(ThyBlackMan.com) I put down a passion project to write about Alton Sterling. Writing is important when it documents the African diaspora for the next generation. Our people will perish from the lack of knowledge we fail to record. I am the writer who concentrates on the condition of the present in order to create something substantial for the future. We would not know where we are if someone had not written about where we have been.
My wife forwards a video to me about the Alton Sterling incident; last night we finally watched the BET awards to catch Jesse Williams’ speech amid learning there was a petition to fire him from ABC for racist slurs reminiscent of homophobia and Isaiah Washington’s use of the word faggot. In my world, all of this was happening in less than twenty-four hours. Jesse Williams’ had been threatened and validated overnight.
You know many of us are struggling to maintain appropriation in the Obama era and really believe America is progressive. We do not want to raise our children to fear officers who should provide us with safety. However, because of the recent incidents, black parents are speaking to their children about handling police encounters as if this were the Jim Crow south. It’s NOT! At least that is what we are to blindly believe. Well, the eyes of the learned are open. The truth is America is not healthy; and in order to treat her illness we need to examine and or improve the following:
Cultural sensitivity: What is being taught about black people in America? This dates back to D.W. Griffith’s film Birth of a Nation when he depicted black men as savages after the civil war. We have to remember there can be no war without opposition. Those who opposed the abolition of slavery are in fact ancestors of many among us today. This leads me to my next thought.
Unchecked table-talk: The home is an intimate space where children listen and develop perception. If blacks must work to overcome post traumatic slave syndrome, then whites should be careful to check institutionalized racism so to keep from raising children who subconsciously/consciously view and handle their black peers as second class citizens. Hate is TAUGHT!
The Police Academy: Are there any other prerequisites for becoming an officer besides graduating high-school? I taught secondary education for three years. Do you know what they are putting educators through in order to receive state certification?! Why are we so quick to give away guns? America is NOT Call of Duty, but it is that easy to blast off!
Though I hope all races get to read my articles, because accepting truth as a nation will spark change; however, my last thought is for the melanin nation within a nation. What we have to deal with is the condition of our people. Why so many of our brother’s are hustling is a reality we have to change. Forget the men who were wrought to fear us and let’s start building and revering our own.
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Staff Writer; Tylie Shider
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