August 10, 2014, July 17, 2014, and January 1, 2009 are three of the most recent dates known to the national public of police brutality towards black males such as Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Oscar Grant. All were innocent, unarmed, and black male citizens living in America. However, these events are far from unusual to the black people of this nation. We’ve seen it all before, whether on the news, in front of your very own eyes, movies, or word of mouth from older relatives, history is only repeating itself.
Filmmaker Spike Lee showed the world an immensely vivid depiction of unnecessary force used by law enforcement in his famous movie, Do The Right Thing, where brother Radio Raheem was choked to death by a white police officer for no excusable or justifiable reason. The depiction is almost too exact in relations to the very recent Eric Garner tragedy. Some blacks in urban communities can testify to having experienced police officers profiling, abusing, restraining unarmed citizens, and using weapons to either hurt or kill innocent people who haven’t even committed a crime. Oscar Grant was one of those innocent people wrongfully accused, abused, and murdered.
Taking a trip back to the civil rights movement and the more afflictive side of it. Remembering the militant methods that police officers used on blacks that were taking a stand for things that were beneficial to the progression of their livelihood in this country. Enduring K9s being unleashed onto their bodies, being repelled by fire hoses and teargas, blacks fighting for justice in the 1950s and 60s may have had similar feelings and thoughts to the people living and protesting in Ferguson, Missouri today. The effects of the Michael Brown tragedy have sparked continuous riots and intense upset in the Ferguson community but apparently not enough for blacks to decide they’ve had enough.
There’s an old saying, “If you don’t know your history you are doomed to repeat it.” Has doomsday finally arrived? Have we as a nation of black people taken one step forward to take 200 years worth of steps back? There was once a time when the masses of blacks were unified and progressing as human beings and citizens of this nation. Well today, the only time we come together as a people is for the praising of voluptuous women, the interest in vulgar and pestilent music, holiday special deals for foreign hair, to demote one another, and to watch the annual BET awards. Black people have evolved more than any other ethnicity in the United States of America. Is it the United States? How is it that a group of states can be more united than people who were kidnapped from their homelands and stripped of their identities, language, and who involuntarily built this nation on theirs backs. Blood, sweat, and nooses, is that not enough? The dehumanization alone of the ancestors should be enough reason to forever be undivided and should be enough to make black people never turn their backs on finding out whom we truly are.
The process to return blacks to the slave mentality that we possessed while we were physically enslaved does not take the noxiousness of law enforcers anymore. Maybe it worked before when all of our most influential leaders were either assassinated or exiled, but now, no other race of people have to suppress us because blacks are doing it to themselves and each other. It is time to once and for all WAKE UP! If the black people of this country do not find unity, knowledge of self, and open their eyes to see how oppressed we truly are, we will lose every ounce of potential for our future. Enough time has passed, even if slavery wasn’t that long ago, we are not being physically enslaved any more and it is time to reverse the mental slavery at last. Black people, while we still have a chance, let’s save ourselves.
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The more things change, The more they stay the same
August 27, 2014
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