So when some say things like
“I also didn’t grow up in an area where there were drug dealers on the corner. I didn’t grow up in an area where there were gun shots nightly. But why do these things happen in black communities throughout America. Is that White America’s fault?”
Blacks understand that we didn’t choose to have drugs in our neighborhoods. They were brought there to us, and integrated into or communities decades ago. They were allowed to flourish, so long as it was not in the more affluent and ‘White’ communities, though Whites were given carte blanche to go in and out making their purchases.
Drugs promote violence, guns being one symptom of that. Were police truly interested in removing that violence, decades ago they could have stopped, or lessened this. They chose not to, because it’s ‘not their people’ affected. Even if you do not agree, that is the impression we grow up learning.
How can any White American understand all of this? That Black on White crime is debatably 60% more likely to end up with a Black conviction. That Blacks convicted are 3x more likely to have longer sentences on equivalent charges. That the media routinely presumes Black guilt at every instance.
Imagine, if you are not African American, how you might feel knowing that you’re that great-grandfather was lynched, your grandfather was not allowed an education, that your parents were refused a place to live all because of their color.
That your mother was paid less money than her peers, that your grandmother was only allowed to wash other peoples clothing, and your great-grandmother could only get work as a maid by people who routinely referred to her as a racial slur.
Are these absolute facts? No, but they are common enough history that most have multiple elements of this in their background.
Yet for all this, the average African American goes to work everyday. Children grow up getting as good an education as possible and overwhelmingly most are not into drugs. And nearly all deal with the fact that America fears them without issue.
Conversely, White women hold purses tight when Blacks pass by. Security in malls and stores follow Blacks, ignoring actual criminals that happen to not be Black. Police act with a presumption of impending violence even at routine traffic stops. The media constantly portrays every image of poverty and criminality with a Black face, though the quantity of Whites with these issues outnumbers Blacks.
Imagine that life. Imagine living under that pressure everyday. Imagine that you were me. And then tell me you could go to college, own a business, and never be an addict. Tell me that your friends and family would go to college and raise families without drugs. Tell me that you could not just survive but thrive in that environment.
I do, my family does. So do the families of my friends. But how many “Average Americans” could survive a day under this scrutiny and pressure. How many fail to have prosperous lives without any of these obstacles?
It’s not about who is better. It’s about understanding what the facts are, and how we all can get closer to a world that these things are no longer happening. The first step is comprehension. Not the denial that “Average American” posed. From that point we can move forward. At least I think so.
This is what I think, what do you think?
No comments:
Post a Comment