Law enforcement officers have been killing black people in America since the beginning of policing. In the Carolina colonies in 1704 the slave patrol was put together and tasked with chasing down runaways and preventing slave revolts.
So the very institution of policing in America was to put together to keep blacks folks from actually being free. They had the right to treat us any kind of way they wanted because the job required it. Three hundred years later it’s still operating under the same guidelines to some degree with the majority of it’s officers.
Now don’t get it twisted, we all need law enforcement to keep idiots from breaking the law and acting a fool. However, there are a ton of police in this country that operate like the slave patrols of the 1700’s. They see black folks on the street and look at it as an opportunity to do whatever they want to do to us and that can often include killing us. That’s black and white officers.
Please don’t stop and tell me that there are only a few bad apples and the rest are great people because if that were the case the good people would be turning in the bad apples. Using that thinking the only bad apple at the scene of the George Floyd murder was the idiot, Derrick Chauvin, that actually had his knee on his neck. The other three officers didn’t actually do anything using that logic.
However, they never said a word to the fool killing the man. They are just as bad as officer Chauvin because they co-signed what he was doing by not trying to save a man’s life. So if an entire police force covers for the 5 or 6 dirty cops on the job then the whole force is dirty.
If 57 police officers quit because 2 officers were charged with assaulting a 75 year old man on camera. Then are there 2 bad cops or 59 bad cops in Buffalo?
Even though we’re seeing all of this foolishness, I’m grateful that we’ve finally hit the perfect storm in America where young white folks are marching along side of our brothers and sisters of color. Don’t get me wrong, there were white folks marching along side of Dr King and Co. during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950’s and ’60’s. There were Abolitionist helping us to escape north on the Underground Railroad during the slave trade.
So there has always been white folks with skin in the game of fighting against our oppression in America. However, not like we’re seeing today. Why? Because for the first time in our nation’s history there are white folks that have REAL relationships with the people they are marching along side of.
When I was a kid, and I’m only 53 years old, whites and blacks didn’t always live in the same neighborhoods and always go to the same schools. Even though the country was desegregated we still were segregated by overt and systematic racism. When black folks moved into neighborhoods their white neighbors moved out to the suburbs where, regardless of the income, blacks couldn’t move to. Therefore, the cities became predominantly black and the suburbs were predominantly white and they stayed that way for years.
So therefore, black and white kids had no real relationships to speak of. I didn’t know a single white person until I went to college and we still lived in two different worlds because our upbringing kept it that way. Black folks hung out with black folks and vice versa. There was the black parties on Friday and Saturday night and the white parties on Friday and Saturday night. We didn’t even listen to the same music.
Now there is no such thing as a black or white party because they all listen to the same music, dress alike and talk alike. Our kids are growing up together and having REAL relationships with people that don’t look like them. That’s a great thing.
They’re dating, marrying and having babies together. That has changed the game. So when you see kids marching holding Black Lives Matter signs and wearing t-shirts they’ve got a real investment in the game. Their nieces and nephews are black or their wife is black and for some of these older cats, they now have a grandson or daughter that’s black. Or simply put, they live next door to someone who’s black and they’ve got a REAL relationship with them.
That is what has been missing in this country since it’s founding. So many people chose not to have relationships with black people that they never saw them as real human beings with real emotions experiencing real pain.
Do you want to know why the LBGTQ community gets so much love in America and why you can’t offend them and get away with it? It’s because EVERYBODY, regardless of color, has somebody that they LOVE that is gay or transgender. So no longer will people be tolerant of folks being disrespectful to that community.
We’re starting to see the same thing when it comes to blacks in America. It’s hard to ignore the police killing black men and women when you’ve got black friends and family that you love. You can’t just act like this discrimination and oppression isn’t happening when your sister has a black child or your godson or daughter is black. Thank God for finally being able to live in a country where people have real relationships across communities of different people. This will Make America Great for the first time in its existence. Stop me when I start lyin’!
