I would like to start this off by first stating that I am by no means a religious man. In fact, I abhor organized religion. But in my 3+ decades on this planet I have had an interesting journey. I grew up in Philadelphia going to an Episcopal church. The African American Episcopal Church of Saint Thomas. Some of my earliest memories are of attending Sunday school. As I grew in the church so did my commitment. I became an acolyte at age 8, and kept that position until I was 18. During this time, I learned every aspect of the church. See I was a very curious child. Before I became an acolyte I would often cut Sunday school to explore the church. I would go places that no one was allowed except for the church faculty. Storage places, attics, etc. Often I would do these things alone. Not with any malicious intent but just to explore. I would sit there and listen to the service and the choir sing. How beautiful it all sounded from the top of the church. I would hold many private conversations with God up there too. Not praying or asking for things but actual conversations like you would have with a friend. In my eyes there was no better place to speak to him. Among all the discarded relics the church doesn’t use anymore but still holds on to. Boxes of bibles and crosses. As a child I thought that was as close as I could get to God without actually going to heaven. So high up (so I thought) the preacher and the choir in the background just close enough that you felt safe but just far enough you felt alone. It was as if having a direct line to God. We would sit and just talk. The funny thing is I can’t remember about what. I just know those days helped me through some of the darkest days of my young life. Of course there were times when I would get caught up there by Butch. (the Sexton) The first few times he would run me off and back to Sunday school but after the 4th or 5th time he would let me stay. I think he was the only one that understood what I was saying. I always felt better after my little talks and sad the days I couldn’t make it up there.

As I grew older and my responsibilities grew within the church, my visits to the top of the church waned until they finally stopped. It was always next week; I’ll go next week. As an acolyte I had to actually participate in the service. Part of me felt that this would actually make me closer with God. I was up on the alter helping the pastor. But in many ways this made me feel distant. I didn’t know how to explain it. After a few years I knew the service inside and out to the point that with the exception of the sermon I could conduct the service myself if I needed to. Then something happened. The church moved. I would never get to go to my spot again. We moved into a bigger church and while I was sad to leave our old building I was excited to go to a bigger building and the opportunity to find a nice spot like I had before that I could have my discussions with God. But alas by the time we moved it was no longer cute for me to disappear and go places that I didn’t belong. The elders in the church no longer found it amusing and neither did my grandmother. So I settled with being an acolyte and that would have to do. I didn’t hear from God for a very long time after that. As I got older like most kids, I got bored with church. I felt like it had showed me everything it could. It became an endless cycle of repetitive jargon. Oh it’s the third Sunday after lent. The pastor will be wearing this outfit and we say this gospel and the sermon will be on this topic. So now church had become less about learning about God and his word and more about spending time with my Sunday friends. The worst thing you could do to us at that time was to make us sit in the congregation and listen to the service. This is a form of torture to a teen or preteen. I even went to bible study for a time. Took the classes so I could receive communion. And all the time I never heard from God. So I started asking those that I though surely must talk to God on a daily basis. I asked the pastor and the elders, even my grandmother. They all gave me pretty much the same answer. You talk to God through prayer and he does not talk back, at least not in a way that we can hear. I’ll never forget the day I told the pastor he was wrong about that. I told him as a kid I spoke to God every Sunday in the top of the old church and this look of concern came over his face. As an adult I’m sure you can imagine the look and the questions that followed. Also the talk with my grandmother. Finally, they believed me that no one was up there with me and the proceed to explain that I had an imaginary friend and because I had gotten older that’s why he stopped talking to me. This was after all between the ages of 5 and 8 and I’m now 15. I felt like I had truly lost a friend that day. This was also the start of my downfall with the church.

So know I’ve been told that “God” was not actually God but it was cute that my imaginary friend was named God, and I had grown more and more distant from the church. I started having questions that no one could answer. I surely wasn’t going to ask some figment of my imagination and the pastor was no help. Just telling me to have faith. By the way that’s no answer, if you don’t know just say you don’t know. My grandmother was uneasy with me asking these questions. I would bring up the contradictions in the bible, the way God told us not to kill but then would command an army to kill. How can God be love but he lays out laws for slavery? Why is Jesus portrayed as a white man but was born in the middle east? Why do we have graven images and bow to them but it clearly states that no graven images should be made. All the normal questions that a person has, plus many more. Including questioning the Bible itself. The more I questioned the more non-answers I received. Just have faith or answers that had no basis in the bible. The more frustrated I got. So I set off on my own. Once I turned 18 I stopped attending church and started doing my own research.

I ended up going to Oklahoma for school. While in Tulsa I went to several different churches, I had this feeling of lack. This feeling that I was missing something. I couldn’t describe it. But those same questions kept popping up and I would receive the same answers I did as child, which just infuriated me even more. I so wanted that feeling of fulfilment and wonder back that I had as a child. I had not talked to God in years by this point. Yes I had prayed as I was taught but I had not talked. I no longer believed that it was God I was talking to. Years of being teased and analyzed for saying that I hold actual conversations with God had taken their toll. I agreed with the doctor that it was a coping mechanism for the troubles I had as a child. I just wanted to be normal. None of my friends spoke to God or their imaginary friends anymore, so why should I. But the more I closed that part of me off the more distant from I felt from everything that made me happy. I no longer looked at the night sky in sheer awe. I no longer walked through the woods with the amazement that I once had. I could no longer feel the same way I felt when it came to love, joy, happiness. It was if my life had a permanent gray lens obscuring everything I saw, felt, smelled and tasted. No matter how many friends I had I always felt alone and did not know why. That hole inside of me just grew and I knew I had to fill it with something. I looked into many different religions. Acting as though I was doing a project for school. I practiced Wicca, had Druid friends. Looked into Islam (but couldn’t give up pork), went to a synagogue with my Jewish friends. Many forms and sect of Christianity. All filled the hole in different ways but none made me feel whole. I finally just gave up.

By this time, I had dropped out of school and closed my heart off. I moved back home and decided to join the Navy. I was too lonely to care. I figured if I cant find what I had through God and I had searched, oh boy did I search, then I would find what I needed through man. I poured myself into relationships, only to have nothing poured back into me. This left me a miserable person. Instead of searching for God I was actively trying to disprove his existence. After all he cant be real. That was just a imaginary friend I constructed to get me through the bad times. I’m an adult now. Time for me to stop believing in fairy tales. Santa Clause is a story we tell little kids to get them to behave, and God is nothing more than an adult version of Santa. I used my knowledge of the bible to argue anyone that would come to me about God. That hole while still there had been there so long it felt like a part of now. I actively sought things out that I knew would displease God, I cursed his name, I denied his existence. I called myself an atheist but that’s not the right title. An atheist simply doesn’t believe. I believed, I just denied and tried to convince myself that I didn’t believe. In all my anger and rage I told myself I don’t need God. He is an absentee father. Just another person in a long line of people to let me down. But I still felt this need. As much as I tried to deny it this pull was still there. There were times in great lakes while in school I would go sit on the stones overlooking lake Michigan. The water was calm and it was quite as quite can be. No signs of humanity. No rumblings of cars, airplanes, noise from everyday day life was gone. It was just me with the sounds of the water slapping against the rocks with nature playing her calming music in the background. Those times I felt the most at ease I had ever felt in years. And a few I whispered “I’m sorry, I just want you to come back” but nothing. Of course I took this as the doctors were right. Those who had teased me were right. It was just my imagination. So I would strengthen my resolve and go forth to God as I would show my own father that I can do this without you.

Then it happened. Everything came to a head. The woman I asked to marry me had cheated on me, my mother was going through another one of her episodes, the pain and emptiness inside became too much to bare. So one night while at a rave I decided (while under the influence) that I should just end it all now. No one would notice. So I proceeded to try to OD on Ecstasy and LSD. Figured if I’m going to go then I may as well go with some cool visuals. Well that’s just what I got. I picked a place out of the of everyone where I could slip away with little notice. I sat down and closed my eyes. Within a few minutes I hear the music playing but it sounded as though it was far away. Then I saw a figure dressed very nicely walking towards me. Once he came in view I noticed it was me, but the me that I wanted to be. Then me and myself proceeded to talk for what seemed to be hours or even days. We talked about everything from the meaning of life to why I act certain ways to the most mundane conversations. I hadn’t spoken with anyone like this since my time back in the church speaking to God. Of course I cant remember most of the conversation. But before I left I told myself stop pretending, listen to your heart, and you’re not done here yet. And most importantly I never left, you just have to learn to listen. That’s when I walked away and faded away and I woke up. The same song was playing as when I closed my eyes. I made myself throw-up and felt as though a weight had been lifted off my chest. That was a turning point.

I woke up the next morning feeling a bit less gloomy, some of the colors had returned and I felt just a spark of my old self. Very shortly after this I meant my future wife and we had a beautiful baby boy together. As I held my first born son I told him I would be the father I never had. Then I heard a faint whisper in the back of my mind say “See I told you, not done with you yet” I looked at by new born son and saw love. I saw the face of innocence, the face of purity, I saw the face of God. All I could through the tears was to say I’m sorry. I still had much anger and resentment inside of me, but I knew for me to be the father I could be I would have to let it go. That is a lot easier said than done. Over the next few years I attempted to find God again. I attended church but it never felt right. I went back to my home church and was welcomed with open arms but something had changed. I had changed. My mind and my heart were still jaded from being abandoned. I was actively looking for reasons not go. I still argued with people about the bible. I still felt that emptiness. But a funny thing happened. One night while some where in the middle of the Atlantic I looked up and was struck with awe, the way I was when I was a child. The sky was lit up as I had never seen it before. It was a moonless clear night and for the first time I could see the milky way. I decided to just sit there listening to gentle waves lapping on the ship and rocking motion relaxing me. For the first time in a log time my mind was quiet and my heart was open. That’s when I heard him. A simple I’m here. I refused to believe it. I refused to believe after 20 plus years he had finally returned. That would mean I had wasted the past 20+ years of my life. Thinking I had been abandoned. No!!!! That is not the case. My anger and resentment are justified. Don’t you dare think you can just walk back into my life like you never left. It was you that abandoned me long before I abandoned you. I shut my heart again. Who does he think is that he can just walk back in my life. When I needed him he wasn’t there, now I don’t need him.

Then I met Matt. He would quickly become one of my best friends. We would consistently debate the bible. He would force me to have to read and reread the bible to prove my points and I forced him to have to do the same. Unknown at the time this lead me down the path I’m currently on. As time passed I stopped arguing with everyone about religion (with the exception of some key topics) and I started to accept my role in this thing called life. I moved back home to Philadelphia strangely not upset about how my marriage played out. I was now a single father but I was starting to feel this calm come over me. My debates with Matt graduated from me having contempt for God to us having philosophical differences with the way things were interpreted. I still refused to attend church on a regular basis, it just didn’t feel like home. I would visit every once in a blue moon but the same feelings just are not there. But I started being able to truly enjoy the things that always captivated me as child. One night I found myself staring up at the sky again in amazement. It was a late night so no one was out and very few cars. Because I lived in the city I had to struggle to see even the brightest stars. But once again I felt at peace. Then I heard him again. I’m still here. This time I was bit more receptive. I allowed my friend the one I called God to come back into my life.

Now here we are present day, the relationship has been tentative on my part. I still won’t go to church but I feel closer to God then I have felt since I was a child. I still talk with God and while he doesn’t answer nearly as much as he used to. But When he does, I don’t ask for things, I have a conversation with him. He has left me with words of wisdom. Learn to listen with your heart. Even if you cannot see me or hear me, I’m right by your side. You are a part of me and I a part of you, once you understand that you will have a direct line to me through you. Once you learn to listen to that voice you will know what to do. I’m not done with you yet. I know some people will scoff at the idea that I can talk to God, (yes I do believe it is God) but oh well. Since I have opened myself back up my life have turned around. I still have a long way to go to get to where I was. I realize now that he never left me, but I’m still angry over that. As I grow there will be more to this story. I’m not saying it has been easy, but I have dedicated my life to listening to that voice deep inside. That is the voice of God. I have come to realize that God does not reside soley in a church. It helps to gather among other faithful but that does not mean that God is there inside that building. God is in everything. After all he made us and you can’t make something without leaving your imprint on it. God is not found on the pages of some book written over a millennia ago. He is found right here in the hearts of man. That is how we find God.

With everything going on in the news today I felt the need to write this. I would like to go into the root causes of racism in our great country. To understand how we got here as a country we have to look at our past history with racism, going back to when we were just colonies. Back to a time before the United States of America even existed. Back to a time before George Washington was even a glimmer in his fathers eye. 

Slavery in the New World. 

As we all know blacks were not the only slaves on these lands. Slavery was a true melting pot of cultures. Primarily it was black and white slaves. (this is the time that most white people refer to when they say whites were slaves too). Yes both black and white slaves were treated poorly, but there was one major catch. They could work their way out of slavery, wouldn't be much of a life but they would be free and able to live as they pleased. As time went on the poor Black and whites started to demand certain things. The issue wasn't racism back then it was classism. The rich couldn't have this. So they came up with a novel idea. They would separate the poor. Blacks could no longer be free. A whole set of laws was enacted that was directly against Blacks. This served 2 purposes. 1) It stopped the uprising of the poor. 2) It laid the groundwork of racism as we know it today. After this happened Whites were no longer considered slaves. They were now indentured servants. Once they paid off there debt, they were free to go. (by law) With blacks they became property. Never to be freed unless their master decided to let them go. Now poor whites had someone they could look down on. Their life could racked with pain and suffering but at least they were free and could "work their way" into riches. In other words, At least I'm not black. So starts the slavery we are all familiar with.

Birth of a Nation

The United States of America was conceived in lies and hypocrisy. Trump was correct in one statement he made during his Charlottesville remarks. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were both slave owners. Jefferson is well known for his "love" of his slaves. Yet we (as a nation) consider these 2 men to be our founding fathers. Jefferson along with 4 others wrote what is still to this day the document that started this country. It is considered by many to be a masterpiece. For many Americans it will still send a shiver of pride down their spine. I know it does for me, but shame and disgust follow that shiver of pride. The document I speak of is The Declaration of Independence.  5 people in total wrote this document. Thomas Jefferson (primary writer) Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Robert R. Livingston, and Roger Sherman. Of these 5 people 3 of them owned slaves. The 2 who did not, John Adams and Roger Sherman. Of the 56 people to sign the Declaration of Independence, 41 owned slaves Now just to refresh your memory here is an excerpt (arguably the most famous part) from the Declaration of Independence:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

 73.2% of the signers, of this great document owned another person. I'm not saying that they treated them poorly. I'm saying that they OWNED another person. They put their names onto a document that in no uncertain terms said ALL Men are created equal. That we all have the right to liberty. I don't know about you but where I come from this is called hypocrisy in the nicest terms. This shows unequivocally that they did not think anyone but White Men where created equal. This is the document that started our country. Now answer me this. How can such great men show such indifference to the point that many would not even question the concept of owning another person? Could the answer be that they didn't see blacks as people? Would a farmer consider giving his tractor the same rights as a person he has? Would you consider giving your car the same rights as you? My guess is no you would not, because they are just tools. We do the same now with animals. So as you see racism and a blatant disregard of human life if baked right into the very foundation of country. To try to remove it would be akin to trying to remove the eggs from a cake that has already been baked.

Antebellum Slavery in America

Slave masters had harsh ways of breaking slaves. It was always preferred to have a slave that was born into slavery than one fresh off the boat. The ones fresh off the boat had to much pride and caused issues. They were harder to break. On tactic they used was they stripped them of their identity. We all know the scene from Roots where Kunta is being beat because he wont say his name is Toby, well it went further than that. Slaves were not allowed to speak in their native tongues. Slave owners tried their best to not have slaves from same village together. They forced Christianity on them to make them forget about their own gods and religion. They used lines from the bible such as:

"Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ;

Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart;

With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men:

Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free." Ephesians 6 5-8

Of course they would leave out the next verse about how the master was to treat the slave. They would actively prevent slaves from learning to read. Even going as far to publicly kill any blacks that were found able to read, even a little. They would separate families. Some slave owners would rape the wife of a slave and make the husband watch. Take the wife of one slave and give her to another slave. You also had punishments such as Darby's dose (look it up yourself, to disgusting to mention here), castration, and many others. All this was to break the slave. Show them who was their master. Answer me this, How many woman could still look at their husbands with love and affection after they were not only raped but their husband was forced to watch. Men how many of you would still feel like a man if you were forced to watch your wife be raped, repeatedly, knowing if you fought back they would kill you, her, and your child. This is the type of things that these 41 men knew were going on and possibly participated in them selves. I have a hard time believing that all those slave women slept with Jefferson willingly.

Abraham Lincoln  

"Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." 

I open with this because it shows how America doubled down on its non-commitment to equality. This is a small excerpt from the Gettysburg address. Delivered by Abraham Lincoln in 1863 about 1yr after the emancipation proclamation. Once again this document is widely considered to be a great document. and like the Declaration of Independence, on its surface it is. That is until you look closer. It is widely known that Lincoln did not free the slaves. In his own words he would have left blacks in slavery if it meant not going to war. 

"If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that." Abraham Lincoln, Letter to Horace Greenly

Also in his own words, he did not think blacks and whites where equal. 

“I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races," Lincoln Douglass debate 1858

But yet, in his own words he says All men are created equal. Even in the famous freedom document, the Emancipation Proclamation, he makes it clear that he is only freeing the slaves in the states that seceded from the union as a punishment. 

"That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom." Emancipation Proclamation   

So once again All men created equal does not mean ALL men, he means All white men. Now to be fair and unbiased, Lincoln on several occasions made his disdain for slavery known. But it stopped there. He did not think blacks were equal to Whites. If he had is way he would have sent all the blacks back to Africa to live in an American colony.  Had he not been assassinated this very well could have happened.

Post Civil War

After Congress (not Lincoln) freed the slaves with the passage of the 13th amendment, the real fun began. During this time the south had it hard. Like real hard. After losing the war, spending a crap ton of money on the war, and losing all their free labor they were hurting. They had to find a way to pick all the cotton and crops and do everything else slaves did. Also there was now a huge fear among the former slave masters. The fear of retribution. Hell wouldn't you be afraid if you were them. So they enacted what is now known as Jim Crow. See the 13th amendment is written in such a way that it leaves one hell of a loophole for former slave owners to exploit. And by looking back at our history I cant help but to think this was intentional.

"Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." Section 1 of the 13th amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

You see that section that says except as a punishment for a crime. Sounds reasonable, at first. Well suddenly things like a black man looking at a white woman were crimes. Oh this black man spoke to a white man 15yrs in prison. Oh this black man didn't speak to a white man, 15yrs in prison. Oh mister black man your walking down a whites only street, 20yrs hard labor. Many former slaves were freed only to find themselves slaves all over again but this time it was much worse. Before the master had to buy you.He had reason to take care of you. After all you were a tool. Now he could just rent you from the state. There was no incentive to feed you. He would work you to get every cent he could out of you. And it was legal. After all you committed a crime. Those damn Yankees up north couldn't say a thing, Hell they were doing the same thing. Our prison population exploded after the 13th amendment. Laws went into action all over the south. the tiniest infraction landed you on a chain gang building rail roads, collages (Harvard is one of them) or you were rented out to your former master right back in the fields.  

Now the former slaves that were lucky enough to avoid being arrested went and started their own communities. Things were looking up. Granted they still were not equal, but they were not slaves. They had the skills form their time as slaves and they put them to good use. Many of their communities thrived. This angered many whites because their communities were not thriving. Also many poor whites could not accept that they were on par with blacks. It absolutely infuriated them while they were struggling this "nigger" community was doing so well. Well you can guess what happened. Rosewood, Greenwood, Chicago, Washington D.C., Knoxville, East Saint Louis, etc.... The list is long. And guess what, no retribution for those involved. The police many times would actually arrest blacks during these riots saying they were the ones who caused it.  So for over 100yrs (1865-1968) we were forced to live in our communities, had no say so in politics that effected our very lives, lived in constant fear of being arrested or lynched for something as simple as looking at a white woman, Cant attend the same school or diner as white people, Cant buy homes in certain neighborhoods, and no support from the feds except lip service. 

Now I know the I said the feds offered no help other than lip service. Oh lord how I wish that was true. If they had only offered lip service things would not be as bad as they are now. The federal government teamed up with state and local officials to actively destroy black communities. First by turning a blind eye to many of the atrocities that were happening, then by offering a false helping hand. Programs that on the surface looked to help black families were indeed created to destabilize and even destroy black families. 

Civil Rights   

The official start date of the Civil Rights Movement was in 1954. But anyone who thinks thats true is an idiot. Thats just the date the government started saying publicly that there may be a problem here. Blacks had been fighting for equal rights since the day they bought to this land. After we were "freed" we were expected to fight in the wars. WWI & WWII. We fought bravely we saved many lives. We helped to win the war. Just look at the 369th infantry in WWI. The number goes up even higher in WWII. Not to mention our contribution to the revolutionary war, War of 1812, Spanish American, Civil war. We fought valiantly in every war since the inception of this country. Always to come back to discrimination. White solders came back to parades, Black solders came back to "your not allowed to use the front door." 

Now we get to the "Greats" of our race. Malcolm, Martin, Medger, Rosa, etc... If school is to believed there were very little to no upstanding black citizens in this country before 1954. People like Fredrick and Harriett were flukes.  if the government was scared of Martin, they shit bricks with Malcolm. They did everything in their power to discredit him and the nation of Islam, and Muslims as a whole. I'm not going to go into detail about our leaders during this time because I cant say anything that has not already been said millions of times. But I will say this. The government stepped in and killed/ arrested many of our leaders. Side note in 1999 a court in a civil case actually found that MLK Jr. was assassinated because of a conspiracy within the government. These type attacks would continue well into the 70s. 

All during this time of the civil rights movement the government actively targeted the black family by issuing a false helping hand. They initiated programs for housing, (Sounds good on the surface) but in these housing projects no men were allowed. No where was this more evident than Pruitt-Igoe. They would allow these women and their kids to move in but no men over the age 18 allowed. They broke up families, forcing women to choose between getting a roof over their head and an income via the state for them and their families or uncertainty. Now this was not a isolated case. This happened all over the country. Families started to move into this housing project in 1954. Remove the father from the house and you emasculate any young men now living in that house. They no longer have someone to guide them that knows what they are feeling and what they are going through. It only has to happen to 1 maybe 2 generations. Remember this is happening during Jim Crow, so the odds of a black man finding and maintaining a good job are slim. 

Our schools were intentionally overpopulated, and under staffed. Many times not given the basic supplies needed to run a school, or not given enough. The jobs your average black man could get didn't pay much if they even paid you what they said they pay you at all. With the killings of our leaders, the breaking up of our families, the introduction of entitlement programs designed to make you dependent, and our men put into prison, we are left with almost nothing. The 60s saw our people beaten and bloodied in more ways then physical. Once again all by design. 

Just for fun I want you to try something. Watch a newscast from the 50s/60s where they are talking about a civil rights protest. Listen to the way news broadcasters describe the protesters. Listen to adjectives that are used., then listen to a news cast today about a BLM protest. Do you notice any similarities? 

Post Racial America

Welcome to post racial America. We had the voting act of 1965, the civil rights act of 1968. We have HBCUs. We have affirmative action. Blacks can live where they want, go to school where they want, ride in the front of the bus, you can even drink from the same water fountain as a white man. Yummy, doesn't that white mans water taste better than the nasty o'l water you were drinking from? You can buy from any store or restaurant you choose. Remember that white ice is colder than black ice. Whites know how to make ice better than blacks. If you haven't figured it out yet I'm being facetious. 

Desegregation hurt the black community more than anything else since slavery. Kennedy didn't pass that bill because he truly cared. It was a money grab. Despite all their efforts, we just kept succeeding. They finally figured out what was happening. They were forcing us all to live together. The wealthy and the poor. We were not allowed to shop at the white mans shop so we setup our own shops. Black doctors were not allowed to treat white patients so we treated our own. The rich among us made up the lack of education by training all the kids in some type of skill and basic skills like reading and math. White store owners saw all the money we now had and they were salivating. They wanted it, but what to do about these pesky laws that prohibit us? 

So they opened the housing market, they opened up retail. The money stopped flowing into our own communities and started flowing out. Our elite said enough of it here White houses are better than black houses. and the scooted. this caused an economic failure that we still haven't recovered from today. Then came the drugs, and even worse the war on drugs. Or should I say the war on blacks. We were already down. we suffered badly from the loss of our businesses, our leaders, Now in comes the government cracking down on crack. How did the do it by throwing every single person that had it (dealer or not) into prison for decades. What did we do? We cheered. We watched as the police came into our neighborhoods and drug our sons out to put them in prison. Nevermind that crack was just a version of cocaine and white people who were busted with similar amounts of cocaine where let off with slaps on the wrist. The police became ultra violent. They even passed a law saying it was allowed to shoot a suspect running away without a weapon. Guess who the cops had in mind when they pressed for that law to be passed.

So to recap from the mid sixties through the 90s, we saw the black community fall apart. we saw our young black men carted off to jail and killed by the police. we saw our final relevant black leaders killed or slandered (Huey Newton, Bobbie Seal) We are now at several generations of black families with no father figure. All of our elites moved from our communities, and we are ravaged by drugs that were introduced by the government, and we have turned on ourselves. Once again we are down but we are not out.

The New Millennium 

So here we are, we finally made it (according to white people) The 90s and early 00s saw very little racism. Blacks are making a come up. Little Jimmy is playing rap music. The police are not killing our young men anymore. Once again according to white people.  You see here is where I have to tell a little personal story. I told this story a white friend of mine who I know is not racist, but he is a die hard Trump supporter. When I was younger I was walking with my cousin after church. This was in West Philadelphia. (I know you just went Born and raised in your head) It was off the corner of 52nd and Conestoga. See I'm what you would call high yellow. I consider myself black but I could pass for white. My cousin was light skin, but you knew he was black. We were coming out of the corner store and he bumped into a cop. No big deal we thought. We were young, about 10yrs old. My cousin said sorry and kept moving. That cop grabbed him by the collar and put him on the ground. Accused him of assaulting an officer. Told him he would let him go if he gave him an apology worthy of a man in his position. Then went on about how kids like him need to learn to respect their betters. This went on for 10min before his partner told him to knock it off. This was my first experience with racism. I didnt even know really what was going on. I later found out that this was a regular thing for the police in that area. My friend told me that was one cop. it doesn't show an issue. When I ask about the countless other accusations he makes something up. One other story, This is years later. The summer of my 11th grade year. I got a job selling knives for Cutco. I had the bright idea to go door to door and enlist the help of my best friend. But we were not going to go door to door in our neighborhood. Those people could not afford a $1200 set of knives. We went door to door in a middle class  white neighborhood. About 5-6 houses in a police officer pulls up and stops my friend. Says nothing to me. (Remember, I can pass as white) Now I am the one carrying the knives, I am the knocking on the doors. He was there primarily for moral support. The officer had him sitting on the curb with cuffs on, ready to arrest him for breaking the no soliciting ordnance in that neighborhood. (We were both unaware of this) I try to speak to the officer but he shuts me down and tells me to go on home. He acknowledges that I was with him by telling me that I should choose my friends better. He really wanted to get him on something but luckily my friend knew his rights and he kept his mouth shut. All he ever said is I want my mother, I am under 18. Me on the other hand actually started yelling at the cop telling him that he didnt do anything and how it was me who was selling the knives. He was just with me. He literally congratulated me on my entrepreneurial spirit and left me with a warning that I could not go house to house in this neighborhood. Also that I shouldn't try to cover for other peoples mistakes. Long story short my friend was not arrested that night. Thanks to several people refusing to say it him that was knocking on the door. That was the day I truly learned about white privilege and how easy I would have it as a light skinned black man compared to a dark skinned black man. Those are my personal stories. I can guarantee that 8/10 black men you speak to will have some type of story to tell like this. 

You see the 90s racial tension was at a boiling point for black America. White America was just unaware. It was the 90s and early 00s that laws such as stop and frisk were widely implemented. (already being done but now legal) For those of you unaware of what stop and frisk is, especially those of you who are white and well off, I want you to imagine this. You are walking down the street, minding your own business. Maybe listening to your music, jogging, whatever, the point is your not doing anything out of the ordinary. Now out of no where a police officer comes to you and demands to see your ID and to frisk you. Puts you up against a wall or his car then proceeds to pat you down like you're a criminal. No reason given or needed. Now also imagine this happening several time a week or even a day. Sounds like a breach of your 4th amendment rights doesn't it.  For those of you not familiar with the 4th amendment:

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."  Amendment IV, U.S. Constitution.

Now laws like "stop and frisk" were implemented in primarily urban (black) neighborhoods. They said it was to curb crime. but when you look at the stats something else comes to light. The following is an excerpt from the FBI crime statistics for 2015. I will be focusing on just black, white and the totals here. If you would like like to see the entire table the link will be attached below.

Total people charged:

   White - 5,753,212

   Black - 2,197,140

   Total - 8,248,709

Murder

   White - 3,908

   Black - 4,347

   Total - 8,508

Rape

   White - 11,809

   Black - 4,907

   Total - 17,340

Violent Crime

   White - 232,180

   Black - 140,543

   Total - 386,467

Weapons

   White - 63,967

   Black - 44,284

   Total - 110,822

Drug Abuse

   White - 803,809

   Black - 307,140

   Total - 1,136,950

https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2015/crime-in-the-u.s.-2015/tables/table-43

This table is actually pretty long but is fairly consistent in one aspect, Whites commit more crimes than blacks. Yes there were a few sections that blacks did more, like Murder, Robbery and Gambling. But that was it. Out of 30 categories of crime blacks out did whites in 3 areas. I share this table to show how broken our system is.  More than double the people charged were white. Yet the majority of people in prison are black. The black population in the U.S. is roughly 13.2% (according to the U.S. Census) yet the black population tops 40% in prisons. Why this? We are not committing 40% of the crime. Actually according to this chart, blacks commit 26.6% of the crime in the United States.  The whole stop and frisk policy was initiated to find weapons and drugs. They were implemented in black and brown neighborhoods. But according to these stats if they were actually interested in weapons and drugs they would have been focusing on white neighborhoods. 

How can we fix it

Short answer, We cant. Its not that there is no solution, its that the solution is not easy nor is it quick. In actuality it may make things worse before they get better. It would require cooperation on a scale between blacks that we have never seen. The same thing that drove the creation of this country, drove the slave trade and the mass incarcerations. The thing that drives this country today. MONEY!!!!!! Money is power. If we were to re-segregate ourselves financially from the rest of America we could truly change things in the span of 1 generation. If we could get all of our communities working together, helping each other, schooling each other. Community farms, put black money into black hands. We do not buy anything that is not black owned. We also make sure that even if it is black owned that it goes back into our communities. No more Wal-Mart or Target. No more fast food unless it is owned by blacks. No more Xbox, Playstation. No more sports unless the team is black owned. No more banks unless they are black owned. No more beauty supply stores or nail salons. No more public school. No more collages unless it is an HBCU. No more TV or movies unless they star a black actor in a lead roll that does not have coonery. We lift each other up. But like I said, its unfortunate, but I don't see that happening. Maybe on a small scale but noting that would make any real impact. 

Other than that we can tear down monuments and ban racist flags and items and over time. 6-7 generations we will see a difference but I doubt me or my kids will be here for it. Maybe my great-great grandkids.      

To whom it may concern,

As I’m sure you are well aware, the 1st presidential debate is rapidly approaching. This debate looks as though it will only be between 2 candidates, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. I do not understand the reason behind this. We have 4 people running and many Americans have not heard of 2 of the candidates, Jill Stein and Gary Johnson. I for one believe in the democracy that this country was founded on. I also believe in giving the public the proper knowledge to make an informed decision. How is that possible when the American people are literally only receiving 50% of the information in the debates. These debates need to be opened up to all parties who are on enough ballots to win the Presidency.

Seeing as both our current and past Republican and Democratic candidates have said how they cherish the value that diversity brings to America. How one of America’s greatest strengths is our ability to vote for our leaders. I don't see how we can only limit ourselves to two parties. The GOP primaries made history this year with the election of Donald Trump from a staggering 16 people. All of them representing different views on what they would do for America. That is a true representation of America, let the people hear different arguments and vote on the person that best represents them. In so many polls it has been shown that the majority of Americans neither like Hillary or Trump. Many Americans, including myself feel as if we are forced to choose between the lesser of 2 evils but yet we are being denied the right to hear from another choice in the form of Jill Stein or Gary Johnson. People need to see that these two are viable options.

Currently both the Green party and Libertarian party are being locked out by the Commission on Presidential Debates. This Commission is stifling our democratic process by setting arbitrary polling requirements where you can only use some polls but not others to meet those arbitrary requirements. Then to make matters worse some of the polls they must use don’t even put the Green or Libertarian parties into their polls. You can see how this is not fair. Even President Reagan saw that this was not fair in 1980, and insisted that independent John Anderson be included in the debate. When Cater refused, Reagan debated Anderson without Carter. I’ll leave you with this last thought. The right to vote means very little unless we have the right to know who we can vote for.

A few days ago I had an associate of mine comment that we (black people) should just get over slavery and Jim Crow. Admittedly this pissed me off a bit. I would like to attempt to explain to all people black and white why we can’t just forget it or get over it.

Let’s start at the formation of our country, 1776. From 1776 to 1865 slavery was not only legal but a thriving industry in America. So for the first 89 years of our country the enslavement of a people acceptable. They survived conditions that you can’t imagine. We were stolen from our land, made to forget our culture, and those that resisted where beat to death. The slaves had to endure humiliations like Derbys dose and other horrific tortures. For those of you that don’t know, Derby’s dose was used on a slave that tried to run away or committed some other crime. It was started by Thomas Thistlewood in Jamaica but spread here in the states also. The slave would be beat then have salt pickle, lime juice and bird pepper rubbed in the open wombs. Then another slave would be forced to defecate into the mouth of the beaten slave who would then have his mouth gagged for 4-5 hours. I just want you to imagine this for a minute. This is what you want us to get over. You want us to get over watching the white man rape our women and kill our kids. These are stories passed down from generation to generation. I know what some of you are going to say now, Well, those things didn’t happen to you, I wasnt a part of those things, It was so long ago, and my favorite excuse, well the Irish had it just as bad if not worse. I will cover each of these as they seem to be the top 4 excuses to just get over it.

I would first like to cover the fact that we did try to get over it. As I covered in a previous post. After slavery we built our own communities and cities. Some of the most famous Greenwood - 1921 Atlanta - 1906, Chicago - 1919, Rosewood - 1923 D.C. - 1919, Detroit -1943, Knoxville – 1919, NYC – 1863, St. Louis – 1917. This is just 8 cities/communities that were destroyed while blacks were just tried to build their own lives in the world that was set against them. This is something that happened all over the US many many times over. This country was founded on freedom Says so right here:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness

So what does it say when the government that you are supposed to trust has a document like this written but still keeps you a piece of property. Will write laws specifically designed to keep you as a second class citizen. Does it sound like they are willing to allow you to get over it and ever allow you to become their equals? All those cities/communities that I mentioned were destroyed because they started to get too successful. The black people started to do better than the whites. In some of them the black unemployment rate was lower than the white unemployment rate. They couldn’t handle it. Even with all the laws set against them they were still succeeding. So what happened Lets kill this kid and then when they demand justice or retaliate we will say they rose up against us and we can burn them down. Even going into the civil rights era we tried to get over it. But you would not allow it. You created even more laws designed to keep us down. You created the projects with the purpose of breaking up black families by not allowing the fathers to move in with their families. You performed heartless experiments on us. The types of things that we would attribute to Hitler (Tuskegee experiment, Henrietta Lacks) All this after slavery ended.

The confederate flag, many have asked why is the flag such a racist item. It means southern pride, there is nothing racist about it. Well let me ask this? How many of you would appreciate it if I put a Swastika on your lawn, or every day you had to see a Swastika or work with someone who you knew had a swastika on their car or tattooed on them etc.…. You get the point. I willing that most of you would not like it. You damn sure would want a flag with that symbol flying over your states capital building would you. But I can’t understand why not. The swastika has at least 5000yrs of use in several different cultures before the Nazis. It meaning has differed slightly from culture to culture but it has been a positive one. Usually something along the lines of Good fortune or wellbeing. Hitler only used that symbol for a few decades and now it synonymous with hatred. The rebel flag has been around for much shorter of a time and has had much more hatred attached to it. That flag stood for the South. Which in case you didn’t know, had slaves. After the civil war the KKK was formed and they adopted that flag Dec 24, 1865 with their founding. Well the flag itself was created May 1st 1863. So roughly 2.5 years of not being directly tied with racism and hatred. 151yrs of inflicting pain and suffering onto people based on the color of their skin. You see to the black race that flag symbolizes that we are still not equal in this country. It’s a constant reminder of the tortures that we still have to go through on a daily basis. Let me ask you this. (for anyone that truly has to go through what I’m about to say I am deeply sorry) I want you imagine that you have been raped (man or woman) by a person at your job, they raped you and beat you within an inch of your life and left you to die. Now you press charges but it goes nowhere. You find out that your rapist is connected with all the right people. You just shuffled from one person to another and no one takes you seriously. Your told you deserved it, oh I know them, that doesn’t sound like something they would do, Oh it couldn’t have been that bad. You have to see this person every day. Leaving your job is not an option, moving is not an option. How would this effect you? This is how the vast majority of black people feel when we see the “rebel” flag. That’s why its such a big deal. That is another reason we can’t just get over it. Its flown in our faces every single damn day.

So let’s to the excuses listed earlier The first 3 (Those things didn’t happen to you, I wasn’t apart of those acts, It was so long ago) can be summed up rather simply. Your absolutely right, They didn’t happen to me, You were not part of it, and yes slavery was a long time ago. But he is the thing, this government and white people in general still benefit greatly from what slavery produced. Slavery built this country. Brown University, CSX, Harvard Law School, pretty much any company that was around during the 1800s profited from slavery. Many of those companies are around to day, just under different names. So many white families today owe their fortune to slavery, not to mention the country as a whole. So all these people benefited from slavery but blacks still have to ask for fair treatment. My ancestors built this country, literally and now we have school books that try to show slavery oh it wasn’t so bad and give it a really good whitewash. Or as Bill O’reilly has said they were well fed, like that excuse that fact that you enslaved people. And to make matters worse, we received nothing. The Japanese received reparations for being locked up for several years during WWII along with a heartfelt apology, The Jews received reparations from the US for the Holocaust and we didn’t even do anything to them. What did Blacks get? A half assed apology from house of representatives. Just a sorry for the whole slavery thing, and we had to wait until 2008 for that and only 120 people signed it. And it changed nothing. As for the whole Irish slave thing, That’s a myth. Yep sorry no Irish slaves. They actually volunteered to come to the states as indentured servants to pay off the price o the voyage. They were freed within a few years. No doubt some were treated bad, but they were not stolen from their homeland, they had a chance to be free and they were accepted by white people. So no Irish people were not enslaved. They were indentured servants. There is a big difference. So I’ll leave you with this and you can make of what you will:

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.

What is the real problem in our communities? This is a question asked by many a person about black communities. From civil rights leaders to sitting and former presidents, all the way down to the grieving mother who just lost her child to senseless violence. This question goes back at least to the days after slavery. We have heard “solution” after “solution” proposed we have seen some action take place. We have even spent hundreds of millions of dollars for "really smart" people to solve it. All with the same result, nothing. Well I propose we stop asking this question. The way its framed, “What’s wrong with our (Black) communities” is in itself derogatory. It ignores the harder question of how did we get to where we are now. Because let’s face facts, not all the blame falls on the white man. At some point we have to take responsibility for ourselves and our communities regardless of what is happening outside of them. I want to use this writing to explore what I feel are the major issues plaguing our communities, how we got to this point, and what we can do now to fix it. I promise you this, it will not be easy, it will be uncomfortable with what I have to say for both blacks and whites. But that’s what is needed to get real growth.

Let’s take a brief look at our history. We are all well aware that our ancestors were stolen from our homeland in Africa and forced into slavery here in the USA. But what many don’t realize is this is where the conditioning started. What conditioning you ask? Well the conditioning of serving the white man, mistrust among ourselves, and family dysfunction. As a slave you are stripped of everything. Your clothing, your culture, your language, absolutely everything. The women were taught that the only person they could trust was Master. They were raped in front of the black men to show that they were weak and could not save you. Families were routinely separated. Men were made fight for the entertainment of whites. Among other atrocities that I can’t bring myself to mention here. Then came an end to slavery, and the really amazing thing is that slavery did not break us. In many ways it made us stronger. And Jim Crow started, among some other things. I know I’m skipping over somethings but we are going to circle back to it later. Then came the Civil Rights era things started looking good for us for a bit. And the rest is history.

Lets start by taking a look at a look at what happened after slavery. Millions of uneducated slaves suddenly had their freedom. What were they to do. Of course they do what they were taught to do. They may have been uneducated book wise but as far as life skills go, they had it in spades. Our ancestors new how to put in long hours from dawn to dusk and beyond. But now there was one problem. They were unable to find work. Due to the laws they were unable to do almost anything. But many still succeeded. Some fled west, while others fled north. We built our own communities. Some of which were largely successful. We started getting involved in the local politics. We helped our neighbors. If a black man came into the town we gave them a place to sleep, we set them up with a job. We knew each other. We had very successful cities or neighborhoods within thriving cities such as Atlanta, Greenwood, Chicago, Rosewood, Washington DC, Knoxville, and St. Louis. This is just a small sample of the type of life we had built in the years following slavery. In every major city in the country there were successful black communities and even cities. We had some people in politics for our neighborhoods, we had our own businesses, our own schools. We took care of ourselves. Now I chose these 7 places with a purpose. They were among the best cities/neighborhoods that the black community had to offer 2 which stick out the most are DC and Greenwood aka Black Wall street. They were also among some of the worse race riots. Even these riots did not break us. In some places we rebuilt, while others we relocated. We continued to build, building our own schools and universities. We supported our own businesses and put our own money back into our communities. We still faced the issue of the new legal slavery system, the prison system. In many areas especially in the south blacks were picked up on trumped up charges, and convicted of crimes they did not commit. Their sentence was to go right back to the plantations where either they were slaves or their parents were slaves and do the same work. Only this time it was much more grueling. You see as a slave the master had a vested interest in keeping you alive. You were a tool that he had to pay for. It was in his best interest not to hurt or cause damage to his best workers. As a prisoner that was no longer there. Oh you drop from exhaustion I’ll just get another one from the prison. Hundreds of thousands of black men were sentenced to do this work. Legal slavery.

We now enter the civil rights era. At this time the black race in this country had been expanding and many were showing success. Yes, there were some places where the black man lived in abject poverty but the same went for white men also. But we were getting tired of segregation. The phrase separate but equal just was not true. Now in my personal opinion, I believe desegregation was the beginning of the downfall of our communities, but I digress. This time period also marks when the government starts to take an active blatant role in the destruction of our communities. With the influx of blacks, jobs were scarce. Laws were passed to help make sure that no black man would be able to find a good job outside his own community, and those jobs were also starting to run this. Because of segregation we could only go but so high in any field. There was no real chance to excel for the bulk of blacks. There wasn’t even a solid chance to support your family. And that is what brings me to the government programs. In several cities both state and federal governments started housing projects to accommodate the growing number blacks in their state. The communities were starting to fall apart due to various reasons, but my belief that desegregation was the most hurtful. This allowed the wealthy influential blacks in the community to leave. They were the glue that held the community together. You put this with the programs the government was doing. Breaking up families by send men to prison and then building the projects but telling women that if they moved there that their husbands could not even come to visit, and their male children once 18 had to leave. This effectively was the death kneel for the black family. This caused a generation of children to grow up without their fathers. Women were forced to make the agonizing choice to either provide for their children or stay with their husbands and hope things get better. We had been successfully divided. Our communities had been broken up and now our families. With our families now broken Children did not grow up seeing Dad work to put on the table. They grew up seeing the government give them a roof over their head and food on their plate for free. Mom didn’t need to work and was actively discouraged against it. If she chose to work she would run the risk of losing her benefits. This in turn had other consequences. If the government is going to provide you everything you need then why do you need school. Our schools already in disrepair got even worse. Many teachers didn’t even try anymore if they even tried to begin with.

Over the course of three generations we went from freed slaves in 1865 and built up mighty communities in the face of overwhelming racist laws, oppression and outright murder by 1915, All the way through the 1960s when segregation ended, we were together, united (for the most part) Now we have received equality on paper but at what cost. Our elite left the communities, our leaders have been assassinated, and we are raising a generation that does not have the positive influence of a two parent household or knows the value of hard work. They know the value of money though which leads to the third and final prong, Drugs and the subsequent war on drugs. It has been well Documented about the CIA’s involvement in supplying our communities with crack. There is even speculation that Bill Clinton was involved with it during his time as governor of Arkansas. This further destabilized our communities and our families. When Crack hit our neighborhoods it was a wrecking ball on an already destabilized black community. Then the laws that followed, are responsible for putting more black men behind bars and destroying more families than ever. This was also the start of the militarization of our police force. We saw such laws that allowed the police to shoot a fleeing suspect even if unarmed and posing no danger to the officer or the public. During this time, we stop taking care of our own. We started expecting the police to maintain law and order in our communities. We voted the politicians that said they would be tough on crime, without asking them what tough on crime means. It means that if you live in this community you are guilty until proven innocent, it means stop and frisk. It means mandatory minimums, It also means far more members with a felony on their record. Just one felony and as a black man, your screwed. It was/is already hard to find a job but now its damn near impossible to find one. Not to mention they take away your voice to be able to make a change. You can no longer vote. You Mean nothing in the eyes of the government now.

Brothers and sisters we allowed this to happen. We could have said no to the free housing and the free food. We could have said no to the drugs. So part of the blame is on us and we as a whole have to accept that. My white brothers and sisters, you must also accept responsibility for your part. Your ancestors would not allow us to live in peace. You forced us to live separate from you then when we started to show success you said no not fair and burned our homes down. You instituted laws to ensure that white people would remain in power. Both of us can come a long way by simply acknowledging what has been done. Once we can do that then and only then will be able to move forward. I have noticed somethings in my 36 years on this planet. I grew up in what I like to call the ghetto suburbs of Philadelphia. To the people in the ghetto, it was the suburbs and those in the suburbs it was the ghetto. I also payed attention to how people acted there. There was no looking out for your neighbor. If you saw your elderly neighbor out shoveling snow no one went out there to help unless they thought they would get paid. No one checked up on you if you weren’t seen for a day or 2. It used to be that we would take care of each other. My grandmother would tell me stories of how if it was known that a family didn’t have money for whatever reason, the neighbors on that block would invite them over for dinner or skimpily give them some food. Now we tease them. It used to be that we had leaders within the community that children could look up to, also leaders on the national stage. Medgar Evers, Martin Luther King Jr. Malcom X. There was a plethora of black role models to choose from. Now who do we have? Lil Wayne, Beyoncé, Jay-Z, President Obama? Only one of these people, in my opinion deserve to be considered a role model. Our community has gone from praising the likes of MLK jr to praising Jay-Z or Waka Flaka. There are many many black role models for our children. In business, medical, politics, etc.. I believe it’s important to have a role model that looks like you, but once again I digress. I’m starting to get into my next subject.

Ive noticed on FB and in other media that people are saying that Racial tensions are getting worse in this country, that Obama is blame for this, that we were getting better before 2008. As a Black man in this country I have to call BS on that.  The tension has always been there, just hidden under the surface. In many ways things are no better for people of color in this country since 2000.  I want us all to take an honest look at what we can do to make things better. White, black, brown, yellow, it doesn’t matter. I am going to address some of the issues here and I want honest feedback.

If you ask any black man that lives in an “Urban” community he will tell you that the police brutality, shootings and harassment is nothing new. It has always been there.  The difference now is it is being reported on the media. In many ways the media have no choice but to cover it because it is being caught on camera now.  What do you think would have happened to Rodney King if they had not caught him being mercilessly beat at the hands of those officers? It would not even had made the news. Many of the laws we have seem to be targeting black and brown skinned individuals, criminal or not. They (the government) says it’s to protect us (the law abiding citizens) but these laws actually cause us to feel even more unsafe in our neighborhoods.  Laws such as stop and frisk, would never fly in such areas as Wall street, Upper East Side, Chestnut hill, or Rittenhouse square. There would be an uproar about how a law that allows police to randomly stop you and search you is a violation of civil rights. How it would be unfathomable to stop a high powered Wall Street broker and perform a pat down in the middle of the street for everyone to see. Could you see Brian Roberts (CEO of Comcast) being searched while out for his morning run in Chestnut Hill. These are the things they did in Nazi Germany. These are the tactics used in overly oppressive governments. Things like this are not supposed to happen here in the United States of America. I’ve heard the reason why, these are high crime areas, we are cutting down on illegal guns and drugs. Statistics show…………..  None of these reasons should ever allow the systematic dismantling of our constitutional rights.  This has led to black and brown people nationwide becoming fed-up and angry with the police.  Innocent people are being made to feel like criminals. This is all after in our recent history of blacks being killed at the hands of police indiscriminately or police locking up black men for crimes they didn’t commit. So there was already an inherent distrust of law enforcement.  Some argue that its what needed to be done, unfortunately the majority of those people seem to be white. Which means you were not the ones made to feel less then human on a daily basis, therefore while you may empathize you truly have no idea what it feels like.  I bring up stop and frisk because it has been in place for years (started in 2002 for NYC) and just goes to underline what I said earlier. There was already a distrust of law enforcement.

For those that have said that Obama has made race relations worse. I implore you to look at the data. Race relations were already bad, just hidden. Obama di very little if anything to make them worse. For that you can blame Apple, Google and FaceBook. And even they didn’t make it worse as much as they helped bring it to the surface. These issues have been left festering unattended for well over a century. One way or another it will come out.  I want you to think back to a little before Obama became president.  Actually he really wasn’t even a household name yet. Let’s go back to June 29 2007. This was actually a ground breaking day, a day that forever changed our country and even our world as we knew it.  This was the day the iPhone debuted.  On the first weekend they sold 1,000,000 phones. This means 1 million people with a access to a 2Mp camcorder in their pocket. The same with iPhone 3G the next year and Android debuted that year. Now we have millions of people with handheld cameras that don’t suck. Now we need a platform that allows you to show what your recorded to the world. Yes we had MySpace but FaceBook was the real game changer here. Now we had a way to show the rest of the country what was happening to us. If the news wouldn’t listen, then we would start our own. We got connected and made our voice louder to the point that we could not be ignored any longer. We now had video proof of the crimes that were committed against us.  Those 3 things allowed the country to see how post racial America really was.  Yes, this all happened under Obama but it did not happen because of Obama.

In conclusion, I want to add that this is not an attack on white people, I have met some really cool white people that I know are not racist. I also know that there are many issues plaguing the black community. We as a people need to come together and do better with policing our own communities. This in one reason things have gotten worse when it comes to police in our neighborhoods. We expect them to clean up the streets, put themselves in danger, all without a bit of help from us. That’s not going to happen. The more we expect it to happen the more things will get worse. We need to work together with the police to clean up our streets. That will go a long way to helping us both.  As far as race relations go we need to have a honest discussion about it. We need to openly discuss the horrors that were committed against the black race. Yes white people I know you didn’t personally didn’t enslave anyone and you personally may not be racist, but this goes way beyond you, this is a cultural legacy. One that many blacks feel your trying to white wash and pretend it did not happen. We still have people alive today that lived through the Jim Crow era and remember what it was all about. The more we can be open and honest the more we can heal this festering wound that is stopping America from being the country that I know it can be.

One final note, for the love of everything holy and right with the world. Please Please Please not not marginalize anyones experience with racism or the police. Just because you don’t see or have not grown up around it does not mean it doesn’t exist. 

I’ve noticed on FB and in other media that people are saying that Racial tensions are getting worse in this country, that Obama is blame for this, that we were getting better before 2008. As a Black man in this country I have to call BS on that. The tension has always been there, just hidden under the surface. In many ways things are no better for people of color in this country since 2000. I want us all to take an honest look at what we can do to make things better. White, black, brown, yellow, it doesn’t matter. I am going to address some of the issues here and I want honest feedback.

If you ask any black man that lives in an “Urban” community he will tell you that the police brutality, shootings and harassment is nothing new. It has always been there. The difference now is it is being reported on the media. In many ways the media have no choice but to cover it because it is being caught on camera now. What do you think would have happened to Rodney King if they had not caught him being mercilessly beat at the hands of those officers? It would not even had made the news. Many of the laws we have seem to be targeting black and brown skinned individuals, criminal or not. They (the government) says it’s to protect us (the law abiding citizens) but these laws actually cause us to feel even more unsafe in our neighborhoods. Laws such as stop and frisk, would never fly in such areas as Wall street, Upper East Side, Chestnut hill, or Rittenhouse square. There would be an uproar about how a law that allows police to randomly stop you and search you is a violation of civil rights. How it would be unfathomable to stop a high powered Wall Street broker and perform a pat down in the middle of the street for everyone to see. Could you see Brian Roberts (CEO of Comcast) being searched while out for his morning run in Chestnut Hill. These are the things they did in Nazi Germany. These are the tactics used in overly oppressive governments. Things like this are not supposed to happen here in the United States of America. I’ve heard the reason why, these are high crime areas, we are cutting down on illegal guns and drugs. Statistics show………….. None of these reasons should ever allow the systematic dismantling of our constitutional rights. This has led to black and brown people nationwide becoming fed-up and angry with the police. Innocent people are being made to feel like criminals. This is all after in our recent history of blacks being killed at the hands of police indiscriminately or police locking up black men for crimes they didn’t commit. So there was already an inherent distrust of law enforcement. Some argue that its what needed to be done, unfortunately the majority of those people seem to be white. Which means you were not the ones made to feel less then human on a daily basis, therefore while you may empathize you truly have no idea what it feels like. I bring up stop and frisk because it has been in place for years (started in 2002 for NYC) and just goes to underline what I said earlier. There was already a distrust of law enforcement.

For those that have said that Obama has made race relations worse. I implore you to look at the data. Race relations were already bad, just hidden. Obama did very little if anything to make them worse. For that you can blame Apple, Google and FaceBook. And even they didn’t make it worse as much as they helped bring it to the surface. These issues have been left festering unattended for well over a century. One way or another it will come out. I want you to think back to a little before Obama became president. Actually he really wasn’t even a household name yet. Let’s go back to June 29 2007. This was actually a ground breaking day, a day that forever changed our country and even our world as we knew it. This was the day the iPhone debuted. On the first weekend they sold 1,000,000 phones. This means 1 million people with a access to a 2Mp camcorder in their pocket. The same with iPhone 3G the next year and Android debuted that year. Now we have millions of people with handheld cameras that don’t suck. Now we need a platform that allows you to show what your recorded to the world. Yes we had MySpace but FaceBook was the real game changer here. Now we had a way to show the rest of the country what was happening to us. If the news wouldn’t listen, then we would start our own. We got connected and made our voice louder to the point that we could not be ignored any longer. We now had video proof of the crimes that were committed against us. Those 3 things allowed the country to see how post racial America really was. Yes, this all happened under Obama but it did not happen because of Obama.

In conclusion, I want to add that this is not an attack on white people, I have met some really cool white people that I know are not racist. I also know that there are many issues plaguing the black community. We as a people need to come together and do better with policing our own communities. This in one reason things have gotten worse when it comes to police in our neighborhoods. We expect them to clean up the streets, put themselves in danger, all without a bit of help from us. That’s not going to happen. The more we expect it to happen the more things will get worse. We need to work together with the police to clean up our streets. That will go a long way to helping us both. As far as race relations go we need to have a honest discussion about it. We need to openly discuss the horrors that were committed against the black race. Yes white people I know you didn’t personally didn’t enslave anyone and you personally may not be racist, but this goes way beyond you, this is a cultural legacy. One that many blacks feel your trying to white wash and pretend it did not happen. We still have people alive today that lived through the Jim Crow era and remember what it was all about. The more we can be open and honest the more we can heal this festering wound that is stopping America from being the country that I know it can be.

One final note, for the love of everything holy and right with the world. Please Please Please do not marginalize anyones experience with racism or the police. Just because you don’t see or have not grown up around it does not mean it doesn’t exist.