Every day I hear how I should work hard, do the right thing and follow the law. Of course, I'm often followed by the law. It's weird knowing that as soon as you go to certain areas you go from being random guy #721 to suspect #1. I begrudgingly deal with it, I move on and I try to enjoy my life. With that said, I can see how some people might not have such a laid back attitude to being racially profiled, stopped and harassed by the very people that they pay to protect them and arrested and imprisoned without charges. I can see how some of us might get a little upset at the fact that people that look like us get shot by the very people that we pay to keep us from getting shot, at a ridiculously high rate. I get why people are upset at what happened to Floyd Dent, Walter Scott, Eric Garner, Mike Brown and Freddie Gray. I get why some of us feel the need to take to the streets and protest. I get why some of us are willing to get on TV and give the world a much needed talking to. Although I wouldn't personally do it, I get why some of us are angry enough to throw things, break things, fight with others and even light things on fire.
I get a lot of things, but I don't get the idea that we have to respond to over the top violence at the hands of our government by being "respectable", whatever that means. I don't get how people with no criminal record dying under suspicious circumstances at the hands of cops doesn't outrage people, but looting a CVS is worthy of the national guard and all day coverage by CNN. Unless it's over something stupid like the Kentucky Wildcats getting exposed as frauds on the basketball court or a soccer game, a riot is the unheard masses getting together and going completely crazy in an effort to be heard by the powers that be. This may not always send across the wanted message, the right one or even one that makes any type of logical sense, but it does get them heard. If it weren't for riots, we wouldn't have this country to riot in right now. In a society built on violence and rebellion, it's not only wrong to say that rioting accomplishes nothing, it's actively trying to deny history in an attempt to hide from an ugly truth about America. It isn't on the oppressed to change the world, it's on the powerful to change their behaviors and what they find acceptable, and that will change the world and hopefully make it better for the rest of us. I'm just putting thoughts out in the air while watching TV. Don't mind me.
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
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