The worst thing that has ever happened to me, legally speaking, was driving in California with a Maryland License. I had to go to court for that, for which the penalty was...gasp and shock...to go take and pass the California Driver's Test.
That's it. That's my grand "criminal" past. Traffic Citations.
Yet, I have no doubt...ZERO doubt...that if I ever wound up dead, killed by someone of the Caucasian Persuasion, I would be turned into some sort of raving Drug User sometime before my body was cold.
If I wind up dead...it is automatically my fault. I must've done something to deserve it, is how the logic will go. This is how the groupthink, be it from Media, from the Legal Authorities, be it from my friends and neighbors. This is what you'll do to me in death, and you won't think twice about it.
That's the way it works in this country. It doesn't matter what you did. If you are a black male in this country, and you wind up dead at the barrell of someone else's gun, and that person happens to be white, at least one person in this country will twist themselves into knots to retroactively justify that black male being dead.
This is your America now.
The sad part is...going back to another young black male, one Emmitt Till, this was your America back then as well...and nothing's changed. Nothing.
It's also time for America to come to grips with the fact, that the lives of black males, young or old, are just not valued in this country.
Mind you. I didn't say not valued "as much as" whites. Not valued...Period.
This is a not a call to action, or a demand for something better, this is a statement of surrender. I've given up on expecting better from America. America is just not capable of doing better, at least not when it comes to race.
This is a racist country. It is just who this country is.
When someone tells you who they are...believe me.
America has told me time and time and time again who it is. I'm way past believing them
Now, when I say that "I know America is a racist country", I say that knowing not only in my heart, but in actual fact, the majority of its citizens individually themselves are not racist.
But like Tommy Lee Jones said in Men In Black: "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it."
Well, where does racism come from, if not the dumb, panicky and dangerous parts of our collective nature?
But look what happens when collective action is taken, when any measure of groupthink is applied, the outcome pretty much is guaranteed to be racist...or at least racial in nature.
Don't agree. Fine. Not that I care...but then again, maybe you can explain to me why Marissa Alexander is sitting in jail right now. Don't know her? I suggest a quick Google search, or clicking on the link I just left you.
Tell me why juries seem incapable of prosecuting White Defendants when they have Black victims? I mean, I'm sure it's happened, but the safe money bet every time to bet against that happening, no matter what state you live in.
What's possibly even more insulting than the current cries of "Yes, African-Americans are the vicitims of racial injustice in the supposed land of the free" is the dead-cinch CERTAINTY, as in 100% guarantee that come this very hour two weeks from now, you'll have moved on without doing one damn thing to address the problem that ultimately took Trayvon Martin's life.
Not...one...damn...thing.
Like I said...America is incapable of fixing this problem. This County lacks the ability, the heart, the intellect, and most obviously the will to fix this problem.
You've had 70 years, and you're just not interested.
My only comfort comes in the fact that one day, this will boomerang. One day, when the Whites are the minority in this country, you will be bleating and crying for racial protections from the majority.
And I hope they stiff you like you've stiffed us.
I hope the Latino and Asian majorities in this country treat you with the same contempt, same disregard you've treated us these last 300 years. You'll deserve it.
