Black Lives Matter.
Probably the most difficult of all blog topics for me to write on….
When you are the 5th generation descendant of African ancestors who were enslaved in this country and as you trace through your family history you see the proud faces of Veterans ,Policemen, Carpenters, teachers, cooks, men and women who have worked in service industries and technology for their entire lives. They have built farms, homes, families, and communities that have contributed to the beauty of our country. However, when I look at the pictures, they all have the same painted on smiles hiding the disappointment they have felt personally because of the Institution of Racism that the US seems to have mastered. From slavery, Jim Crow Laws, mass incarcerations, Redlining, and gentrification these are just a few terms we can put down to try and understand some of the disappointment behind those painted on smiles.
Police brutality is another. Long before the ever present cameras of today, I knew about the beatings, lynchings and other traumas inflicted upon relatives and friends. Unlike fifty years ago we were not filming it. The inhumane treatment of Black(and brown) people does have psychological implications, which I will save for another discussion. However at this time suffice it to say that the time has come to address the deplorable, inhumane, and too often murderous treatment of Black people in police purview. Hopefully you noted above in the list of careers, Policemen. Even the out of uniform “blue” does not protect or improve the treatment of Black men and women in police purview!
The protests and social unrest that has been the topic of international news recently represents the eruption of anger and frustration from more than the murder of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Natasha McKenna, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Terence Crutcher, Oscar Grant, Freddie Gray, Botham Jean, Atatiania Jefferson, Bettie Jones, Trayvon Martin, Laquan McDonald, Tamir Rice, Dominique White, Elijah McClain, Rayshard Brooks, Philando Castile and many more.
I cannot present a solution in this post. I just offer more clarification for anyone that still doesn’t get it. I do recommend for those Allies of Black Lives Matter that the conversations on racism and how it can be reduced/eradicated should be continued. My favorite poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar still sums it up.
We Wear The Mask
by Paul Laurence Dunbar
We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties.
Why should the world be overwise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while We
Wear the mask.
We smile, but O great Christ,
Our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise.
We sing, but oh the clay is vile
Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
But let the world dream otherwise,
We Wear The Mask!
