Seven Months

The Reason Nothing Changes

Connecting The Dots

Baltimore pushed Nepal and Lynch right off the headlines, not that Black America was paying all that much attention anyway. I mean, there were no marches over Loretta Lynch, no outrage at the unprecedented nearly six-month wait for a confirmation vote. No homilies on the increasingly homogenous and patently racist Republican Party’s continuing to undermine and damage America for selfish political gain by refusing to govern even now, six years into Barack Obama’s presidency. We don’t march about that, about the dog whistles or incessant hate campaigns promoting racism as both normal and accepted. We’re not out in the streets protesting government obstructionism and unparalleled waste; Republicans blowing tens of millions on politically motivated “hearings” they know from the start will go nowhere and accomplish nothing more than make them look good to their ignorant, Confederate Flag-waving constituents.

Black America has, thus far, failed to connect the dots between what goes on Capitol Hill to what goes on on Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard. Racism is a scourge; mold in America’s house. To actually intentionally gin up racism for political gain is the very definition of evil. These are evil people, evil men and women, who deliberately deploy racism—both overtly as well as in dog whistles—and that political climate informs our social environment because America is so stupid now we can no longer tell reality from fiction. Most any political commercial of any political persuasion is absolute fiction. Fox News is near complete fiction. Yet, an enormous demographic of whites imbibe the non-stop race-baiting campaign of conservatives, especially “Christian” conservatives, building both a false pride and false resentment of minorities.

If you don’t believe GOP politics or Fox News played any role in the outrageous and heinous spate of cop killings, you are hopelessly naïve. Racism is back, baby, in strong resurgence brought to you by conservative politics; by tens of billions of dollars of media buys and payoffs.

Plain and simple: it is now socially acceptable to be overtly racist. Long after Barack Obama retires, the damage done by having repositioned racism as socially acceptable will remain. It is a virus, like Polio or Chicken Pox, spread across America by political ads and agents like Fox News. It is both highly contagious and easily contracted. Even those who are non-symptomatic can be carriers of this virus, infecting everyone around them.

The subtext of every concealed weapons course advertisement or NRA ad is for White America to Tool Up Against The Darkies. The presumption is that everyone last one of us is a criminal and likely armed. I go into Walmart and see these guys every day, these white guys with Glocks strapped to their belt. In Walmart, out in the middle of nowhere. Why? I also know that, were I to enter a Walmart with a Glock strapped to my belt, I’d be followed and most likely stopped by cops every single time. The open carry laws here are, tacitly, a privilege intended for white people, and white people are loking up for us. That cowboy in Walmart has brought his nine for me. I deeply resent having my life constantly placed in the hands of stranger, these yokels with the power of life or death strapped to their hip. All I want is a gallon of milk and a screwdriver, but I have to risk my life to get it. I am terrified for young black men today. White America is locked and loaded, and every gun range target has a (literal) black face.

The other side of the argument: folks carrying weapons out of fear or race anger aren’t entirely wrong. Far too many young black males do stupid things. They spend way too much time getting high and watching violent fantasy straight-to-video flicks produced by foul-mouthed rappers. They buy into that stereotype, financed by whites but perpetuated by our own community. Just listen to that noise; every young black male has to blast his car stereo as he rolls down the street, has to have $5,000 worth of chrome on the wheels of his used Buick. Look at me, validate me. Well, yes, son, we are looking. And that loud, profane, indecent nonsense you’re blasting scares the wig off of white people, so they’re going the Full Zimmerman; little old white ladies got the jammy in the purse, and there’s Cowboy Bob, his wife and kids in tow, his Glock strapped to his side for all to see. I would never be allowed to do that.

Ballmore Reality: High crime, police brutality, just business as usual.

It's Us

The president’s approval rating has ticked up over 50% for the first time in years. We haven’t noticed that, either. The Republicans’ childish Wile E. Coyote parliamentary tricks have failed one after another, but they just twist their mustache and keep trying. Beyond being evil, these men and women are idiots. What they are doing is not working, but they keep doing it anyway. They’re not interested in making any deals because they have convinced their constituents that governing is a zero-sum game. No, moron, it’s really not. It’s right there, in the U.S. Constitution, our “Let’s Make A Deal” form of government. Compromise is the very nature of American Democracy. Even Ronald Reagan, their own demigod, knew that. The GOP’s avowed refusal to strike deals is tantamount to a refusal to govern, which makes their strategy patently anti-American, no matter how much flag-waving (of whichever flag) they do.

But, I still maintain the real problem is us. Our laziness, our refusal to keep ourselves informed or, say, go to the polls and vote. The president’s hands are tied, right now, because a staggering 60% of eligible voters—young people and blacks most especially—simply sat out the 2014 elections. Just like we sat out 2010, where these conservative wingnuts ran the tables on us while we were busy smelling our farts over Obama’s 2008 win.

We don’t connect the dots between Obama’s historic 2008 victory to how we undermined that very victory by not being there for him in 2010, thus ushering in The Age of Tinfoil Hat Tea Party Race-Based Obstructionism. And we don’t connect those dots to Ferguson, MO, to New York City, to Cleveland, Ohio. To North Charleston. To East Baltimore. To the Semper Fi Walmart cowboys.

And, when yet another of our family is tragically killed, we scream and holler and run out and burn down our own neighborhoods, loot local businesses, and try to murder police officers. We march. We make demands. But you know and I know the truth: in seven months, come Election Day, all of that will be long forgotten. We’ll be home. At work. At church. At the pool hall. Hanging on the corner telling stories. Watching Oprah. We’ll be doing whatever it is we do. The one thing we won’t be doing is voting.

These young men are gone, first and foremost, because of bad police. But they are just as likely because of racist attitudes which are now digestible and acceptable in American discourse thanks largely to the Republican-Tea Party and Fox News who came to power because of us. Because we hung out with Rollo Anem instead of voting. Because we didn’t march against conservative racism and call them out on it, thus allowing it to fester and infect this and future generations.

This is why I just can’t get riled up about this stuff: our folks taking it to the streets. “Black Lives Matter.” If they did, we’d show up and vote. But, soon as the hoopla dies down, the media packs up and leaves, this will all be forgotten. It’ll be back to business as usual: our demanding equal justice without investing ourselves in equal civic duty.

As I’ve stated in other essays, I’ll be the first to line up and march for a good cause, but Black America really needs a Come To Jesus moment where we face up to our own culpability in this mess.

Christopher J. Priest
3 May 2015
editor@praisenet.org
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A History of Violence

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The acquittal of George Zimmerman
was a punch in the face to every African American, to every person of color, in the United States. The Zimmerman verdict made it all right for an obvious racist to stalk the target of his ire with a loaded gun, provoke a fight, then shoot him dead. That’s the message, sent to and received by Black America: We Don’t Count. Most people legally carrying concealed weapons are whites. Most of them are paranoid types like the open carry white men I see n Walmart every day. Were I to open carry, somebody in that store would call the police. I assure you, no one is stalking Open Carry Guy in Walmart. That gun on his hip is meant to send a message to young men who look like me.

The judge omitted the dozens of 911 calls Zimmerman made previously, all of them false alarms about black men and teens, and insisting no mention of race be allowed--even though this case was all about race and race formed the basis of Trayvon Martin’s life experience and speaks directly to explaining his motivation.

Much like the majority of jurors, the judge was a white woman whom I sincerely doubt could identify in any appreciable way with Trayvon Martin. Judge Debra Nelson laid out an even playing field that exists only in the minds of white people. There is no even playing field in America. It is unrealistic and extremely anti-intellectual to presume such, There is this guy’s experience and that guy’s experience. Only a fictional baseline life experience—belonging to neither party—was allowed in that courtroom, which pretty much acquitted Zimmerman before the trial even began.

The Murder
of Freddie Gray

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On April 12, 2015, Freddie C. Gray, a 25-year-old African-American man, was taken into custody by the Baltimore Police Department for allegedly possessing a switchblade; however, Baltimore state's attorney Marilyn Mosby subsequently stated "The knife was not a switchblade and is lawful under Maryland law."[2] While being transported in a police van, Gray fell into a coma and was taken to a trauma center.[3][4] Gray died on April 19, 2015. His death was ascribed to injuries to his spinal cord.[4] On April 21, 2015, pending an investigation of the incident, six Baltimore police officers were temporarily suspended with pay.[3]

The circumstances of the injuries were initially unclear; eyewitness accounts suggested that the officers involved used unnecessary use of force against Gray while arresting him—a claim denied by at least one officer involved.[3][4][5] Commissioner Anthony W. Batts reported that the officers did not buckle him inside the van when being transported to the police station—a report supported by a medical investigation which found that Gray had sustained the injuries while in transport.[6][7]

On May 1, 2015, state prosecutors in Baltimore received a medical examiner's report ruling Gray's death a homicide.[2] Prosecutors also said that his arrest was illegal because the alleged switchblade was a legal-sized pocket knife.[2] The prosecutors stated that they had probable cause to file criminal charges against the six police officers who were believed to be involved in his death.[2] One officer was charged with second degree depraved-heart murder, and others were charged with crimes ranging from manslaughter to illegal arrest.[2]

Gray's death resulted in an ongoing series of protests and civil disorder, in the spirit of the reaction to the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown. A major protest in downtown Baltimore on April 25, 2015, turned violent, resulting in 34 arrests and injuries to 15 police officers.[8] After Gray's funeral on April 27, civil unrest intensified with looting and burning of local businesses and a CVS drug store, culminating with a state of emergency declaration by Governor Lawrence Hogan and Maryland National Guard deployment to Baltimore.

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