And this is the reality:
In an economy that has begun, in earnest, to devalue low skilled labor and pay higher and higher premiums for higher skilled labor, something else is happening. What was once segregation that was mandated by law is now transitioning into economic segregation because of the widening wage gap. More African American children attend schools of majority African American population today than they did in the 80’s. Our urban populations are now a majority minority for the first time in our history. America is walling ourselves off from African Americans again. We just don’t need to build the wall ourselves anymore. Economics and math are doing it for us.
It’s not getting better. It’s getting worse.
So, how should the three living generations of African Americans feel about the inequality that inarguably comes from a country that treated the first 17 generations of their ancestors like a lesser species of man?
Respectful?
Grateful?
Angry?
How about conflicted? If they are unhappy, which ones should speak up? Those with power? Or those without it?
Like it or not, showing up on my television is power.
When an African American is shot and killed by a white police officer, how should a black man feel about it? Is it respectful to feel the same way I feel when a white man is shot? Don’t break the law and you’ll be ok?
Or is it different for some reason?
Should I feel different about the justice system if I’m black?
If I’m treated differently by the American justice system, does that matter?
African Americans are nearly three times as likely to be stopped for a traffic violation than I am. They’re half as likely to be granted bail and 40% more likely to be sent to jail after an arraignment instead of released on their own recognizance. They’re 50% more likely to receive a plea that includes prison time instead of probation, time served or community service. They’re twice as likely to have a juror struck from the pool during their trial due to a fundamental disagreement with the death penalty. They’re twice as likely to receive a life sentence or longer in prison.
Does it matter how much of your country’s history passed before she protected you?
In the 1920’s, 30’s and 40’s, bills outlawing lynch mob extrajudicial punishment passed in the House of Representatives. Each time, they were struck down in the Senate. In 2005, the Senate of the United States of America formally apologized for never passing an anti-lynching law. Between 1877 and 1950, a year in which both my parents were already alive, there were 3,959 African Americans killed by lynching.
More Americans than were killed on 9/11.
More than the American servicemen that died in Afghanistan.
Does any of that change how the African American community feels when a black man is killed by white authority figure in America. Or is it all just water under the bridge?
