Greetings to all. Glad you all are back with me for another bit of my own two cents on stuff in culture, society and the world as a whole. If this is your first time checking me out, I do need to advise you that the views on my blog are just that: mine. A lot of my views can be considered controversial but that's also the beauty of it. This blog has to promote healthy discussions and the occasional debates. With all that said, I welcome my first time visitors, and let's get started.
With the heartbreaking and tragic events that occurred in Ferguson, MO over the past couple of weeks, tensions are still at unsettling, powder keg levels. This past Monday was the official home going of Michael Brown Jr. At the Friendly Temple Missionary Baptist Church, family, friends, celebrities, civil rights leaders, and other delegates packed the church to say their goodbyes to this fallen young man who has served as a martyr of sorts to bring about the change in how the United States handles race relations with police officers. With the Rev. Al Sharpton speaking to the congregation, he called for a change of action for the police and how they are to treat the people they are sworn to protect and serve.
This is a sobering image of Michael Brown Sr. looking over the plaque of his son (and there's even a more gripping image of Mr. Brown screaming in anguish and heartbreak over the loss) and the question is now: "Where do we go from here?"
This leads me into what is really upsetting me at the moment. A good friend of mine brought up a great point recently. We have protested and rallied and had demonstrations over this whole ordeal. Although it's to be commended and absolutely warranted that our voice gets heard over this matter, where are the rallies and marches and demonstrations for everyone else that murdered by...us??? Although Brown Jr. has become a lightning rod for police brutality and race relations, nobody did much of anything on the harrowing weekend that over eighty people in Chicago were senselessy murdered. If there were any demonstrations on this matter, media did very little to capture and garner attention to it. Let me get this straight: we are quick to protest and do rallies for injustices like why happened to Michael Brown, Sean Bell, and Trayvon Martin, but what happened we do it our each other? We will get the cell phones out and start recording and post/share them on social media. When the shocking video emerged of an elderly woman getting slammed on the ground brutally by the police to where the back of her head was deeply lacerated, you saw plenty of people recording and nobody doing anything. If that's enough, there were no rallies or anybody speaking out against that situation. What about this situation: the case of the unarmed white young man getting gunned down at a 7-11 by...a Black police officer (gasp!). Twenty-year-old Dillon Taylor was unarmed and gunned down by Sgt. Darin Sweetin in Utah, and there was little to no media coverage surrounding it. due to the Brown coverage.
If there was a demonstration for the family of Dillon Taylor, would we have marched with those people on behalf of the family that lost their son, brother, nephew, etc. much like Brown and others like him, or would we have just sat back, shook our heads, said to ourselves 'That's so sad", and went on about our business? The issue has to stop being race, and more along the real enemy: THE POLICE. As I mentioned in my first social commentary blog, there are some genuine police officers that are taking it very badly. Their reputations are shattered and trust has been diminished substantially if there was any to begin with. However, to those officers that will arrest us and how the jury of our "peers" will convict us: guilty by association or, in this case, your profession. Sorry, that's how it goes. Now, YOU'RE being generalized in a way like you haven't been in many years.
Wrong is wrong. Injustice is injustice. We will never get anywhere as a community if we limit ourselves to just police brutality. Take to the streets about stuff like education more regularly and other social issues concerning us. Furthermore, if we really also would like to show our strength, let's help out other cultures and races as well, especially when there's a bigger enemy. We have a lot of Facebook movements and Twitter/hashtag (#) movements. Let's stop only limiting ourselves to police madness and just as much to our other issues as well.
Until next time folks. Hold your heads and stay empowered.
No comments:
Post a Comment