What Is It Worth To You?

I have had so many conversations about the state of Black America and Black Lives Matter and Police until it is crazy.  I have wanted to blog about this issue for some time now, but I held back.  I wanted to say so many things that may have been taken out of context as I look back at what I had written.

I don’t think that killing is the answer. I think that Dr. King said it best, an eye for an eye leaves everyone blind.  We all need each other. Black people have never been valued in America.  We have only been worth the auction price on the block or how much cotton we could pick.

We are tired.  I don’t care what anyone thinks or says.  America was built on the backs of black of people.  The soil of this land is saturated with our blood, sweat and tears.  No other race of people has endured what we have endured.  No disrespect to my Native American brother’s and sister’s.

African Americans are made to believe that we are worth nothing, that we have no value to add to society and that anything we earn has been given to us.  Black Lives Matter is just the tip of the iceberg. People can call it what they want, but just like the NAACP and the SCLC they are needed.

I am tired of seeing and hearing about black people dying.  I’m tired of black on black crime, I am tired of police on black crime and I am tired of racist crimes against black people.  I am tired of white people having a privilege that has not been earned while black people never get the benefit of the doubt.

I am tired of people saying that because we say that Black Lives Matter we are implying that other lives do not. That is not the case.  George Zimmerman was set free for killing Trayvon Martin.  Police killed Michael Brown and were acquitted.  Police severed the spine of Freddie Gray while he was in their custody and there were no repercussions.  If I have a passenger in my car and they are not wearing a seatbelt I am ticketed.  How is it possible that no one is responsible for the death of this young man? He did not commit suicide. His death was not an accident.  Everything that happened to him was on purpose and was done by police because they could and not because they had too. I can’t understand how those that pledge to uphold the law are not held to the law.  I would think that they would be held to an even higher standard.

I don’t know these men and women that have died.  I just know that their lives mattered to me. It hurts.  It hurts. It hurts.  Imagine your spinal cord being severed.  I can’t.  Imagine being down on the grown in a choke hold and not being able to breath.  Imagine your girlfriend and your baby watching as police shoot you to death.  I can’t.

The African American community is being asked to have talks with their black men about compliance.  How did non-compliance play a role in justifying a severed spinal cord?  Compliance did not help Filando Castile or Eric Garner.

We as Black people have to stop killing each other.  Our minds have been conditioned to believe that our lives don’t matter and so we waste it over a corner that doesn’t belong to us.  Or over drugs that we do not manufacture. Or over someone saying something we consider disrespectful.  Really?  What is happening right now is more disrespectful than anything anyone can say.

In my many conversations about these men and their families, I found myself saying that I would give up all that I have for an even and level playing field for Black people in America.  I would give it all up.  It’s not like I’m a millionaire with a huge house and five cars. I’m a regular working woman.  I would give everything down to the socks on my feet for a guarantee of no more racism, no more killing and an even playing field.

Like so many others before me, I would give my life for it.  I have four sons and I love each and every one of them.  I don’t want to bury them. I especially don’t want to bury them as murder victims.

I have one daughter.  She is my world.  I could not imagine her being arrested for not signaling to change lanes and then being found dead in a jail cell.  What is that mother’s life like?  I can’t imagine.

Look.  Marching is not working.  Killing is not working. Talking about it is not working.  I want President Obama to do something, but I don’t know what he can do.

Our Black dollars have to speak for us now. It worked for the Montgomery bus boycott and it can work here.  Our black celebrities have the power to open businesses to provide the things that we need.  Not much is made in America anymore anyway, so it shouldn’t be hard to stock stores.

Make your life matter.  Choose to live.  Stand for something.  Don’t fall for anything.

Black Lives Matter. Every single one of them.

The Writer.

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