Again I’ve found myself wrestling with just how to comment on everything that we’ve seen for the past three weeks. The continued murder of unarmed black people, especially men, by police across this country. It is the very essence of a hate crime, if you’re willing to expand your mind enough. These are typically White officers who are killing Black people in cold blood and with no recourse. They’re not just doing it under the cover of darkness, but because they know they can get away with it, they’re killing us in broad damn daylight. You would think they want to be more subtle, but hell when you think about it, why should they? They no reason not to. The sorry ass juries that get convened very rarely convict them. The people in power are always protecting them, so it is a surprise that all these black people are being gunned down for no reason, while our White counterparts are continued to be handled with kid gloves? The question now is, have we truly reached the end of this shit? Have we said as a people, Enough is a fucking nough?

In my opinion right now, this fight, this journey, this battle is for the heart of America, not anything else. I could sit here and recite the numbers and statistics of the black people killed by cops. I could give you the statistics of the likelihood of violence against black people versus White from law enforcement, but if you’ve watched television or read articles published, you know those numbers by now. Instead this is geared to your heart. This is my plea for you White Americans who still don’t get it, to think deeper and harder about the situation. This is for some of you who keep saying All Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter, to consider why now, in this moment, the nation and the world are rallying around my community to enact change and to attempt to work towards making whole, what has been broken. The Black community is broken, tired, beaten, but resilient. We are fighting back the way we know how. We are finding a way to come together from all walks and getting the rest of the world involved to stand up and say no more. To say that we have had taken this shit for far too many years and we are sick and damn tired of it.

So here is my plea to all of you out there who are still in denial or are simply attempting to divert from the reason for the protests and unrest right now. Imagine if your family was taken to a foreign country against it’s will. Weren’t given a choice to stay or go, but told that you were going to be enslaved to a master who will control everything that you do. You’re family is separated often times. Your children are taken from you and you never see them again. Imagine that your beaten over and over again simply for not being good enough in the eyes of your master. Imagine not being able to read or write. Imagine not having your freedom. You live just to please a master and nothing else. Imagine working in your owners home, but you just serve the purpose of servant and sex slave. You are there to perform whatever acts master says. If they want to fuck you and make you have their child or children, you have no choice but to accept that reality.

Now what if you were given your freedom, but nothing else. You didn’t have a place to live. You have no type of formal education. You don’t know the basics of really surviving in the world that you have been released into. What do you do? How do you decide what you will do in terms of food and survival? Even after being freed imagine that your still mistreated, beaten, spit on, disgraced. You do what you see the others doing, volunteering to defend the foreign country you live in by going to war as a solider for that nation, only to return to hate and bigotry. To be pulled of your bus and beaten because you’re wearing the uniform of US Military and you  have those people who feel you’re not human, not worthy of fighting for their freedom. Think about that for a second. Do you think that’s fair? Are you upset yet? Does it make you think about your opportunity to really make it where you live?

Imagine your kids being beaten and spit on just because they want to better themselves and have a solid education and opportunity to rise up and be better than you, which is what all parents want for their children. Imagine your child being lied on and instead of being vindicated, your child is murdered in cold blood, left to rot and be made an example of. Imagine your daughters being raped just because of who they are and justice never coming for them. Imagine your mothers and fathers being beaten and brutalized because they’re trying to stand for you. Help to make sure you and all those who are like you have a chance to have an equal shot at the dream. Think about you making a minor traffic infraction. You run the stop sign, and instead of law enforcement treating you humanly and respectfully, they treat you as hostile, as a threat. You’re always assumed to be guilty of something more salacious than just a minor driving offense. You’re always a target when you go into the store. You are passed over for the opportunities for advancement at work just because you don’t fit their culture or look.

Imagine that you’re just trying to get some food and enjoy the company of a friend. And because you fit the typical mold of a criminal your harassed, stopped and detained for questioning because of someone assuming from a distance you’re a criminal. No apology given once its proven you aren’t the suspect. No apology for the discrimination, for the embarrassment or shame. No solace in feeling safe or protected. The reality is that you are even in fear more of law enforcement after that because now you know that you will always be guilty until proven innocent. All of these instances provided to you are real. They are the plight of the Black community in relation to White America and law enforcement in this country. White people do you understand now?

Everything that you take for granted, we don’t have that luxury. We are always enemies and targets no matter how educated or professional we are. No matter what status we think we hold in any industry, facts are proven over and over that in the eyes of this nation, we are still subservient to you. We are still brutes who are intimidating and threats to you because we’re different. Yet the one thing that flows through us all that makes us even and equal is that red blood underneath your skin. It’s also that heart that beats in your chest. If you truly read this and put yourself in all those scenarios and situations, then you should be standing beside and with us. Joining in the call for real freedom and fairness from this oppressive system. It won’t hurt you, but it damn sure will help us.

Talk to me America

I’ve been watching and paying attention to the actions across this country as we battle this pandemic that has crippled our country. I’ve listened to peers who work in essential work careers and those who have been laid off and those who are working from home. It is a wide variety of responses, as to be expected, but it also shows why a pure Capitalistic society will always lend itself to dangers from health pandemics. We have people out here who are still going to barbershops and facilities of mass gatherings. We have churches that aren’t willing to follow guidelines and display their services online and not have people gathering in large groups in sanctuaries. People who are so starved for human interaction they’re flocking to parks in large numbers but not practicing social distancing. People still having block parties or house parties, large gatherings of people when there are specific orders to shelter in pace, aka keep yo ass at home.

Let me be clear I fully understand the need for everyone to be able to make a living. I know that the need for folks to make money is paramount because we live in a society that struggles with helping each other financially in times of crisis. Businesses don’t want to hold off on rent collection, mortgage collection, car payments and so on. I am happy to see that some of these things are changing. But the rental community, especially Apartment complex communities are wanting rent to be paid regardless of the state of their livelihoods, and that is sad, pathetic and unfortunate. I’m sure they have collected more than enough rent from all residents to allow for a moratorium on rent collection for a period of time.

I want to underscore though, that the kind of country we have makes it so difficult to accept the new norms that the health and science community want us to follow. Keep your space, don’t go out if you don’t have to, be more minimal in your approach to life. We as a society in this country always want big and over the top. We want freedom to do anything and everything at all times. Now we’re being told that we need to stop that and people are rejecting it. We aren’t listening to the professionals saying that if we don’t continue to stay home and stay away we’re going to have hundreds of thousands killed and if we are reckless, then millions can die. Are you really that needy to you have to go to a shop or salon to get your hair done. First off, where the fuck you going? Because you can’t take yo ass no where. Or are all of you really getting Easter ready so you can attend a service to give your money in droves to the church, or as a large number of you will do, have a brand new outfit and shoes and fake giving to the church so you look cute?

Which brings me to my biggest point of contention. Many of the leaders of the churches, are showing what great leadership is. They have suspended in person church services, and moved to online only. Allowing the word to still be preached, the gospel to still be given to its people and for folks to still get the leadership and guidance they need. You can get devotion and worship without being in the physical sanctuary. Now, as someone who has gone through the different stages of worship I understand why people have the needs or desires they do to be in the physical presence. Some are dependent on that energy and connection of souls and reverence they place on the sanctuary to give them that full experience of understanding. They need the union of spirits and bodies to enhance their takeaway of the word. They want that energy that goes with being present before God in a holy place.

While that is understandable, because I too use to be one of those individuals, there is the next step in your spiritual journey. Which is to understand that you do not need to be present in the church to be present in the spirit with God. You can listen and watch on television or on a laptop and get just as connected through that vessel as you can by being in the actual sanctuary. This is the next level of awakening. Understanding that God can be anywhere and everywhere at the same time. That you can be gathered at your home, while the pastor is gathered at their home and the parishioners are gathered at their homes and still fellowship together. Because where two or three are gathered in the midst there am I. It doesn’t say that there always has be a physical gathering. It just says where they are gathered. I also understand that to follow the text is to say that God wants you to treat each other as you would yourself to be treated. So I would imagine this definitely holds true in times of great upheaval. Your health is of the utmost importance. Worshipping God from home because you are being bountiful in your duties to God, is the most responsible thing you can do when you have a virus that is as ruthless and aggressive as this one is.

Yet, because tomorrow is Easter Sunday or Resurrection Sunday, many churches across this nation will open it’s doors to thousands of worshippers so they can have a performance, collect your money and preach a word to you. That to me is the textbook definition of a lack of leadership. It spits in the face of a bold leader. It defies what God said and Jesus preached. Many of you religious people will say that God’s got us. That God is not going to let anything happen to his or her people. But I question you this, you do know that you have been through challenges in your life that God let happen because you needed to learn and be taught for your own growth and understanding. You do know unnecessary challenges happen in your life when you go against what we know the wisdom to be. This is a situation where many are now going to be subjected to a virus that is killer and shows no sign of being contained, only controlled by distancing ourselves from each other. Now we’re going to unleash hell by many of you gathering in mass for something you can watch on your phones, laptops, desktops or tv screens. It is highly irresponsible and cowardice. Yes I’m sure of everything that I’m saying.

We as a people have a responsibility to protect ourselves and our fellow man. But so many of you are clamoring for something that your taking a chance on the things really aren’t needed to be chanced. It goes back though, to the leadership of this country and to the fabric of who we are as a nation. A leader who is all about himself and money. A country that made free enterprise and Capitalism its roots. We don’t take as adequate care of our people as we should. Our military vets are amongst the worst cared for in our healthcare system and other systems when they return from protecting and serving this nation. Our elderly are taken advantage of and thrown out to the wolves largely as they age, if they don’t have family or sufficient money to not need the government. Our youth are left to fend for themselves, if they aren’t born to a family that sees their lives as important and critical to protect, nurture and develop. We let the sick get raped by healthcare costs and lack of concern. Even healthy citizens are expected to constantly give more and more of themselves with less and less being paid to show for their hard work. So the response and handling of this pandemic by this country was predictable. We are and forever will be beholden to the dollar. We are beholden to the lifestyle of convenience, rather than the one of balance.

America is suffering from the same things that made it great, that are now making us suffer. We are also struggling with this virus because of ourselves. We don’t see our family members or loved ones being impacted so we say why we still inside, it’s not hitting us. Well, my message to you is keep being reckless and doing things your way, and it just might be you that is laid up needing the all the things that we see on tv are in supply currently but only by a thread. America, wake the fuck up, step the hell up and sit yo ass down if you don’t have to be out there right now. Church will be there, barbers will be there, all the luxurious things you want will be there. But we don’t protect and care for ourselves better, we won’t.

Give me your thoughts and feedback, I want to talk about this. #homeissafe