(ThyBlackMan.com) Prior to 1967, nothing in America could get a Black man murdered faster than the catchword “rape.” Nowadays, “Black man with a gun,” may be topping the charts. In May of ’67, quite a few college educated, gun-toting Black Panthers, exercising their rights to bear arms, uninvitingly entered the California statehouse. Post haste, the Mulford Act, a bill repealing public carrying of a firearm was signed into law by then California Governor Ronald Reagan; and, almost immediately, the Panthers were forever labeled domestic terrorists.
However, what I found even more astonishing was the fact that the second African-American Noble Peace prize recipient, the highly educated Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., was denied a permit to carry a weapon in the aftermath of the bombing of his home. The reasons for this denial are sketchy and convoluted. Perhaps, the permit distributers knew that if one of the most intelligent, insightful, and unequivocally peace proponents amongst us felt the need to possess weaponry, then every logical thinking African-American, male and female, would have applied for such a permit.
I think every Black person should be aware of this particular action, by arguably, one of the world’s greatest leaders. It is the merging of two extremes: an unusually peaceful integrationist requesting a 
weapon of destruction from staunch volatile, hardhearted, pistol-packing segregationists. The fact that, at one point in his amazing life, he desired a firearm doesn’t stain his peaceful legacy. If anything, it humanizes his divinity. And that, in itself, is inspirational to all Americans.
Nevertheless, after the Panthers’ publicity stunt, America’s mission was to criminalize Black men which would limit future weapon possessions, perpetuate a United States’ slave trade inside of penal institutions, and restrict voting rights. In fact, today, only two of America’s states allow prisoners to cast ballots. No, not liberal New York and California; but, rather, Maine and Vermont who, combined, only have an African-American population of about 25,000.
In addition, the most visible commonality amongst Americans in general is that many think with their pocketbooks/wallets. A lot of poor people think poorly. Hypothetically, poor thinking Black men may spend a $1000 to buy an ounce of crack-cocaine; then cut it into small grams or milligrams that may have a street value of $1500. If arrested, they risk disenfranchising their families as well as serving decades in a prison for a meager five hundred dollar profit.
Whereas rich people think of ways to continuously enrich themselves. For example, a rich white man may assess the poverty-stricken thoughts of the lower class and then hire PR persons to create a media frenzy of a violent crack epidemic ruled by lawless, Black gangsters. Once this hysteria is set into motion, he then may spearhead a security company that vows to protect the properties of the fearful and paranoid. As a side hustle, he may even invest monies in private prisons and slave quarters to house the new 21st century servants.
In the end, he surfs and sails upon his self-serving waves of pseudo-humanitarian efforts to springboard him into politics, or some other high profile gig, like a Police Commissioner; therefore, he can overseer…I mean, oversee, the disarmament, slaughter and incarceration of mentally challenged citizens who were either intellectually crippled or paralyzed by a lackluster educational system or unfortunate enough to be psychologically tortured and terrorized by unconstitutional practices of stop and frisk, racial profiling, and mass institutionalization.
The only light in this genocidal abyss is that Black people, especially Black men, now have a common thread that has sewn them together despite age, class, wealth: the fact is that whether conveniently warehoused in the confines of an inner-city housing complex, or marred by a miserable life of prison-hopping, or nestling comfortably in a university dorm, all Black men are acutely aware that America is only okay with them possessing guns when they are employed to protect her interests, never their own!
Staff Writer; Saint Solomon
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