Kai EL’Zabar
Executive Editor
This United States Mess /Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, Antwun Shumpert and the Dallas 5
“The terror of being a victim of violence just because ‘I’m Black is real’.”
What we are witnessing is not the vision of the those who fought the Civil War to unite America. It is not the vision of the Abolitionists of which Frederick Douglass was one as was Sojourner Truth; it is not the vision of the millions of Blacks who migrated North from the oppressive South to live as free men and women; it is not the vision of Martin Luther King Jr., or the Freedom Fighters; it is not the vision of most Americas, Black, white, red, brown, or yellow; it certainly is not the vision of a healthy America.
To witness all of our lives the death of Blacks at the hands of those whites who have a warped since of entitlement and who think less of others particularly Blacks is at least horrifying and unacceptable at best its terrorism. As people we must begin to look at ourselves as the human race first noting our sameness.
Those things that make us different are culture, religion, gender, nationality, ethnicity and of course race.
And yet most people want the same things generally speaking which is to live, love and be loved; to wake up in the morning kiss your spouse, kiss your babies/children, go off to work, send the kids off to school, come home, dine together, share your day with your family, go to bed , make love, awake and start your day over, look forward to spending time with loved ones, family , friends, extended family and so on. Life is meant to be fun something we enjoy and perpetuate.
That’s basic.
But living from a space of fear and lack where you believe and embrace the false reality that someone else’s or some group of people’s success means your failure will only create what we currently witness daily.
Unfortunately Black’s success has somehow translated to mean whites’ failure to many whites in America. It does not.
I am so sorry that it was the Dallas police who suffered the consequence of the impact that some of their fellow police officers throughout the country has caused. What happened was unfortunate and not right.
Try and understand the emotion behind Alton Sterling, Philand Castile, Antwun Shumpert (#AltonSterling, #PhilandCastile, #AntwunShumpert) not to mention the thousands before these recent murders/acts of terror by white police officers against Black men.
The hit on the 5 Dallas; 4 police and 1 Dart officer will not bring back our dead sons and daughters, it will not solve the issue. The officers were identified as Dallas Police Officers Lorne Ahrens, Michael Smith, Michael Krol and Patrick Zamarripa, and DART Police Officer Brent Thompson.
But to white America I pose this question; What do you expect when you oppress a people’s right to be self expressed and crush all semblance of hope? These young men who fight back the only way they know how are like pressure cookers waiting to explode.
They look around them and they think, ‘Damn if I do, damn if I don’t. If I hold my hands up, I get shot, If I put my hands behind my back to be cuffed, I get shot. If they pin me to the ground and don’t move I get shot, If I reach for my wallet I get shot, If I am a child playing in the park I get shot, if I’m riding my bike; I’m stopped, pulled off the bike wrestled down and shot; If I’m pulled over for a broken tail light, I get shot; If I cooperate, I get shot; if I am Black and talk about the state of being Black, I get shot; If I am leading peaceful protests, I get shot. So why not take a few police with me if I’m going to die anyway, because clearly my time is coming. I’m going to be shot just being Black.
The terror of being a victim of violence just because I’m Black is real.
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