How many White men do you know worry about forty-one bullets puncturing their body as they reach for their wallet? How many White men do you know starring in a Broadway show are falsely arrested in the lobby of their residence and held in custody for five hours? How many white men do you know worry about being arrested simply because of their skin color? e.g., DWW (Driving While White)? How many white men do you know were scared to death when the policemen broke down his door alleging a drug bust? How many White Policeman do you know were shot to death by fellow officers they attended the police academy with because they mistook them for a criminal?
How many white Grandmothers do you know were beaten to death by White policeman because they considered an elderly white woman to be a physical threat? How many White men do you know that have been dragged through the streets and decapitated or had a plunger shoved up their rectum? How many middle class white families do you know require their teenagers to never run down the street for fear they may be shot by some policemen who mistake them as a criminal? How many White Mothers do you know kiss their sons’ good-bye in the morning and check to see that they have the card of the family attorney in their wallet or lunch pail?
This is the daily reality of African Americans. The American Court system can convict and sentence a Black fourteen-year-old Nathaniel Abraham to life in a prison or death row, but exonerate four New York City officers in the cold-blooded murder of the African immigrant Diallo.
This verdict sends a chilling message to all African Americans of what is in store for the Black community. Black life, the humanity and dignity of African people are being attacked on every front and those in the Black community with access to the Electronic media remain silent. Michael Jordan remains the highest paid gigolo for product promotions, Oprah devoted countless hours to exploring the human spirit but rarely speaks to the escalated attack on Black people, culture and life. We could all afford to re read the great Black poet Claude McKay:
If we must die, let it not be like hogs Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot, While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs, Making their mock at our accursed lot. If we must die, O let us nobly die So that our precious blood may not be shed In vain, then even the monsters we defy Shall be constrained to honor us though dead! O kinsmen! We must meet the common foe! Though far outnumbered let us show us brave, And for their thousand blows deal one deathblow! What though before us lays the open grave? Like men we’ll face the murderous cowardly pack, Press to the wall, dying, but fighting back!
The time is here for massive protest; boycotts and aggressive action from everyone who have benefited from the bullets King and Malcolm took on our behalf.
Lawrence Watson
