Monday, July 15, 2013

BLACK LIFE IS CHEAP!


I live in a world where racism still exists.  I’ve always known that.

Long ago I faced the fact that, as a black man, “I’m gonna have to fly, to get something a white man can walk to” as Chris Rock once put it. 

That’s life, it’s not fair, but I can deal with that and I truly believe in my heart, I can make it.

But what I realized Saturday night, that what I’m coming to grips with now, is the reality that Black life, my life, is cheap.

My life doesn’t’ hold the same value as my White friends, my Latin friends, my Asian friends or any others. 

It’s the god-honest truth.   And honestly, as an African-American, we are just as much to blame as society…

Yes, white George Zimmerman walks the streets a free-man, despite the fact that he murdered Trayvon Martin in cold-blood, just for being black at night but…two weeks ago, 74 people were shot, 12 were killed over the July 4th weekend here in Chicago.

Two were young boys, ages 5 and 7.

The reason?  Being black and outside, a deadly combination in urban areas

No mass protests for them.  No celebrities with their pictures on shirts.  Just a write-up and on to the next story.

This weekend? 21 people shot, 5 killed, their killers?  not George Zimmerman neighborhood watch wanna-bees, Neo-Nazis, Rednecks, or even the Klan, but other people of color.

This is happening to black people, in black neighborhoods, by black people every weekend.

While the results of this whole Trayvon-Zimmerman saga is awful, and terrible, and tragic.  It doesn’t even begin to compare to the fact that my own “brothers” are out here doing the same thing on a much larger scale.

There’s this outrage and pouring of resources towards this goon who allegedly racially-profiled, then killed a black child and rightfully so.

But where is the same anger and effort for the hundreds of scumbags running these streets committing fraticide?

How can we as a black community expect others to give a damn about us when we don’t even give a damn about each other?

How can we expect others to look at our lives with value when we don’t even value them?

Black life is cheap.

And it’s all of our faults.


-WST

2 comments:

  1. Well put, however, lowering the value of 'life' based solely upon race is irrelevant. You're worth is dependent upon your contribution to society. Unfortunately, African-Americans (more than other minorities) get tagged as leaches on society via social programs paid for by working citizens. I'm too lazy to continue this point, that is all.

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