When I look back through the years, being a black man, I can’t help but think of all the oppressive things that have held those before me back from progressing: slavery, lynchings, broken promises, black codes, the indication by a sitting US President that black freedom is incidental, Jim Crow, crack, violence in our neighborhoods, and now, the redundant use of force against black men and women by immoral individuals hiding behind their badges. It can’t be set aside that the problem has always existed. But now it’s jumping out of our TV screens, as if it’s supposed to be inherent. Quite frankly, it’s troubling.
But it has come, the long awaited and fed up un-complacency of a young and conscious society; now conscious to the old world inequities in politics, and conscious in themselves in desiring changes that matter – and not any that are marked by handshakes and open mouth promises.
For years, there’s been an immoral rule of leadership in America; one that dates back to the beginning of this pleasurable country, that has too often been mixed with overtones of sadness. A rule that has contradicted laws and has protected disingenuous practices.
These laws are repeatedly broken by those tenuring positions who are supposed to ensure the efficacy of such doctrines, and swore to protect them. In a court of law, this sort of inappropriate use of office and oath tends to carry prison time, and yet we witness false reports in law enforcement investigations, and lies told before us on live television by the highest branches of government in our country. For that, those charged with assuring and protecting right truly cannot expect people not to erupt in outrage. Of course, looting isn’t the answer, but instead of talking about looting in an intertwinement with Black Lives Matter groups, start addressing the issues that are tearing peoples’ love and trust for our country at the seams.
And the sudden spark of unrest in this country isn’t sudden at all. Rather, it’s a reoccurring poem of protest for equality and a demand for change. It’s said this demand is different. It has re-arisen those who once distributed their sweat, tears and blood across the Jim Crow South from a complacent slumber, like pre-historic beings awakened by erupting volcanoes. This doesn’t happen if something is right, but only if things are going wrong.
It’s something one such as myself – an incarcerated man – must be obligated to review and acknowledge what he has forfeited, and develop an answer for what’s next, what can I contribute to help prevent this country from entertaining totalitarianism? One solution: I must set aside my pride of being considered as gum on the bottom of shoes and rise above that, because I can accept such debasement if it reassures broad safety of those communities under siege by violence, racism and indifference by civil servants, and guarantees the conciliation of those frustrated youths. I must also purify my mind of the mindset to which incarcerated my body in the first place, and imbue it with an intellect of selfless humility, because in order to inflict change one must be inflicted with change.
But this doesn’t only pertain to the mindset of the incarcerated, but also the blinded whose views are unyielding because of a family’s past beliefs. The scrupulous thing for everyone to do is to unite on causes that need staunch attention: racial dialogue in the justice system, addressing global warming, this Republican and Democrat thing which in all truth is beginning to resemble some sort of gang beef (mailing poisons and friendly softball shootings – and they said Crips and Bloods were the issue). I’m actually beginning to question who created the age-old gang that had once rippled multiple generations of black men…
Millions of years ago, it’s said humans lived on one continent, separated by only miles of land. But now, geographers who study the planet’s changes have said with the planet shifting the way it has been, it’s likely it may return to its natural geography. Maybe not in our lifetime, but when it does, and if humans are still walking this planet and living amongst another, now so close, what then should people discriminate for? Is this really an issue humans want to carry on in to the future?
Despite all the ambiguous hate, there is this messiah sort of demonstration happening, an intolerable attitude which may offset a dreadful presentiment. This is coming from a man who’s incarcerated for not being equipped or taught how to make scrupulous decisions, but over time I’ve learned what’s right isn’t only taught, but it’s in your heart. It’s time to stand for what’s right with those youth who are fighting with their voices and resounding movements. What’s taking place is revealing, the blindfold is being lifted off the once-coated eyes of so many to see that those who occupied offices and positions in this country’s leadership have used politics selfishly and for years masked it well.
But the evading tactics are being exposed by vivacious and fervent youths and empathetic hearts of all backgrounds. People, change is imminent, and no one should sit out of making that process as simple as it needs to be.
We all have some Congressman Thaddeus Stevens – a revolutionary defier of hate – in us;
some Martin Luther King Jr – a heavenly soldier for justice; some Ida B. Wells – trailblazer, philanthropist, entrepreneur and activist for equality; and some Malcom X, Muhammed Ali, Angela Davis, Alice Paul, and John Lewis too. We all carry a bit of these great people inside us, and we either act against it, or walk alongside our youth and act on it…
What will you choose?
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