The experience
of being a Black male in America is one that cannot be understood by anyone but
another Black male. There is a dangerous irony in the fact that this country is
run by white men engulfed in white supremacy. This supremacy seeps through law
enforcement and federal laws. Police brutality is perhaps the most direct and explicit
demonstration of racism in America. It solely targets the lives of Black people
(mainly males) and physically proves their irrelevance to society. What too
many fail to understand, is that self-defense involves armed aggression from
both parties. A Black male running away
from an armed white cop is in no way, shape, or form, a threat. However, the
attempted justification for the brutal murder of Black men by white cops can be
supported by a statement in Frantz Fanon’s Look,
a Negro! Fanon writes, “I cast an objective gaze over myself, discovered my
blackness…deafened by cannibalism, backwardness, fetishism, racial stigmas…”[1]
Discussed here, is the historically molded connotation to the word “Black.” In
history’s rawest definition, this is what it means to be Black. For centuries,
White people have built upon this definition. Thus, if Black people are the
savages described in this quote, how can it be wrong to kill them? To White people,
orally dehumanizing Black people enables the justification of murder. Americans
turn a blind eye to police brutality, and to the unnerving irony that the
colors of a cop car emit the same colors as the flag of this nation. Red,
white, and blue, means death before justice for Black people. Society has it
set up so that Black men are guaranteed not to succeed. In America, Black men
are at risk to die before they can attend college. In America, the biggest
threat is a hoodie. In America, how dare a person have the audacity to walk
around while committing the crime of being Black? Since 1619, Black people have
been discussed and treated as if they were animals or cattle. Labels switched
from “African,” to “Negro,” “Nigger,” “Boy,” and ultimately to “Bait.” Prisons
are strategically set up so that more and more Black bodies can be swept from
the very streets which whites ghettoized them to reside. With this being said,
how is any Black boy supposed to feel the respect and value that is bestowed
upon him at birth? How can a Black man feel like a King when he is executed
like a criminal? To experience Blackness in America is to live each day
understanding that your own appreciation of yourself is hated by the leader of
your country. It is to understand that a cop’s duty has been programmed to
protect those who want to kill you. Your value is feared and your beauty is
sexualized. To be Black in America is to remain resilient.
MLK in context - an exploration of King's life and work from an historical perspective
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