Just My Thoughts on...Mike Brown (2014)


Just My Thoughts.... Mike Brown (2014)

I originally wrote this on August 10, 2014, right after everyone at the prison asked me how I felt about what happened to Michael Brown in Ferguson. At first I was hesitant to share my thoughts. I didn't think that anyone really cared. I mean, many of my peers here have, do and will continue to engage in heinous acts of Black on Black violence. Seriously, if you don't care enough to change your actions then do you really care at all? I just assumed that they were all "bidding"— looking to pass away some time—and I wasn't going to participate in any one's idleness. But then I had a conversation with an older brother named Deuce. Deuce explained to me, as he often did, that my generation is in need of  strong critical voices that can speak to the reality of the moment. Deuce told me that I am one such voice. So I kept that writing and now, all these years later, I hope that you find something in it that inspires you, as Duece had inspired me, to speak out, be heard and #spreadtheword.

Ferguson's Impact Five Years Later


From August 10, 2014
My five-year-old daughter just recently moved back to Wellston, a small municipality in St Louis County, not too far from Ferguson. My grandmother lives in Spanish Lake, maybe 20 minutes away, and my aunt Germaine stays right around the corner in Bellefontaine Neighbors. I practically grew up in St Louis County. My aunt and her family all lived in the Ferguson-Florissant area for over 10 years and now my little brother, his girlfriend and their daughter have just moved into an apartment nearby. So when I heard the news about Michael Brown's murder my heart began to ache. That could have been Quincy I thought, or my little cousin Devonte. That could have been one of my friend's family or someone close to my daughter's mother. Where will it all end? How much more will it take? And what can we do to stop it?


Trayvon Martin, Kendrick Johnson, Michael Dunn, Eric Garner, Renisha McBride, Hadiya Pendleton, Jonathan Ferrell, Miriam Carey, Amari Williams, and now Michael Brown: these are just a few of the names on a long list of stolen black life. How many more have missed the media? What about all of the young lost souls in Chicago, Richmond, L.A., Atlanta and all of the other ghettos across America? What will it take for people to see that America's justice system, it's police force and social institutions, cannot be just when it comes to the Black Colony. It just cannot do it. White Supremacy is inextricably woven into the fabric of this nation and White Supremacy is founded upon non-White (Black) inferiority—that is, the devaluing of Black life. When will we stop running from this truth? When will we confront the actual problems—the root causes—of all that we are facing?

Learn More About White Supremacy

Understand,  this "White Supremacy" ideology acts on us all—black, brown, red, yellow and white—shaping the way that we view and interact with the world. It is the indoctrination of White Supremacy/Black Inferiority that makes us more outraged when a white person kills a black person then when we kill each other. It is White Supremacy/Black Inferiority that keeps us from uniting. It keeps us in a perpetual state of fear, forever afraid to truly challenge the status quo and do what it takes to revolutionize this crooked society. It paralyzes us; makes us afraid to act when we know we should. And when we finally do decide to do something, it keeps us ignorant of how to bring about the changes that we seek. It is White Supremacy/Black Inferiority that encourages us to keep placing our faith in a judicial system with a sorrid history of racist behavior and biased sentencing policies; a system that is used to re-enslave young black men at record-setting rates; a system that has consistently shown that it is not for US.

In this day in age, in so-called "post-racist" America, a young black man must still lower his gaze, pull up his pants, take off his hood and in all other ways acquiesce to the power of white skin. If not, he runs the risk of being gunned down in the street. Are these not the same survival tactics that were used by people under the rule of Jim Crow? Understand, each and every person that views young black men through the media propagated and institutionally-created lenses of "criminal" or "thug" (consciously or subconsciously; intentionally or unintentionally) are agents and upholders of the White Supremacy/Black Inferiority ideological system. You must face reality. We do not have time to keep deluding ourselves. It is only going to get worse. We are not living in a colorblind society, no matter how much you want to believe that. Prison populations are still predominantly Black and Latino. The crack to cocaine ratios are still not the same. Racial profiling and justifiable homicide are still the orders of the day.

So what do we do? Do we loot? Rob? Steal? Burn down the police station? Shoot at the police? Well, I can certainly understand why you would want to, but I don't recommend it. Spontaneous writing has never really gotten us anywhere in the long run. Recall the L.A. riots after the Rodney King verdict. Yet, here we are, 22 years later, still dealing with the same issues. So what do we do? Do we organize peaceful protest and march up and down the streets with our picket signs held high? Well, maybe, but to what end? What does this really accomplish when the same system that you're marching against is the same system allowing you to March?

I know that my people are hurting, I'm hurting. I hurt every second of every day. I know that you want to make your voice heard, that you want to voice that part of your pain loss in the news camera's flash and the reporter's story. I know that for a lot of us the only way that we can think to rebel, to make our pain felt, it still commit "crimes." Many of us have long ago lost faith in the court system, in the police's serve and protect lie, and in our  leadership's cowardly submissive diplomacy. So, once again, what are we do?

In 2014, with a Black president in the White House, more Black men in prison then there were slaves in the year 1850, and young black men dying at alarming rates, what do we do? This is the question now posed to our generation: what are we going to do? Are we going to continue on as we were two days ago, two months ago, accepting this is just the way it is, or are we going to continue to think that it can't, or won't, happen to us; that if we just stay in school and get a job then we'll be fine—as if Michael Brown wasn't about to begin college the day after he was murdered? Are we going to tweet #MichaelBrown and rock our t-shirts and light candles, just as long as the story stays relevant for the mass media, only to discard it as soon as they do? Are we going to take ourselves and this world more seriously or are we going to get caught up in LeBron's move to Cleveland and Derrick Rose's comeback season?

What are you going to do? Are you going to find the Truth and spread the word or will you continue to remain lost? That is my question to all of those suffering under the yoke of oppression:  what do we do?

P.E.A.C.E.
PERCEIVE EVERYTHING AS CAUSING ENLIGHTENMENT



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