Over the past few months the world has been on the move with marches and protests sparking “Black Lives matter” movements in almost every state in America, as well as other countries around the world, including, Germany, France, Scotland, Canada, South Korea, Australia, England, Spain, and other countries. It is sad that George Floyd had to lose his life under the knees and weights of police officers in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in order for the world to finally engage in a movement demanding that the world recognize that “Black Lives Matter.”
Movements cannot just exist for a moment in time. Movements have to be built on moves of action, with the expectancy of change, and accountability. Movements also have to have a purpose. That purpose cannot be sidelined or sidetracked by and for the benefit of those who are not supportive of the cause and the purpose. It’s amazing that although George Floyd physically did not leave Minneapolis, his spirit traveled around the world with a purpose and a cause in mind to bring attention to the hatred and racism that have existed in America for over four hundred years. His death was the catalyst to uncover the cover-ups about race in America, especially with police officers. However, we must remember that police officers are only a microcosm of the macrocosm of America. As a result, the recent movements, as were the movements of the past, weren’t just actions of marches and protests, there have been and are actions of demands for change.
George Floyd moved from the projects to his princely status in death, but he was able to cause a movement of massive proportion in the lives of others. The movement not only brought attention to the racists deaths of George Floyd, but also to those of Ahmaud Arbery, David Smith, Tyrone West, Sean Bell, Freddie Gray, Trayvon Martin, Sandra Bland, Tamir Rice, Michael Brown, Philando Castile, Eric Garner, Amadou Dialo, Jordan Davis, Markeis McGlockton, Walter Scott, Manuel Ellis, Emmett Till, and on and on. Sadly, this list is not exhaustive of the lives stolen from so many Black men and women at the hands and guns of racist Whites over decades. But no matter what, the purpose is clear. It is also imperative that as a part of the movement, we don’t allow those individuals, those corporations, and those institutions to not be accountable for the role(s) they have played in proliferating systemic racism and hatred in America. We cannot allow them to hide behind the marches and their statements, without taking and making action of change.
It is one thing to tear down monuments, change the name of a brand of syrup, rice, a NFL football team, and for organizations and corporations to make commercials, verbal and written statements about their position on “Black Lives Matter.” However, it’s another thing for them to be accountable, take action and put their money where their mouths are by making drastic and dramatic changes in their treatment of Blacks through acts of reversing and removing their unjust policies, unjust laws, their unfair and unjust hiring and promotional practices that negatively impact, suppress and oppress Blacks and people of color. Although the NFL Commissioner, Roger Goodell finally admitted he was wrong about Colin Kaepernick taking a knee against the killing of Blacks in America during football games a few years ago, he has yet to apologize directly to Colin and give him his quarterback job back.
You see, racism is not something that can change over night; it would have to be a process and not an event. It has to be an aspect of the movements and not something that is espoused for the moment while things are hot. Many Whites who have practiced racism, might honestly want to change their racist feelings, racist beliefs, and racist behaviors. However, they might find the necessary emotional and cognitive restructuring quite difficult and challenging.
Racism is of the heart, the mind, and the spirit, exemplified in negative, abusive, and inferior actions and behaviors. It encompasses feelings of hatred and fear, thoughts of privilege, superiority, inferiority, supremacy, as well as actions of inferior treatment, discrimination, bigotry, control, inequality, legal and social injustices, economic depravation, abject poverty, isolation, bias, prejudice, social separation, cultural and racial separation, oppression, racial profiling, victimization, subhuman treatment, emotional and physical harm and abuse, neglect, inferior education, and the ultimate physical deaths of Blacks, Browns, and American Indians. Until racists are willing to at least become aware of their feelings, thoughts/beliefs, behaviors and actions toward others based on their race, they won’t be able to take a honest and open look at how they see and treat others based on their race. I don’t believe in unconscious bias; the racist individual is very much conscious and conscience when he/she expresses his/her feelings, thoughts, beliefs, and actions toward Black, Brown, and American Indian people. When dealing with racism as with any other ism or behavior needing change, it is my profound belief that people don’t change; they grow!
People grow through having an awareness, insight, and understanding of their feelings, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors, along with the effects and impacts they have on others. The awareness, insight, and understanding then allows them to change their feelings, their beliefs, their attitudes, and their behaviors, The murder of George Floyd and the hundreds of other African-Americans murdered in America have basically uncovered the cover-ups that comes with racism. Systemic racism has permeated the very fiber of America every since Whites entered America, starting with American Indians, whose land was stolen, and then moving into slavery of African-Americans. Until Whites come to grips with and become accountable for their feelings of hatred and fear, learning to first accept their racist thoughts, beliefs, feelings, attitudes, and behaviors, allowing them to start accepting differences while learning to love and respect those who are different from themselves, they will have difficulty gaining the insight and understanding that will allow them to change their minds, their spirits, and their behaviors. They will have to learn that the world does not only belong to them, it belongs to all inhabitants. Therefore, Black and Brown lives DO matter and they also deserve an equal share of the American pie!
I’ve heard the rhetoric and the promises to Blacks, throughout my life, throughout the lives of my parents, my grandparents, and throughout the history of Blacks in America, but they have gone nowhere. It took the Montgomery bus boycott from December 1, 1955 through December 20, 1956, 381 days before the movement with the marches and protests saw change in the seating of Blacks on city buses in Montgomery. Blacks and their supporters of other races have been marching and protesting in civil rights movements to ensure the equal rights for African-Americans for over sixty years, with the march on Washington taking place August 1963. Not only did these movements have purpose, there was visible and pervasive action and change. As a result of the Montgomery bus boycott, the Supreme Court ruled that Montgomery, Alabama had to stop its racist practices of segregating and discriminating against Blacks on their city buses. The Civil Rights Movement, which included marches and protests, brought about school integration and the Voting Rights Amendment, which still has not become permanent, but action has been shown. It’s evident that the movement must continue with action, change, and accountability!
Without a movement of action and accountability, change will never occur. One of the greatest movements of action and change that has to take place and very soon, is the removal of DT from the white house. He has brought about divisiveness, hatred, xenophobia, continued racism, sexism, and other deadly acts against Black people and people of color. His recent rallies in Tulsa, Oklahoma and at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota were all as Maya Angelou once said, was like ‘spitting on the graves of our ancestors.’ He disrespected the anniversary of Juneteenth and ignored the massacres that took place on Black Wall Street in1921 in Tulsa, where hundreds of blacks were murdered. He disrespected the American Indians in South Dakota as he held his rally on sacred grounds at Mount Rushmore, honoring those who stole American land from the American Indians. This movement can’t be for a moment; it must be one with action, change, and accountability for as long as it takes for positive and lasting change to take place. This movement of removal of DT must take live action at the voting polls and through the mail. This movement must include blocking voter suppression, which is DT’s plan to once again steal the presidency.
It is imperative that all movements for the rights of Black and Brown people, including American Indians are not movements for a moment or for the moment, but that they will continue until justice is real and visible change takes place in the school houses, the corporations, the white house, the congressional house, the senatorial house, the nonprofit houses, and any house that has people working in them. The actions of these movements demand that this country atones for its racist behaviors and is accountable by admitting its wrong in the treatment, mistreatment, and maltreatment of Black and Brown people, especially African-Americans and American Indians. America has to also become accountable by allowing racial healing for African-Americans and American Indians, by authorizing reparations for BOTH groups. This movement demands action for laws to be enacted to protect Black and Brown lives, without loopholes and cover-ups, not only from police officers and others, but from the racist and unequal laws that continue to discriminate, alienate, and prohibit true American freedom.
The movements with action cannot stop until equality is the norm and not the exception. It must continue until Black and Brown lives TRULY matter, not just with words and posters, but also with positive action and positive change! Keep the movements going with action and accountability until REAL change occurs and we are all truly free and recognized and treated as American citizens, with rights, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness!
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