Black Lives Matter

                               From The Ramparts

                        Junious Ricardo Stanton

                                  Black Lives Matter  

 

            "We declare our right on this earth to be a human being, to be respected as a human being, to be given the rights of a human being in this society, on this earth, in this day which we intend to bring into existence by any means necessary." Malcolm X

 

            It's been over one year since a Ferguson Missouri police officer shot and killed an unarmed young Black man Michael Brown and the authorities allowed his body to remain in the street to decay for hours. That vile act of political insensitivity and callousness signified to the people of Ferguson and the rest of the world being a Black man means your life is of no consequence, that you don't count or matter.

            Since then the young people have been in the streets of Ferguson for a year, walking chanting organizing and making their voices heard. Out of that incident a movement emerged called Black Lives Matter. The bourgeoning movement took on a national urgency as more and more Blacks were gunned down by police and the whole system including the federal government did nothing to stem the tide.

            The indictment of Michael T. Slager  the white police officer in North Charleston South Carolina for shooting Walter Scott in the back  and the six Baltimore police officers indicted for the death of Freddie Gray are the exceptions to the rule. The rule the norm and pattern of killing Black people by the state or state sanctioned entities continues unabated.

             Sandra Bland a bright outspoken young African American woman who was pulled over for changing lanes without signaling in a small Texas town and arrested because she dared to refuse to put out her cigarette and because she demand her rights was found dead in her cell three days later and nothing has happened to the jail staff or administrators.

            Incidents such as these are played over and over in the media and they bombard our psyches and send a deliberate message that we don't count, that our lives are of no importance or significance. As reprehensible as these incidents are, the bigger problem for us as a people, one we don't like to address, is the fratricide within our own communities. After Freddie Gray's death, Black homicide rates in Baltimore skyrocketed! At a time when the community should have been pulling together consoling each other, organizing and strategizing how to effect meaningful change, it seems like folks in Baltimore lost their minds! "Baltimore reached a grim milestone on Friday, three months after riots erupted in response to the death of Freddie Gray in police custody: With 45 homicides in July, the city has seen more bloodshed in a single month than it has in 43 years. Police reported three deaths — two men shot Thursday and one on Friday. The men died at local hospitals. With their deaths, this year's homicides reached 189, far outpacing the 119 killings by July's end in 2014. Nonfatal shootings have soared to 366, compared to 200 by the same date last year. July's total was the worst since the city recorded 45 killings in August 1972, according to The Baltimore Sun. The seemingly Sisyphean task of containing the city's violence prompted Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake to fire her police commissioner, Anthony Batts, on July 8." Baltimore Killings Soar T Levels Unseen In 43 Years http://bigstory.ap.org/article/60352506f481415c8edf3fc35b6f8103/baltimore-killings-soar-level-unseen-43-years

            It's not the police who are killing millions of us. It's not the KKK , White Citizens Council, skinheads or Aryan Nation, it's us; killing ourselves! We don't like to talk about this. Whenever this issue is brought up the people crying racism change the narrative. Well Brothers and Sistahs until we face our maladaptive responses to our  oppression, until we examine and admit our own pathologies, they will continue. Until we realize we have agency, that we have choice and the power to change, this madness and it's concomitant insanity will continue.

             The causes of our fratricide are numerous but the root is our self-hatred, self-loathing. We hate ourselves to the point it's no thing to pull out a gun and blast someone, pull a knife, cut, slash or wound another Black person.  Anger frustration over the socio-economic and political conditions are not legitimate excuses.  If violence is the solution, why are we directing it only at ourselves?!  We don't control the system! We don't control the economic levers of power, the media, the state apparatus, police or military.

             Fratricide is a maladaptive reaction to our situation, it is a form of mental derangement.  The natural urge is to survive to resist and struggle. As Dr Amos Wilson said, in order for whites to keep us in subjugation they must make us crazy.  Substance abuse and addiction are major factors. This is how they keep us down, this is one way they drive us crazy. Drugs are dumped into our communities for just this reason, to make us crazy, disoriented and impotent. Drugs and alcohol lower our vibratory level, dull us and cloud our judgment. Survival, transformation and empowerment require sobriety purpose and thoughtfulness.

            Substance abuse undermines this. In most cases prior to committing an anti-social or predatory act, some substance was involved. This fact has been borne out by statistics not just selling or trafficking in drugs or illegal substances but actual use. "In 1997 the U.S. Bureau of the Census conducted surveys of State and Federal prison inmates for BJS and the Bureau of Prisons. These surveys asked sentenced Federal and State prison inmates whether they were under the influence of drugs at the time they committed the offense that resulted in their incarceration. The percentage of Federal and State prison inmates who reported they were under the influence of drugs at the time of the offense varied across the major offense categories. These same studies found that drug offenders and robbers in State prisons were those most likely to report being under the influence of drugs at the time of the offense. State prison inmates convicted of sexual assault and negligent manslaughter were among those least likely to report being under the influence of drugs. Federal prison inmates were less likely, with the exception of murder and weapons offenses, than State inmates to have committed their offenses under the influence of drugs." Drug Related Crime http://www.policyalmanac.org/crime/archive/drug_related_crime.shtml

            What if we abandoned drugs and alcohol and experienced an euphoric rush on life and living? What if we experienced an exhilarating burst just being ourselves?! What if we saw ourselves as extensions and expressions of THE CREATOR?  What if we realized we are powerful beyond measure, that we have agency and choice that we can frame and shape our perceptions of any situation, circumstance and decide to act positively or otherwise. Our thoughts and feelings determine our health, our behavior and ultimately the quality of our lives. What if we stopped chanting "Black Lives Matter" and started acting like it! What if we loved ourselves sane and healthy? What if we realized we can transform our lives beyond our wildest imagination? What if we grasped the truth that we can transcend the circumstances our adversaries intend for us. What if we decided to put all our energy into life affirming, life enhancing activities instead of  killing ourselves, what would our world look like?

            Quiet as it's kept that would strike total fear in the hearts of the ruling elites and their flunkies. One thing I know, if we keep doing what we're doing we're going to get the same results. I support Black Lives Matter, but at it's core making our lives matter is an inside job; it has little to do with the political climate or the economy because we are greater than all of that. We are the descendants of those who chose to survive unfathomable atrocities, horrific abuse, terror and violence. We know how to survive, we know how to band together and defend ourselves, it is in our genes. Let's act like it, let's act like Black Lives Matter. Let's treat each other like Black Lives Matter!  

            This message is on the Black Lives Matter Website,  "At this time, #BlackLivesMatter does not endorse any presidential candidate. Moreover, we are not affiliated with a political party. Our work is not funded or driven by any political party nor is it influenced by local or national candidates. As stated in our mission, #BlackLivesMatter is an ideological and political intervention; we are not controlled by the same political machine we are attempting to hold accountable. In the year leading up to the elections, we are committed to holding all candidates for Office accountable to the needs and dreams of Black people. We embrace a diversity of tactics. We are a decentralized network aiming to build the leadership and power of black people. We do not endorse any political party and we are not supported by any political party. Our political aims we’ve stated clearly. Historically, all political parties have participated in the systematic disenfranchisement of Black people. Anti-black racism, especially that sanctioned by the state, has resulted in the loss of healthy and thriving Black life and well-being. Given that, we will continue to hold politicians and political parties accountable for their policies and platforms. We will also continue to demand the intentional dismantling of structural racism. For more information about #BlackLivesMatter nationally, please visit the official website at www.blacklivesmatter.com, follow @BlkLivesMatter on Twitter, or visit the Facebook page here."

 

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            I'm giving a lecture on current events for the African-American Freedom and Reconstruction League this Saturday August 22, 2015 from 1-4 PM at the Lucien E Blackwell Public Library  located 125 S. 52 Street (52 and Sansom Street). It's free so come out and join us.

 

                                                            -30-                 

 

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