Albert Einstein once said, “Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.” Mahatma Gandhi gave it to us like this, “Anger and intolerance are the enemies of correct understanding.” Then Tony Robbins broke it down like a playa at a pimp convention when he spit, “To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others.”
Well playas…until we realize that we all see the world from different perspectives and that we’ve all had different experiences in this country. Tryin’ to communicate is worthless. On Thursday evenin’ President Barack Obama held a Town Hall on Race in America. Two minutes into the discussion I said that it was worthless. Why? Because you can’t have REAL dialogue on race with a black president in a country where he’s still a minority. I’m sorry to burst your bubble bruh but black folks didn’t elect Barack Obama. There isn’t enough of us to have elected him even if all 13 percent of us voted. He’s the president for EVERYBODY and he’s got to stay in the middle on this topic and most importantly he’s gotta keep the police happy because they protect he and his family. He’s the most powerful man in the world and he needs to keep them happy more than anything.
Let’s keep it real or all the way 100, whichever comes 1st! This dun has less than 6 months left in office. He’s protected by local, state and federal police daily along with the secret service. His family is protected by them as well. He can’t get on TV and really tell a boy how he really feels about what “some” police are doin’ out here because nobody is willin’ to listen to reason. We all know that most cops are good cops and people! You’ve got to be a COMPLETE fool to think that all cops are bad! However, the system is broken because the bad cops keep gettin’ protected and therefore they are empowered when they aren’t held accountable and Obama knows that.
He hasn’t always been the president bruh and he’s a black man in America. So his experience in this country is no different than most black men. He’s been pulled over. He’s been questioned. He’s been racially profiled! Why? Because we’ve all have. That’s the basic experience of bein’ black in America! It’s real out here but when you don’t experience it you don’t think that its real.
But until we can have a real conversation about it without non-black folks gettin’ offended that you aren’t includin’ them when they aren’t havin’ the same experiences. We can’t move forward with the discussion because people aren’t empathetic. Why? Because it isn’t real to them.
Like when the white mother of a Baltimore police officer stood up and said that she worries about her son everyday when he puts his uniform on to go to work. She says that someone has thrown a brick through his squad car window and he’s been threatened. As I listened to her talk I couldn’t help but think, “Are you kidding me?”Your son has an option as to whether he puts on that uniform and goes to work. My son has no option as to whether he puts on his black skin this mornin’. I don’t have an option as to whether I put mine on either. My son and I don’t have a bullet proof vest, a badge and an entire police force, the DA and the Fraternal Order of Police there to protect us when we walk out of the house.
If we get pulled over by 1or 2 percent that boyz keep claimin’ are out here actin’ a fool we can’t call for backup or protect ourselves. Why? Because we’re at the mercy of the dun that pulled us over. So we’ve got to pray he’s not the infamous 1 or 2 percent. But we know that if and when an incident occurs the entire police force is goin’ to close ranks around that dun. That’s the problem bruh but when it’s not happenin’ to you or your family you don’t wanna talk about it.
It’s called systemic! That means that the culture has created and protected it. So as I empathize with the mother of the Baltimore policeman her problem isn’t as grave as mine because her son has a choice and mine doesn’t.
Not until people sit down and are willin’ to listen to the very real experiences of black folks in America will we move the needle forward. The only person within that hour long special that said anything of importance or value was the police chief from Milwaukee. He understood that the inner city was the most vulnerable and needed the most attention. He understood what #BlackLivesMatter actually means because that is the sector of our society that is the most vulnerable. He wanted real answers but you can’t get real answers from the president on live TV because he can’t afford to upset folks that don’t care about the issue at hand.
And for all the folks that get offended by the term #BlackLivesMatter let me take you to school real quick. Just because the campaign says #BlackLivesMatter doesn’t mean that ALL other lives don’t matter! It’s an emphasis on the reality of “some” police in this country killin’ black folks as if those lives don’t matter to “those” officers. When you act like they “don’t” matter there has to be an emphasis put on where the problem is bruh. When year after year, month after month and day after day we see black men and women bein’ killed by the police in situations that shouldn’t end in death it’s a problem. So to reinforce that #BlackLivesMatter is important. We’ve gotta love each other!
When we celebrate Breast Cancer Awareness Month and everybody puts on their pink in October we aren’t sayin’ that ALL of the other cancers aren’t important! When November roles around and it’s Diabetes Awareness month we aren’t sayin’ that ALL other chronic diseases aren’t important. When duns put together a Gay Pride Parade they aren’t sayin’ that heterosexuals aren’t important. They’re only emphasizin’ the importance of those movements because they can simply identify with them.
Let me put it where the goats can get it bruh!
Most people that aren’t black in America don’t have to care about black men bein’ mistreated by the police. Why? Because it doesn’t show up at their houses. It’s no different than the heroin epidemic of the 1960’s and ’70’s in the ghetto. Boyz have been addicted to heroin since I can remember walkin’ school as a kid in Gary, Indiana. Now all of a sudden there is a “so-called” epidemic because that same heroin is no longer in the ghetto. It’s finally found it’s way to the suburbs and now white folks are addicted to it. Now it’s a problem.
It’s not a problem until you have to deal with it. Since we’re not havin’ extraordinary amounts of young unarmed white males bein’ killed by the police most Americans don’t care. It’s no different than the plight of the Native American. Most people don’t know or see them so their problems aren’t important. I’m talkin’ but y’all ain’t listenin’!
It’s nothin’ to get upset about! It’s just what it is! Why would I expect someone to understand what I as a black man have to deal with on a daily basis when they’ll never be me or my son? What I have to do is teach him how to navigate this life by avoidin’ as many land mines as possible. I don’t need to watch a waste of time TV special in Race to learn that we’re out here alone and that it’s up to us to figure out how to survive by ALWAYS doin’ the right things. And even when we do the right things like Philando Castile we’re still at risk of runnin’ into the so-called 1 or 2 percent of boyz that don’t care a thing about takin’ our lives. Until folks are willin’ to try to understand the experiences of other people we’ll be at a stand still in this country. It’s sad but true but I’m trustin’ that God to bring us all together to have those conversations. Remember this, most people in America hated Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and all he wanted for us to do was have REAL conversations about treating EVERYBODY equally. Stop me when I start lyin’!
Playas Thesaurus:
1) Spit: verb – to say
2) Dun: noun – the person in question, dude, guy, etc. It’s whoever I’m talkin’ about and its non-gender specific.
3) Put it where the goats can get it: verb phrase – to make it as elementary as possible. To put it at ground level so everyone can understand it.