I originally wrote this post after the Trayvon Martin verdict. In many ways, the concept holds the same. We are understandably heartbroken about the latest tragedy to befall our community. We have had three in the last month, killed by police officers doing their so-called job. What I don’t suggest we do is the same old, same old. Calling in Rev. Al or marching seems to do nothing in situations like this due to the fact that all it takes is some other major event to knock our outrage out of the news cycle. (Robin Williams) What we have now that our predecessors did not have is social media and the ability to link widely spaced communities together under one umbrella. We need to take advantage of these tools to show our displeasure and our intention that this time everything will NOT go back to normal. To that end, I submit the following and I’ll continue to submit it every time one of us is murdered by the people who are sworn to protect us. Yeah, yeah, yeah, black on black crime, yada, yada. I’ve dealt with that in other posts and I will deal with it again in the future. Yeah, we shouldn’t loot. Personally, I don’t give a damn about burning and looting the very businesses that we were complaining about yesterday. Maybe it will make room for black owned businesses to grow in those vacant lots. How is taking away businesses that do not give back to the communities that they prey upon a loss? Makes us look bad on television, yes, but we are made to look bad anyway. Even when we are doing the right thing. (“what are you going to do when you grow up” asked the reporter to the 4 year old. “I’m gon get me a gun,” laughter like a sitcom laugh track. What was left out was his last sentence, “I’m gon be the police!” So who cares how we look. That’s our problem, we concerned with how we “look” when we should be concerned with how we grow, how we prosper, how we are respected. The dominant minority culture, yes they are the minority on this planet, will never see you as equal no matter how many titles you earn, no matter how much money you have.
As I’m quite sure many of us have done over the last few days, I have sat down and thought about what I think would be an adequate response to the TM verdict handed down in Florida. I won’t go into a long description about what happened, as unless you’ve been in a coma or otherwise off planet we all have heard from multiple sources who did what and how. The only unifying theme is still no one knows exactly what happened, and that’s not an issue. We believe we’ve been wronged and that’s enough.
We as Africans in this country have volumes of evidence that support that belief but that is not the thrust of this article. I am not here to describe what anyone with a third grade capacity to read can go to the library and research. I’m here to talk about what we do next if we are really dissatisfied with how we are treated in this country. I hope my readers will excuse me but I have a thing for preambles. I’m a big believer in the setup.
Our problem with a noteworthy response is two-fold. One, the response must be big enough to make our intended audience take note and two it must not in any way lead to us harming others or being harmed by others in ignorance/fear.
Let me first explain what won’t work. Pictures, however artfully done, won’t solve the problem. Facebook posts with Jesus’ (Jesus’s?) arm around TM are useless as they migrate slowly off the page, replaced by pics in Ghetto or Ghetto Fabulous or Vine or some other momentary pastime. Long, passionate blog posts, articles or YouTube rants, (with the exception of mine of course) aren’t effective as the only ones of us with a readership/viewership large enough are long on descriptions of the problem and short on solutions.
The true problem with forming and executing an effective, meaningful response is our respective level of dissatisfaction. I’ll admit I heard this from a late brother of mine Mahdi Nu’man who described us in a khutbah at Jum’mah services some years ago. See my friends/loved ones/haters as well, any response to what Africans in America now claim to be the “last straw” or the “I’m fed up and I ain’t gon take it anymo” moment in our history in the country is largely dependent on to what degree one participates. (Damn, I guess I’m the king of the run on sentence as well) There are some of us who are 10 percent dissatisfied and there are those of us who are 100 percent dissatisfied. The biggest difference between now and the civil rights era was that back then, they were 100% dissatisfied. Things couldn’t get any worse than they already were without going back to slavery. We have made great strides since then and now there are many of us who have something to lose. We identify/sympathize/empathize with what happens to us around the country but only to a point. Not to the point where we will jeopardize what we have worked for to get where we are.
Before you begin the requisite howling, raising of pitchforks and lighting of torches, I have African friends who are PhDs, and who possess MBAs. I myself am simply lazy, I am maybe two or three classes away from my MA, having already graduated with a BS. I also have close friends that are a bit less . . . what’s the word, uhhh, safe. I have close friends that I wouldn’t want to be caught in a dark alley with. (Their lower self may get the better or them) I love them both as they are both reflections of the same person. The point is that my more erudite, accomplished friends may not be 100% dissatisfied with what it may take for this culture to respect us. My niggas from the hood though, down for whatever.
THE FINAL SOLUTION
Believe it or not, my plan won’t take much beyond a bit of sacrifice; it will though take us ALL, each and every last one of us. My plan will involve everyone from our illustrious President to that brother doing life, or its equivalent, in all of the jails and prisons in America. Whether you are a teacher, a judge, a policeman, criminal, inmate, or a fireman, I’m talking about you. Whether you host a nationally televised talk show, a weblog, or stand on a box in the middle of a vacant lot like Lawrence Fishburne in Boyz N Da Hood. My plan doesn’t involve boycotting any business as that has shown to be somewhat limited in scope. I read a rumor that the Koch brothers financed GZ’s defense so we should boycott Charmin or Bounty or something. Any plan must be bigger than that due to the fact that many of us (most) use the store brand of paper products anyway. I don’t want us to march on the statehouse in any state or city hall in any city; we’ve been marching so long our feet should fall off. We are not going to esign a petition to any lawmaker or write a letter to our congressman. All of these solutions have been tried and they have all failed.
What we need to do is indicate to the rest of this country just how important we are to its EVERYDAY function. We need for those who claim that we need to quit whining about slavery, and making everything a race issue to see just how integral we are to EVERYTHING that goes on in this country. We need a national BLACKOUT. We need every last one of us to take a week off from work beginning say . . . Trayvon Martin’s birthday. Whatever your industry is, get sick for a week. For those of us with job security, just don’t show up. For those of us with bills to pay and need our little bitty job (most), call in sick with MERS or EBOLA or West Nile Fever. Now when I say BLACKOUT, that’s what I mean. I mean everyone. No nurses, no doctors. No air traffic controllers (are any of them African?). No entertainers. No athletes. No home health aides. No pharmacists, no drug dealers. Whatever you are, whatever you do. If you own a business, close for a week. No haircuts, no tease and flips. No soul food. (It’s fattening anyway) We don’t need leaders either, so the good Revs can stay home and take the week off too. We don’t even need your job to be done. Hopefully President Obama will come home to the Chi and spend some time in the hood where he’s from. (Hmmm, though under my plan his African Secret Service agents will be home too, well we’ll work on that one)
Now that’s part one. Part two is while you’re off for that week; rediscover your family, your community. Talk to your neighbors; make amends with that guy from down the street that you argued with at the last HOA meeting. Talk about how to make our communities safe without arming everyone to the teeth. Talk with those gangbangers who everyone is afraid to make eye contact with. No spending of our dollars. I mean none. No gas station visits. Stay home or walk, we need to walk more. No Wal-Mart, no Target, Dollar General/City/Family, nothing. Keep your money in your pocket. Drop your cable or satellite plan down to local channels for a week. Change your cell phone plan down to the basic plan for one week. Turn your lights off, go by candlelight if possible. Oh, and no church, no tithing, no mosques, no zakat. If the powers that be see we’re not even going to church they’ll know we’re doubly serious. This society needs to see that this country cannot function without us. We are more than just a subset of society that can be overlooked whenever something happens that we don’t agree with. My plan will cost this economy billions in lost revenue, lost profits and lost productivity. That is exactly my goal. The only thing that America respects is that which has the capacity to cost it money.
Of course they’ll be those of other ethnicities that are married to us, have children by us or share children with us. We are not exclusive, if you want to join, be our guest. Just know that this is not about you, it’s about US. No disrespect, love you to death, appreciate your support but this is a black thang. It’s okay for us to have a thang too. Like St. Patrick’s Day or Cinco de Mayo.
Of course they’ll be those of US who disagree with everything I’ve said and that’s fine as well. We’ll see who is 100% dissatisfied and to whom our treatment is a problem but “just not that deep.”
Drops mic and walks from stage drippin blackness
(Next Post: Going back down south)
This is an excellent article. Why did I think you would not go hard? Can we compromise one taking two days off? I do not even think we will need an agenda, they already know.