The headline is familiar. BLACK MAN SHOT AND KILLED BY POLICE. When will it cease? When will we be able to walk the streets without constant fear of the ones sworn to ’’protect and serve?’’ How can we equalize ourselves. Why do we have to bombarded by blatant and covert racism? Does Michael Richards really surprise anyone. Just another image to the attach to the stigma. Another caricature of the lurking racism, always hiding. Hiding until it explodes. In 50 bullets shot at an unarmed man, sodomized in a restroom, beaten to death at a boot camp, a racist rant during a comedy show, a roadside beating during a traffic stop, and the list goes on. How can we trust whites when it seems that there is always something lurking under the surface. Like bile rising in the throat seeking escape. No justice, no peace. We cry. Our cries fall on deaf ears. Because we have short memories, Black people. We are always shocked back into consciousness by the rearing of a racist head. We forgot that things aren’t equal. We forget that racism is alive and well. We forget that we haven’t reached the promised land. We want to believe in our hearts of hearts that things have improved. That we are making progress. Where have we gone in the 50+ years since the Civil Rights movement. What are we trying to accomplish? What are we proving with our fancy cars and low rent? Where are we going Black people? And how are we supposed to know when we get there?
Sometimes I tire of carrying the burden of being Black. The sideways stares, the supposedly inconsequential comments, the blatant disregard for Black life.
In 2006, tell me why white students are afraid to attend a black University because of what ’’we’’ would do to ’’them.’’ Get real. Do they really think we care the least bit about them?
Okay, off my soapbox.
Thanks for listening.
