully aware that this is not a utopian society that we live in. There are, and will be times when someone is truly posing a threat to others and as a result, that situation needs to be handled accordingly. But...sooo many of the accounts that we've heard lately did not fall within that criteria.
Seems to me that Black men are disproportionately killed when in a confrontational situation (and often times when NOT in a confrontational situation.) Yet "other" folks are merely wounded, and live to tell their side of the story. For the Black man...too many stories never got the chance to be told.
Then I've heard folks say, "Well...officers aren't trained to wound; they're trained to kill." Really? So why is it then that Black men always seem to be the ones who end up killed, when again, "others" get wounded? SOMETHING is terribly wrong with that picture!
Now don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying that I want "others" to be killed at the hands of law enforcement as Black men do. What I want is for Black men to STOP being killed at the hands of law enforcement. That's all. I want them to have the opportunity to LIVE just as"others" do. That's not too much to ask, is it?
Anwyay...I'm heated and heartbroken at the same time. I didn't bring my son into the world so that his life could be cut short by the hands of ANYONE. I'm 100% certain that the mothers of all the Black men we've lost lately, didn't want that for their sons either.
The killing has got to STOP, and the Black male deserves the opportunity to LIVE.
So...Let the DIALOGUE begin: What do YOU propose as a solution to this heartbreakingly angry issue?
Talk to me (because I need some answers)!
Til next time...
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