The jazz singer Nnenna Freelon sang a song called Change.. "I am changed in my passage I am changed. There's a Sun in the water I am changed. There's a Moon high above me and it lights my discovery that in my passage in the darkness I am changed. I am changed I can feel it I am changed, my soul is a mirror. I can feel it I am changed, coming through going over my heart stands like a soldier, in the passage in the darkness I am changed.... I am changed forever... I am changed...."
The recent video of police shooting a black youth down like a dog sixteen times in the streets of an urban city shocked many people. We also received descriptions of white supremacists shooting at least 5 people in Minneapolis during peaceful demonstrations over yet another black youth being shot by police. What really struck me as both curious and sad is how black people are responding to the latest episode of state sanctioned police violence. There were the usual invocations to look upon the shootings as a higher purpose to endure from God. Then in Chicago where one horrific shooting took place the Mayor of that city actually called black leaders to help keep calm in wake of the release of a video.. boy shot 16 times, and smoke rising from his body, as more bullets were pumped into this youth. To their credit some preachers and leaders said to the Mayor in Chicago "you call us now one year later on the eve of releasing this video, you did not call us before."
At what point do black people stand- up and really fight? It appears that for some reason black folk believe that these acts of violence will stop if people just keep marching or praying to some deity. At this juncture have these tactics mentioned caused any shift in the persecution or ill treatment of blacks over 400 years of living -first as slaves- in America? What then is your answer black people to my question ? If truly nothing has changed in how the oppressor interacts with black people, perhaps some change in tactics are necessary. At what point do black people stand-up and fight ? Whether blacks want to acknowledge the truth or not... it is there staring us in the face, hideous like the Gorgon Medusa. America refuses to treat her once actually enslaved people [ who are now supposedly free ] with respect. In every sphere of society there are structures and barriers in place to reinforce what the master once did openly- which is have actual dominion over black people. Now there are housing, educational, legal, political and financial barriers that keep blacks enclosed in cages like laboratory rats. Richard Lovelace poem hits the nail squarely on the head " Stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage." Black people are in prisons called structural racism that are enforced by state sanctioned police violence. The people in Ferguson, Missouri and St. Louis understand what they are facing, and have been fighting for over one year after the police shooting of Michael Brown.
It is time to ask the question at what point do black people stand-up and really fight ?
In the history of black struggle in America all methods for liberation were implemented for survival. Now we only seek to march, pray and hope that our oppressors will change. If you think the mind set of oppression is changing just look at that black boy's body in the street being shot over and over again.
At what point do black people stand-up and fight?
At what point do black people stand-up and die for what they believe?
Until some of us are ready to enter "Beulah Land or walk in Jerusalem just like John" things will never change.
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