Back To Black

As if we were anything but black.

Wednesday’s events in Charleston, South Carolina are not solely a hate crime:  it was an act of terrorism. For those of you who have forgotten the actual meaning of the word, terrorism is defined as a deliberate act of violence against civilians by individuals or organizations for political purposes. Labeling this a hate crime alone will probably get the offender a few years behind bars to sharpen his or her bias, a relative pittance of a fine, and in parts of the South, a handshake for a job well done. Sad, but true; in the years since President Obama swore on that Bible in 2009, racial tensions have clearly magnified to levels unseen in my lifetime.

I'm just being real. America doesn't legitimately care about black people unless we're entertainment or cooning for Massa. #BlackTwitter

— A. Cedric Armstrong (@cedteaches) June 18, 2015

Notice the parallels in the 1963 bombing at Birmingham’s Sixteenth Street Baptist Church and Wednesday night at Emmanuel AME Church. You would think that in 2015, we would have evolved past such vile hatred and violence.

#neverforget the four little girls who died in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham 51YA today. pic.twitter.com/tfVjgNqG8Z

— A. Cedric Armstrong (@cedteaches) September 15, 2014

Yet we ricochet from one tragedy to the next. Once the scab nearly heals over from one incident, it is ripped off again and again to be further exposed to a potential infection. I’m tired of the pain. Actually, fuck that pain; this is anger.

Why am I angry?

If I need to spell it out any further, I would have entered the adults’ spelling bee. I am furious that in 2015, my skin and baritone voice are both enough to “intimidate” – rather, induce animosity toward me. I’m hated for my skin; denigrated by both sides for the education and articulate thoughts; harassed for driving nice cars; followed to the outskirts of town by the bigots in blue; accused of driving down the property values in the subdivision we reside; seeing former white girlfriends disowned by their families as a result of their relationship with me; being shadowed in clothing stores; and a litany of other issues. Whoever said being black in America is easy clearly is clueless about the black experience.

I am angry because I don’t have another cheek to turn. The laws in this state and nation [read:  Stand Your Ground when used by George Zimmerman and Marissa Alexander, and the open carry gun laws those zealous Second Amendment cowboys worship]. Watch the double standard of race that American gun laws maintain. Even in California – supposedly the most socially liberal state in the union – passed the Mulford Act with help from the NRA and a racist Gov. Ronald Reagan. Shortly after the Civil War, Arkansas passed a series of laws preventing gun ownership by freed blacks. If ever a time to exact revenge, that was it. That fear – well, and their wives and daughters taking black penis - must be what keep racist white men awake at night.

Maybe... pic.twitter.com/C0zp9tlgrx

— A. Cedric Armstrong (@cedteaches) June 12, 2015

If Congress couldn’t pass legislation for gun control measures after Sandy Hook, you damn sure know nothing will happen now that nine Americans were slaughtered in a black church.

As if we were anything but black.

I have to do it. You rape our women and take our country. And you have to go. - Dylann Roof

Sound familiar? I personally equate the Tea Party with the Klan because of its “take back our country” quips; days like these show no distinguishing difference between the two groups. I know there are black Tea Partiers, but keep in mind there were Jews in the German concentration camps exterminating their fellow countrymen. Crimes such as these are not so much to punish the victims as a drive-by shooting would, but to send a strong message to “their kind” generally. That is genetic attribution:  compare this with Ferguson or Baltimore.

This is the world I am afraid to leave behind for my four-month-old daughter.

The one which when she enters puberty is automatically labeled a troublemaking adult whereas her white classmates can enjoy the privilege of being children. The kind of place that won’t let her fish or swim freely at Hurricane Lake Estates even with her friends who live there. The world that makes mockery of her blackness and calls her slanderous names. Or hearing the “affirmative action” tag (ex. oh, you’re the affirmative action hire/AP student/Ivy Leaguer/etc.) as if she isn’t able to succeed on her own merits. The world we live in still treats black Americans like second-class citizens fifty years after the Civil Rights Act was signed by President Johnson.

One hundred fifty years ago today, the last slaves gained their freedom in Galveston, Texas. Today, many of us do not know the true taste of freedom. We’ve given up so much, been foisted a bill of goods by the government and greedy landowners, psychologically damaged to the point of being undesirables, emaciated at will, and our hard work – and rightful property – stolen like a thief in the night. This nation cheered on Arab Spring last year, yet America is terrified of a Black Spring.

As if we were anything but black.