Killing Me Softly with This Privilege.

"When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the 'unalienable Rights' of 'Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.' It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked 'insufficient funds.'

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice."

~Martin Luther King, Jr., "I Have a Dream"; delivered 28 August 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C.

And so we come, each day, to the Bank of Justice. In long lines we wait,while the Privileged enjoy the express lane, not because of the simplicity of their transaction, but the simplicity of our system that rewards those with advantage. We wait as transaction after transaction occurs, no matter how complicated, until it is our turn...

and the teller goes on break.

Justice deferred is justice denied.

We came to this bank on the dream of a reverend, believing that this institution was

not bankrupt because so many of our privileged brothers and sisters had cashed their checks and danced in their street with their new found prosperity...we could see it, so there was no way to deny it, and all we wanted was the same opportunity, the same prosperity, the same free toaster.

But that's the thing about having privilege, often you don't want to share it. Somehow you think it cheapens it if others, especially those "beneath" you get it; sharing it somehow means you're losing something, that it is pulling you down instead of bringing everyone up. And so instead of the institution being bankrupt, it is out to lunch, or on break or closing early, any workaround that allows for the same result with a different face.  The institution isn't bankrupt, just continually and consistently unavailable...

Justice deferred.

And like that, your privilege is secure.  No one will take it from you, they aren't allowed in the club.  You have your exclusive rights, your bottle service, but you still maintain everyone is equal, right?  You have not great advantage, just those bootstraps you pulled yourself up by that got you to this place, and if those people would only do the same, they too could enjoy the fruits their labors...but they're too lazy, or unfortunate, or in the wrong place...never mind that your bootstraps were attached to their back and that you pulled yourself up by pushing them down...

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain as weaves his narrative and orchestrates the system that builds each leverage, each advantage to separate from those "less than"...he finesses the real estate, maneuvers the wealth attainment and manipulates the law and legal system all to exclude those not considered worthy and advantage those thought to be, until the divide is so great that the impossible can happen.

And this, then, is where we've come to, this is what progress has gotten us, new ways to deny justice, to defer it, to override it, until a Black man, is killed because an officer was scared of Black men, and his irrational fear, his Negrophobia, if you will, wrapped itself around him like a straight jacket and he shot...

pop...pop...pop...pop...pop...pop...pop

and he killed...

cop...cop...cop...cop...cop...cop...cop

and he was acquitted.  

His forged check was cashed while Philando's had a hold put on it.

Justice DENIED.

A system of privilege built to withstand any assertion, any attack any belief that it exists, like alien abductions, widely criticized and dismissed, yet no one has an answer for why the cows keep disappearing...

And that, therein, is where we have to start, acknowledging the existence of the problem, the stranglehold it has on our county, the interlocking tendrils that have weaved themselves into the fabric of our systems and society until they're almost indistinguishable from the true tapestry that is America...

But how you ask?

There is a thread loose...

A thread with names written on it, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Walter Scott, Freddie Grey, Philando Castile, a testament, a memorial...

We have to grab that thread and pull it, pull it hard so that the fabrications and manipulations unravel to reveal the truth.  Truth that needs to be clear, apparent, have a light shone brightly on it: Privilege does exist and it is killing us.

Eliminating privilege means giving up the EXTRA rights, advantages and special perks afforded you because of that privilege. If one really believes that everyone deserves to be treated as an individual, equal and a human, the it is not only incumbent upon them to cast off the gilded ornaments of privilege, they should want to do so willingly and gladly. For the world to work right, we need to kill it, kill privilege.


It is time to lay it down and give it the slow, agonizing death it deserves and then to perform the last rites for the last vestiges.  

Only then can we be truly free. 

Only then can a Black man give up living in fear.

Amen 

How Does A Black Man Feel?

People have asked me all day how I'm feeling.

I have other Black male friends who are posting that they feel afraid, posting that they feel sad, posting that they feel fed up, posting that they feel angry...

and they ask me how I feel.

I feel like going on.

Every one of my friends' feelings are valid. The world is not the place that we were led to believe, that we were told would be when we grew up, that we were promised and that is disappointing, disheartening and depressing.

My friends who are afraid, have justifiable fear. In 2016 alone, Black men have been shot by police at a rate nearly 300% more than we are of the population. We take our lives into our hands every time we step out the door...But I'm not afraid. It's not because I'm braver or more courageous than my friends, it's that I'm just flat out sick of being afraid anymore...

My friends who are sad, have understandable sadness. How do you keep your spirits up knowing that the value of your life is not the same as those around you? How can you not be sad when your life expectancy is five years less than your White counterparts? Add in racial profiling, and the prospect of living to retirement age looks less likely. But I'm not sad, because I'm flat out tired of being sad...

My friends that are fed up have a right to be fed up. EVERY SINGLE TIME this issue is raised the deniers and detractors come out the woodwork to say wait for more data, and we don't know "all the facts"...then they want to parse the data to create new "facts" and it all becomes too much...but I'm not fed up anymore, I'm sick and tired of being fed up...

My friends that are angry, have many reasons to be angry. As Black men, our lives are constantly under scrutiny, attack, persecution and denial. We are not valued except as targets, excuses and a focal point for blame; ANYONE would be angry...but I'm not angry anymore, I'm sick and tired of being angry...

I'm sick and I'm tired. I'm sick and tired. But most of all, I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired.

We hold these truths to be self evident! That all men are created equal...yet we are killing and marginalizing one group at a rate tantamount to slow genocide all while denying it is happening...

(Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!)

Does someone not understand the definition of self? of evident? or is it equal?

We talk about how great America is or making America great again, but we fail to look at the gaping hole in our national psyche that is focused on the denigration and disposal of Black men. How are we to take that? How are we to reconcile the platitudes with the reality? How are we to take pride in a country that does not take pride in us? There is no greater conflict within me. How do I feel about my country, and how does my country feel about me?

And how do I feel? I feel like going on.

I feel this way because we are trapped in a loop of repetition, plying the same old excuses, the same old hollow words, and the same old outrage.

I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired. It is time to stop. It is time to step off this merry-go-round. It is time to look at the man-in-the-mirror, America, and make a change.

We need an intervention.

We need to stop seeing Black men as threats and targets and recognize us as humans, as friends as brothers. We need to stop excusing the soft bigotry of the passive acceptance of systemic racism. We need to stop negating the very existence of us.

We need to change our laws, our system and our perspectives. We need to stand together and recognize the value of Black men and the value of Black lives. We need to affirm that they do, in fact, matter.

And we need to let nothing stand in our way.

It is right. It is Just. And Lord knows, it is time.

Amen.

At Some Point, We Have to Admit We Have a Problem

At some point, we have to admit we have a problem.

At some point, we have to stop glossing over the very real tragedy that is occurring on a daily basis in our country and not write it off as justifiable, acceptable, or in any way deserved.

At some point, we have to sober up and look at the carnage that exists in our community and recognize that an uncontrolled predisposition exists towards the extermination of one singular segment of our society like an addiction.

Yes an addiction. We have a problem.

Regardless of individual circumstances, the same thing keeps happening over and over and over. It is beyond coincidence or isolated incidents, it is a pattern. A pattern as prevalent as meth or crack and as invasive.

We are killing Black men.

This is not anti-police. This is not anti-gun.

This is anti-extermination. This is anti-death.

This man worked at the school that every year for the past 7 has been doing food drives in March for Hallie Q's Food Shelf. Those children will never see him again and we, as a community, are going to have to explain why. We are going to have to help them understand why this is bad and keeps happening and still ask them to see the good officers that exist as separate from the addiction that infects law enforcement. We are going to have to help them understand why people they know are being killed for no justifiable reason.

The ONLY way we are going to be able to start on that path, the only way we are going to stop killing our community is to take that first step and admit that we, our country, our law enforcement institutions, our society have a problem. A problem that has taken root within our consciousness and given over to a destructive pattern of self extermination.

Black men are not other. We are not "out there". We are a part of our communal family and we are being exterminated by another part that sees us, whether consciously or unconsciously as something other than human, as something other than part of them, as something other than brother.

At THIS point we have to stop ignoring the truth and admit we have a problem so that we can BEGIN the first step towards getting clean and sober and stop exterminating Black men.

~Jonathan Palmer

*Warning: This video contains graphic and traumatic events. Please view with caution*