Dear America: I Have A Question For You – blogged by @niksofly

Dear America,

I can sit and pretend like the issues happening today, right now are something so shocking, so alarming, but I can’t. I expect one of us to be gunned down for simply complying or existing. I expect a hashtag to trend. I expect that even with video footage, AmeriKKKa will deny the wrong doings and make a mockery of the judicial system. I expect  individuals like Tomi Lahren , James Walsh and Bill O’Reilly to continually speak out of term because their white privilege allows them the comfort of speaking cavalierly on an issue that has always equaled a death sentence for others that wear the perceived issue, black skin, daily. I expect when I tell my stories of being chased by the KKK as a child or wrongfully targeted someone will tell me I’m lying. I expect tags like race-baiting or black-on-black crime. I expect an #AllLivesMatter plug every time someone says #BlackLivesMatter. I expect traditional media to vilify the deceased at every opportunity given.  I expect peaceful protests and riots.  I expect some fake #woke or #angry person to comment what I should be doing and supporting meanwhile they use a white-owned social media platforms on their smart devices owned by non-blacks paying mortgages to white-owned institutions for their homes built by non-black builders. Ironic , right? I know. I expect the same people to call for others to do things, but their loads are always light. Hell, I even expected that someone would snap on the police.  Dismal expectations, I know, but when society has continually done the exact same things day after day, I’d be less than intelligent to expect a different behavior.

I expect these things, but it doesn’t lessen the hurt and anger I have when they occur. It doesn’t ease my frustration knowing that any other time a crime is committed video footage is enough to arrest and charge. I find no solace knowing that only now, after innocent cops (those not involved with the recent police shootings) are shot  America can now see that we have an issue. It wasn’t an issue when a 12 year old was executed playing in the park or Eric Garner’s last words were “I can’t breathe”. Society was quick to sweep Laquan McDonald under the rug as a thug being violent until video showed otherwise. When Samuel DuBose became a hash tag, society told us to cooperate until video proved he did. Video was enough to charge two black officers in Marksville, LA with the 2^nd degree murder (and rightfully so) for the shooting death of 6-year- old Jeremy Mardis; but its not enough for Alton Sterling or Philando Castille. Why is it that Dylann Roof can be offered Burger King after he desecrated a church and massacred 9 black lives, but Alton Sterling was given bullets for selling CDs? America can’t explain to me how James Holmes (Aurora, CO) and Jared Loughner (Tucson, AZ) live to see a trial, but non violent individuals only know the embrace of the cold earth.  It bothers me that threats can be made against the president and not so much as an eyelash is batted by his counterparts. Once again in my life, I am perturbed . What exactly do I say? What the hell am I to tell my nieces and nephews , my pupils and god kids? How do I tell them that being black carries a mandated life sentence and possibly death? How do I explain to children who know nothing of the sort, that because you look like me, you can’t really be free? You can’t enjoy the privileges of attending a pool in your neighborhood without someone feeling scared. Although we will send you to the best schools, even with a degree and manners,  you are still seen as an uneducated thug or whore. Do I tell them not to put anything on social media that shows them in a relaxed state because if God forbids they become the next hash tag, their picture will be used to paint a different narrative?  What kind of conversation is that to have with children? How am I to explain to them that they have to be twice as good if they want half the pay? How do I prepare them for the random pullovers and questions of affordability regarding the car they are in? I’m sick of these conversations and the pointless comments that follow.  

“Yea, the cops killed #(your name is next), but what about black on black crime?”  What about it and all other intra-community crime? What about the arrests of those in said crimes and their punishments? Let’s talk about how officers publicly united against Mayor De Blasio, but remain silent in the deaths of Sterling and Castille? What about the unfair incarceration rates and racial profiling? What about these screwed up conversations I have to have with kids? What about my womanhood being demanded or the next brother being emasculated each time we have to “step and fetch” because we don’t know if we’re going to get a trigger happy officer or the cool cop that always stops by to say hello? Will my parents have to bury me? Will he have to hash tag a friend?  Why am I thinking about death instead of life?

And no the Dallas police shootings did not bring me any comfort. I didn’t find joy in knowing a child will grow up without a father or that a husband lost his wife. There is nothing gratifying about parents learning that their child will never come home nor can I find peace in an innocent life was taken. Unlike those that comment on BLM posts, I believe no one deserves to die for simply living or working.  My heart goes out to Dallas.  I’m grieving for them.

I just want to know why the nation never grieves when we lose one?

-Niko Rose

Society killed those police officers and Micah. Every time an injustice occurred and nothing was done, a bullet was put into that gun. My prayers are with the Dallas PD and Micah’s family.