While
we are mourning and hash-tagging Michael Brown, don't forget John Crawford of
Ohio who was killed by police in a Walmart for holding a bee bee gun/rifle in
which the chain store sells! Stop putting a name to these unarmed Trayvons.
Apparently, they're just "Niggers" or "Coons"! And
therefore, I'm gonna hold my son's hand until he's 40!
Regardless of what
these two particular young, Black males did or did not do, as well as the
unnamed and unknown Black males did or didn’t do, there is no excuse for them
being murdered in cold, freezing blood at the hands of U.S. law
enforcement. I am tired of writing
pieces that my colleagues within the Academy will deem fitting. I am frustrated with always adhering to the
guidelines of rhetorical composition. I
am sick and tired of trying to copy and paste and research statistics and incidents
that back up my “claim.” This time, I
will write my opinions. Opinions null and void of scholarly sustenance. I wanna write my anger onto this page. Voice my outrage in this piece. Be pissed off and say, “Fuck the formal and
informal”. I’m gonna write what hell I
wanna write. Shit, it’s my blog,
right? So, with that being said, where in
God’s name is the white American outrage when unarmed Black Americans are being
gunned downed like raccoons in the southern woods by “law enforcement”? What
laws are they enforcing? I need to read
that damn handbook!!!
While
we are mourning & hash-tagging Michael Brown, don't forget John Crawford of
Ohio who was killed by police in a Walmart for holding a bee bee gun/rifle in
which the chain store sells! Stop putting a name to these unarmed Trayvons.
Apparently, they're just "Niggers" or "Coons"! I'm gonna
hold my son's hand until he's 40! There
has been a devaluing of the life of the Negro since 1619. Why would a being that was brought here as a
chained and enslaved individual, here to do the laborious tasks of cultivating
land and crops and international revenue, somewhat like a beast of burden, be
viewed as anything more as a means to an end?
So, I am no longer surprised when Black males, and even Black females
(see Renisha McBride and Marissa Alexander), are either victims of the judicial
system or casualties of the police brutality and judicial system.
I
had a conversation over Sunday dinner with my parents and sister, while my
6-year-old son was in the den playing with toys and his imagination and
laughing at cartoons, and they both, being that they were raised in the height
of the 50’s and 60’s Civil Rights Era, down South, were adamant about how “we”
(Black folks) need to teach other Black folk what they need to do when accosted
or approached or in the presence of police.
My parents said that we need to “obey their orders” and “do as we are
told”. My reply was, “What if that isn’t
enough. What if they still shoot and
kill us?” Silence.
I began to try to
remind my father of a time when I was in high school, my senior year, and I
threw a back-to-school swim party at our home in a 99% white suburban subdivision,
and he told a white cop who came to our home voicing complaints from the
neighbors, “I don’t need the police to police my home. I can handle this. I’ve been running my house for 15
years.” I said, “Daddy, you could’ve
been shot and killed for being a Black man who was “non-compliant”. He stood in silence as he was slicing the
pork roast. My sister and my mother were
mute. I wasn’t. I knew and know the man that he was and is. The man that came to my aid when my racist 8th
grade English teacher humiliated and subjugated my fellow classmates to
ridicule and unjust punishment simply because they were Black students at a
predominately and exclusively white suburban middle school. He came to my aid when she attempted to
embarrass and condemn me to punishment.
He was there vouching for me and my record of incidents of racism when
she eventually got to me during her path of racist retribution upon Negro
minorities. He was the one who stood up
to her and the Black, hand-picked principal who was just glad to have the position. He was, and is, my hero because of the
aforementioned, and with what has happened to the young man in St. Louis and
Ohio, he was at a loss of words. His
only reply was, “Negroes gotta just watch what they do around these white
police. I know it sounds harsh, but
ain’t nothin’ changed. Folks gonna have
to teach these young Negroes to keep their mouths shut and do what the police
say.” And this, is the problem.
What
exactly can “Negroes” do to avoid presumed police provocation. Not frown, blink
or sneeze? Not question officers’ orders? Not sag their pants? Not listen to Rap music in their
vehicles? Walk with their heads down? Though the entire story and truth hasn’t come
out about either Brown in St. Louis or Crawford in Ohio, any intelligent and
modestly objective media voyeur can surmise that something is afoot. No weapon.
No definitive crime committed—and even if there was a crime committed, that
doesn’t give law enforcement officials the right to kill these youngsters. It seems as though the noose and the Ku Klux
Klan has been replaced with bullets, batons and policemen. I don’t agree with the notion that young
Blacks should behave a certain way around cops or give cops a particular level
of respect to avoid the loss of their lives.
In my estimation, that defeats the premise of the modern-day Civil
Rights Movement. Equality means, to me,
that one shouldn’t have to be of exceptional intelligence, wealth, or behavior
in order to be treated in a humane manner.
And for my extreme conservatives, both Black and white, miss me with the
idea that we, as Black Americans, are blowing another incident out of
proportion by invoking race and racism. Stop
saying we are "playing the Race card"! It ain't a card game when
losing means a disparity of pay, inequality, incarceration, or the loss of your
life, damned Fool!
While we are mourning
& hash-tagging Michael Brown, don't forget John Crawford of Ohio who was
killed by police in a Walmart for holding a bee bee gun/rifle in which the
chain store sells! Stop putting a name to these unarmed Trayvons. Apparently,
they're just "Niggers" or "Coons"! I'm gonna hold my son's
hand until he's 40!
-Gee
Joyner
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