I am so speechless with outrage and grief at the racist police state the U.S. reveals itself to be, I think it would be best for me to hold up the words of of some eloquent black sisters. See the above for Nakia Jones on what it should take to wear the blue, as she does.
Here are a few others I read this morning: blogger Shay Stewart-Bouley on BlackgirlinMaine Here we are again and why we say black lives matter. She points out,
"We have been down this road many times before and the sad reality is that without systemic change that also involves accountability, we will go down this road again."
Blog post to My Life In Curves: "To my white friends, or any white people who have black friends."
"...have you ever worried about your husband, father, sons, brothers, nephews or cousins going about their day and possibly not coming home?
Have you ever had to sit down and explain to your young male relatives how to conduct themselves when dealing with the police because he’s tall and muscular and would be perceived as a threat?"
And to this I have to say, no, I have not. One of my sons had done foolish things, and has tangled with the police, many times. He is tall and muscular, but he looks and talks white and he has survived all of these encounters.
The mass shooting of police in Dallas by an enraged Army veteran is another tragedy we're reeling from. Who to hold accountable for this one? Police who gunned down innocent, unarmed black men and boys (Tamir Rice was 12 years old)? A violent foreign policy that consists mostly of killing non-white people around the globe, without accountability? Which is seen as the only viable job for many low income men, and often results in their complete mental deterioration.
A violent domestic policy that continues to arm everyone, everywhere, all the time so that when they inevitably do go a little crazy from life in the pressure cooker they can make sure to take many other people with them?
According to USA Today's article:
individuals initially detained after the shooting — who police first characterized as possible suspects — were later determined to be fleeing protesters who were either armed or carrying ammunition gear.Live by the sword, die by the sword has replaced E pluribus unum as our national motto. The legacy of racial violence that began with attacking native people in North America to steal their land and resources made a mockery of unity among people, as did the kidnapping and enslavement of Africans to build wealth for whites owners.
Having made no reparations, the U.S. continues on its spree of violence -- spawning ISIS here, assassinating grandmothers with flying killer robots there. To say that we reap what we sow seems painfully obvious.
I'll still be standing up for racial justice as the empire is consumed in flames. How about you?
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