However, what I have seen and heard are just words and expressions of sorrow for Trayvon Martin, Sybrina Fulton, Tracy Martin, and the rest of their family. They have had to sit and watch their son be put on trial instead of the man who killed him. They have had to see images of the dead body of their child. They have had to listen to him scream. So those who have prayed for justice are not angry. We are so very sad.
However, we must realize that we can not stop at being sad. We have got to continue the fight for our boys. The media are turning off their lights and cameras and getting in their vans to go home. We are still here. We still have boys who are profiled everyday. They are being profiled from the time they come out of the womb. They are marked for failure as soon as they walk into the kindergarten class. Prisons are being built to house them. And now we know that the graves that are carved out for them are not grieved over by some.
If this trial didn't show us anything else, it should have showed us that we can not wait on anybody else to value our boys. Some people may never see black boys as worthy of defense. They may never empathize with the tears shed by black mothers and fathers.
But those of us who live in Sanford and other communities across this nation and world must support and nurture our boys and girls. We must do everything we can to make sure that they know they are worthy. We must tell them they are destined for greatness not graves at an early age. We must prepare them for college not the criminal justice system. We must make it so that if our boys are profiled, it will not be as potential criminals. We must make sure that anyone who sees our boys can expect nothing but strength, good character, and intelligence. Because that is who they are. That is who God created them to be. We must tell them who they are. We must fight for them. Not in anger, but in love.
Black men: If you walk in the dark and get shot because you are profiled by a wannabe cop, it's your fault. That the verdict I heard last night.
ReplyDeleteWhite men: you can shoot any black male you find suspicious on the street because your neighborhood was ransacked, and still count on the chief of police to cover your behind.
That's the verdict I heard.
We are lacking education in the black commuity. this transpired even in the speach of the Travon family's lawer's mouth. Not good speaker, not a good representant of the black community. In all, a missed opportunity to make a case not about a man's show about about educating the young black man.
So many thoughts that I don't know how to keep writing this. Against taking justice in ones hand, justice by education is the only chance of the black male.