Something people don’t understand is that after all the things that have happened to black people through the centuries these types of events traumatize us. Even worse than the death is the excuses as to why the death was ok. This kind of talk disturbs my soul.
Even if many black men had not been shot in many descalated situations…
it doesn’t change the fact that many men have been shot and killed for stupid reasons.
And the loud voices explaining why it was ok for someone to shoot and kill a man reinforce the knowledge that our black lives don’t matter to the world. Excusing why a police man might choose to shoot first and ask questions later is sick. So is explaining away a man’s life based on his past and criminal record.
This sick reasoning is the same reasoning that enslaved blacks for 400 years and prevented them from building families and educating themselves. Mainstream believed they were not smart and needed to be enslaved. They were raped, brutalized and controlled. During slavery Nat Turner led a rebellion that got shut down quickly. People were outraged that black slaves dared to fight back with the same treatment they had been given.
When slavery was over everyone was scared by what they thought blacks might do to retaliate. Blacks began to rebuild their families and plan their lives. They made peace with their surroundings even though they were still constantly attacked and targeted and denied basic rights.
They were misunderstood and over the years vilified in the media and still managed to make more of their lives.
The same sick reasoning that people adopt to explain why a man’s life is allowed to be stolen is the same ideology that blamed Jews for the holocaust and allowed them to be slaughtered and denied entrance into many countries. People shut their eyes to what was going on. “All lives” didn’t matter.
When South Africa was steeped in apartheid and blacks’ land was stolen and they were treated as trespassers on their own country and given passbooks for identification all lives didn’t matter. When protesting children and teens were being slaughtered in the streets by South African police “all lives” didn’t matter.
When Aboriginal children were forced into schools and ripped from their culture and parents, it was seen as a great idea. When their land was stolen and they were abused and killed all lives didn’t matter.
When Syrian refugees were fleeing their war-torn country “all lives” didn’t matter.
I could go on and on about earthquakes, tornadoes, fires, tsunami, floods and wars around the world that were ignored and where all lives didn’t matter except to the group it faced. So as black people are banding together with #blacklivesmatter please don’t feel the need to correct our well thought out slogan. If you are really for “all lives” then you should have no problem with this statement. This is not about being anti-police. This slogan is about justice and imbalance.
Great atrocities have happened and are happening in our society today. If you are going to speak- speak against oppression. Don’t explain away the trauma that people are facing with a “they deserved it attitude” this only demonstrates your ignorance and fear of pointing out the wrong. This demonstrates that you don’t believe that sometimes people in authority do things that are wrong and that is naive of you. If black people are vilified then black people will be feared and things like this will continue to happen. All races need to speak out against the things we see but the truth is we mostly don’t care unless it’s our own race or people.
What I am saying is not a rebuke to white people. It is a rebuke to all people on the earth. We need to look at our individual prejudices and stereotypes in order to changes this. This is not just a black and white thing. Just because I speak out against violence doesn’t mean I’m anti-police. I appreciate and respect the police. There are good and bad people everywhere. There are strong and weak people everywhere. Violence and revenge is not the answer.
We need to judge the actions of others as individuals but deal with the systematic racism that creates these problems.
Change will only come to the hurt around the world when we support and love each other. We can give to organizations that are trying to help others instead of maintaining a selfish attitude. Banding together is what stopped all of the atrocities in history and it is the only thing that will work now.
#blacklivesmatter #dallasshooting #blacktrauma #allhumansstandtogether #helpeachother
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