(ThyBlackMan.com) It saddens my heart that America is still in the wilderness, downtrodden, on the worn path, circling around the mountain. Just as the Israelites. Stuck. Still wrestling with cultural ignorance; still engulfed in the sickness of racial warfare; still wearing badges of mental and emotional abuse; still covered by the shame of the genocidal, blood-stained “red, white and blue” fibers twisted and bonded together long ago, yet, showing no sign of being tatted and torn; still segregated by labels of color and boxed into margins of classism.
Listening to the mainstream media coverage of the riots/protests in Baltimore, you would think that this is all brand new. You would think that the reporters covering this story are from a foreign land. Did not Ferguson happen recently? Does the phrase, “I can’t breathe”, mean anything to them? What about the notion of a Black male in a hoodie? Yet, here we are again fighting for justice for our Black males who are being brutalized by the police, and ultimately, murdered by the hand of the protector and server.
Why is it we are still in this situation, still fighting for justice for yet another one of our Black brothers? Why do we, as a people, have to go through so much extreme, just to get justice that is bestowed upon every other American citizen by rite? Why is it since the beginning of our country, to this ungodly point in history, we are still witnessing “strange fruit” hanging from the limbs of the rooted white supremacy racism tree?
I believe our brother, author James Baldwin, said it best when he alluded to the thought of segregation as a sickness that affects every American, and it is instilled into every American to separate from others who are unlike oneself. Which brings about the issue of when you are segregated, you are separate. Therefore, you are living in a cocoon, and you are, and remain blind to the needs of others around you. Therefore, fear is created because of ignorance.
Although, we are living in the post-desegregation era, are we truly living in unity? We all know, without a doubt, that we remain separate. Hence, racism, fear, classism is still among us. And it shall remain, until we are willing to delve beyond the surface, deep into the core, and deal with this issue. I often ponder, how can we love our neighbor (as we’ve been commanded) when we refuse to know our neighbor? How can our world move into the much needed change it’s demanding, until we as individuals move to change?
Today we are in the midst of tragedy. Sadly, the tragedy cannot be blamed entirely on the fear of our ebony hue that has solely shackled us in the past. Before we could have, without a doubt, named our oppressor, or better yet, recognize the power of the oppressor simply through their lack of melanin. But, today it’s a tad trickier. In other words, we have way more “Stephens” laboring as pawns for Massa, Monsieur Candy. When we take on the language of the oppressor (i.e., thugs); when we portray our Black women in light of characters who are vile, such as Rasputia; or when we remove the fabric of love that covered our African-American history with the nurturing hands and hearts of the Big Mommas and Madeas, and replace it with dirty, soiled image of a loud mouth, stripping, law-breaking, gun-toting, illiterate, male-bashing Black woMAN (and the actors behind the characters whose phalluses are then effeminized, simply because he has no respect for any Black woman [especially, the one in which he arrived into this world through]), just for the sake of comedy and ill-gained riches; we have then aided the oppressor in how we view ourselves.
In a very sad and methodical way, consciously or unconsciously, we are aiding in destroying ourselves. We are aiding in our own genocide. Instead of lifting our brothers and sisters, many of us have chosen to help destroy. We need to take a step back and visualize where we stand in the midst of this crisis. Are we separating ourselves from our own people? Are we instilling fear in our children as we move them away from their own people, and into the suburbs? Is this the reason why we have the audacity to refer to our brother as a “thug”, or our sister as anything less than a queen?
We all know as brothers and sisters how it feels to be separated because of their fear of how the Father has made us, the labels they choose to brand us with, and the boxes we are expected to remain in…so, why would we in turn choose to bestow this evil upon our own people. How can we possibly fight for justice for our brother, when we are fighting against loving our brother? We cannot continue trying to build on a separated foundation. Let’s unite, especially in our time of crisis.
Staff Writer; La Royce
One may read over more of this sister writings over at; http://laroyceblog2014.com.