R.I.P’d Off (Part 15)

“I ran into this girl, she said, “Why you always blaming? Why you can’t just face it? Why you always gotta be so mad?”

I got a lot to be mad about…”

Solange ~ Mad

I’ve actually lost count of the amount of stories I’ve read or clips I’ve watched over the past few months in regards to racist encounters. The tales are never ending and range in severity.

We’ve gone from the disgusting reversal of the promises made to the Windrush generation, to the death of 26 year old Botham Jean, minding his own business in his own home, only to be murdered by an off duty White police officer, claiming she didn’t realise it wasn’t her apartment….yeh, I’m still trying to work that one out too!

I’m sure you’ve seen at least one clip or heard of the police being called on people being Black whilst in a park, or a pool, or university, or sitting in a coffee shop, or a library, or on a train, or trying to enter their building…

I could go on but I’m guessing you get the picture. Many moons ago I saw a comedy sketch about something similar. Back then it was funny as it was an exaggeration of the abuse we were getting – now it’s actually turned into reality.

In Brooklyn a few weeks ago, a nine year old boy was out shopping with his family when he was accused of sexual assault by Teresa Sue Klein, aka Cornerstore Caroline. She claimed he brushed up against her and subsequently called the police. Thankfully it was caught on CCTV, and it clearly showed it was his backpack that had brushed against her as he passed her to exit the store.

As soon as I read it, the first thing to enter my head was this could have been the modern day Emmett Till. This boys saving grace is that we’re now in 2018 and cameras caught what had really happened.

You’d think that since 1955 a lot more would have changed, but we seem to be going backwards. Resident Chump and Brexshit have got folk feeling all kind of ways, and they’re mostly negative and inherently racist.

Last week 77 year old Delsie Gayle was racially abused on a Ryanair flight from Barcelona. David Mesher was upset that the pensioner didn’t move quickly enough when he wanted to get to his seat so he decided to let her and the flight know about it. He accused her of speaking to him in a foreign language and addressed her as an ugly Black bastard and a stupid cow.

The airline failed to act at the time, and the last I’d heard, they still hadn’t contacted Mrs Gayle. I have no doubt in my mind that if the same act were made by a Black person against an elderly White woman the results would have been much different. His ass would have been hauled off the plane and in a Spanish jail before you could say siesta!

I could go on with a list of examples but they all culminate in this. It doesn’t matter how much footage we have to prove we are the victims – there’s not much a White privilege card can’t cover. It has the ability to allow White people to give no apology or a half hearted one, and claim they are not racist despite the rhetoric that comes out of their mouths.

It has the ability to take the focus off of the crime they have committed and switch it so that the victim is made to look like a bad person who somehow deserved whatever they got.

It’s like a martini – it works anytime, any place, anywhere. As long as you’re lacking melanin you’re good to go! No need to worry about the effects their actions have on our young or old. Why would they concern themselves with the thoughts and feelings of a lesser being?

That’s what they have been believing we are for the longest while so why do we expect any different? In their eyes we should just be quiet and thankful we’re not out picking cotton, chopping cane or hanging from trees.

There are some things in life you can never truly understand unless you live it, but a little understanding goes a long way. You want to know why we’re so mad? Ignorance and stupidity. For centuries we have tried every which way to show you that the way you treat us is beyond way out of order. It’s disturbingly blatant, yet because it’s us it’s somehow ok and we should just suck it up.

You wanna be us; but you don’t want to be us!

We know it’s not all white people that hate, but the powers that be have shown throughout HisStory what they think of us. Amendments, laws, rules and regulations were made by privileged white men to protect their own kind, and I honestly don’t see any major breakthroughs in our “relationship” without some kind of revolution as a resolution. #IMO

We’re nearing the end of Black history month, and as I’ve already debated the whole ‘allocated month’ shit, I won’t go back there fully, except to say my history will never be confined to one month. We’re rolling straight on through baby!

I will never be anything but proud to be black. I love my people, I love my culture and have no desire to lighten or whiten to fit in or deny who and what I am. I won’t be silent or silenced. Last night I watched The Hate U Give and I encourage everybody to go and watch it.

It hits upon a lot of home truths on both sides of the coin and the message is clear for those who choose to see it.

We’ve come some way, but definitely nowhere near where we should be and need to be as a people. T.H.U.G breaks it down and highlights it beautifully. We need to stop the fighting between ourselves as we’ve got a big enough problem to deal with and we’re fundamentally making the job easier for them.

R.I.P to all those who have lost their lives this week