The images of rioting in Ferguson, the looting of black owned businesses, the stealing of weaves and liquor, do not serve our cause. And I say OUR as in ALL Americans. This is hardly a black only issue. No one is hearing each other on either side of the argument. Some whites are pointing to laws supporting their cause and some blacks are shouting back, explaining why those laws aren’t representative of their needs. The media is digging for any inkling of a race-related shooting or incident. What’s shocking in the recently released video showing Tamir Rice’s final moments is not that the cop who killed him was white, it’s that he was shot at such a close range, not even given the chance to live.
Race issues are both a very real and very stupid problem. There is only one human race, with subtle variances in ethnicities. Our genetic differences are insignificant on the biological scale. For all the moronic and idiotic pundits thinking perceived “race” issues play no part in our everyday lives, there are historic and present circumstances in contradiction to such thoughts. For all the big networks painting broad strokes on canvasses concerning minority lives, these are individuals with their own stories and circumstances to tell. For all the black leaders and black community gatherers with passionate opinions, they are theirs and theirs alone.
We need to learn to communicate, and translate our thoughts into actions and behaviors conducive of change. We need to vote, at local levels ensuring police officers can’t unnecessarily kill unarmed youths. We need to march down to the police stations and form collaborative committees that support and serve ALL of OUR needs. Laws, media coverage, protests, and violence will not stop the profiling or racism in existence within our society, but individuals, collectively working together to shatter previously instilled stereotypes can. We need champions from our younger generation. People unpolluted by past grievances, but informed by the knowledge gained from them. Symbolically speaking, it’s time we do burn this b!#$@ down. It’s time we forge a world representative of the America that we want to see. This is OUR country.
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