Open
Letter to My African American Brothers and Sisters
As I scrolled through my Facebook timeline, I am amazed at
the anger in the posts regarding the verdict in the mistrial in the murder
charge of Michael Dunn in Jacksonville, Florida. I have seen ZERO posts on the
way eliminate these situations from our daily lives. The recent unjustified killings of African
Americans in Florida, Texas, North Carolina and Michigan have all of us in an
uproar, but in my opinion for all the wrong reasons. YES, I agree in every situation, these young
people were wrongfully killed. YES, I agree the justice system has not upheld
the promise of justice for each of these victims. YES, I agree these circumstances have given
the impression that the value of a life of a black person is not equal to that
of our other American citizens. The truth is these happenings did not start
with these well-publicized cases; however, social media and technology has
allowed us to be informed of the numerous instances throughout this country. I have seen every conceivable reaction from retaliatory
behavior to boycotting the entire State of Florida.
As an intelligent woman who happens to be Black (and a
Florida resident), I am more outraged by the lack of value we as
African-Americans place on our children and ourselves. We have collectively become a culture of “me”
as opposed to “we”. The days of the “village”
to raise our kids have long been over and the results are what we are witnessing
today. We have created a culture of kids with less
interest in improving the lives of anyone other than themselves. WE have
allowed dignity and respect to be replaced by fame and money as the means for measurement
of success. We have not only ignored the
collective “dumbing down” of our kids, we have encouraged this
nonsense! Instead of ostracizing people or boycotting corporations
who profit from using us, we buy their music, watch their shows, and patronize
their businesses. WE PROMOTE this
nonsense…. Celebrating it!
Reality TV shows reflecting our sisters as angry, ruthless, unintelligent
con-artists who will do JUST ABOUT anything to get on television. Music that glamorizes drug dealing,
gang-banging, living lavish lifestyles and treating women as sexual objects. Our culture now frowns upon pursuing an education,
treating others with respect, and emanating elegance and class by labeling it
as “trying to act white” as opposed to encouraging it to increase our pride as “AFRICAN-AMERICANS”.
What happened to days of brothers looking out for other brothers
and sisters encouraging one another to be better women, wives and mothers? Our kids can barely write a complete
sentence, have no understanding of politics or social justice and are killing
each other daily, but we do not seem upset about it. Our internal genocide is not the ONLY BLACK
ON BLACK crime we need to address. OUR
accountability is a much bigger problem than any infringement on our rights or
unjust killings!
WHY ARE WE NOW UPSET WHEN SOCIETY TREATS US AS WE TREAT
OURSELVES? IS THIS NOT WHAT WE ARE
ENCOURAGING THEM TO DO?
When I think about the many people who lost their lives for
our ability to co-exist (with equal rights of others) in this country, I am
ashamed of myself. I may as well have
spit on each of their graves one by one.
I will not lie, I am just as guilty of being “self-involved” as many of
you, but this hard slap in the face has made me reevaluate myself. I will not attempt to justify my behavior,
but rather hold myself accountable. For
each of us who have become so self-involved and cowardly that we walk passed
those boys with their pants hanging off their asses or the girls dressed as if
their life’s aspiration is to be “on a
pole”, without having a conversation with them about the consequences of their
choices, WE ARE THE ONES TO BLAME, NO ONE ELSE!
The last thing I want is for my 5-month-old grandson to
become a victim of this culture WE have created. I CANNOT sit by and indirectly put another
bullet in another young man (or push another young girl to sell their body)
because I turned a blind eye. Making a conscious
decision to be a better HUMAN BEING is MY choice. I encourage each of you to reflect on your
own behavior to instill the values and pride of our ancestors, civil rights
leaders and fallen soldiers. If we can
put a Black Man in office as the President of the United States of America,
surely we can change the plight of the future generations and redirect the path
of those in trouble. The task of
restoring the pride and dignity of those who gave their lives in hopes of our
babies receiving the “American” right to life, liberty and prosperity is OUR
job as partakers of the fruits of the labor of those who paved the way for
us.
