Which Black Lives Matter!?

I have come to a realization that there is a word missing in the ubiquitous mantra Black Lives Matter, and that word is “SOME”!  And it is with intrepid indignation that I write this blog. It is absolutely vexing to me that a community can so blatantly and boisterously march to such a hypocritical drum.

 

Do black lives matter? Yes! But all lives matter. Moreover, all black lives matter. This is a point that seems to have escaped the faux-crusaders who want to decry injustice when a white police officer kills a black man.  How these same protesters are conspicuously absent from the inner city streets where countless black lives are extinguished by other black lives in senseless violence is confounding to me. If indeed black lives matter, shouldn’t the black community itself lead by example and demonstrate this as the rule and not the exception?

Black lives matter, but black lives must matter to the black community first before the community implores others to do the same. Instead of having one Toya Graham, the Baltimore mother who beat her son for rioting, and a thousand apathetic who-ha’s proclaiming their child’s incapacity for anything violent or illegal, we should see just the opposite. The black community should be able to identify the guilty, inform their parents, and hold all parties accountable.

If you think I am crazy, think again!

Growing up, any adult in my community was given tacit approval to correct me and/or take me to my parents. From a very early age my parents articulated to me my responsibility to represent myself and by extension the family well in the community. Even as a child I understood the embarrassment and shame I was capable of inflicting should I do anything to besmirch our reputation in our surrounding community. I was accountable not only to my family but also to those countless families that lived in our immediate area. There were no signs, posters, or public service announcements to remind me of this, it was understood by me and every other adolescent that populated our neighborhood; and that is where it started … and ended, for that matter!

The black community should be angry, and not with the police or the government. The black community should be angry with itself. The community should be apoplectic at its apathetic indifference to its own responsibility. The onus is on the community itself to right the ship. The majority of guns aimed at the community come from within the community, not the police. The death and destruction inflicted on our sons and daughters, mothers and fathers finds its origin many times in our own backyards. Our willful disregard of these facts is no longer acceptable. In fact, it is criminal and detestable. It is not until we stand accountable for our own failures, our own tolerances, and our own indiscretion that we can proudly stand united and thwart injustice emanating from outside of our community. For as long as we perpetuate and perpetrate egregious hate, murder, misogyny, and countless other immoralities within our own ranks, we will never rise above a milieu rife with death, destruction, and interminable failure and shame.

If the black community needs a rallying point let it be their neighborhood streets where they can once again perpetuate strong values and morals that permeate the fabric of the community and every family in it. Once again hold parents accountable and charge them with the responsibility to lead the way by example. And if the parent fails to meet that charge, hold them responsible and culpable. Indifference and loyalty to an absurd code of silence is unacceptable and inane. All lives matter. And if you portend to others that black lives matter but don’t demonstrate that in your own community, then you are a liar and a hypocrite by definition. You want to hold up a sign that says black lives matter? Do it in the inner city streets where black teenagers are being gunned down by black teenagers. Do it in the shadows where teenage boys and teenage girls have unprotected sex spreading disease and creating babies with a greater promise of a single parent and failure rather than one of family and success. Do it on the corners and in the flop houses where drug dealers peddle meth, crack, and weed to our community all under the guise of a hustle. Do it in the homes where the mothers and fathers are more absorbed in their own indiscretions, forgoing discipline and love for their kids, failing to ensure strong values and appropriate choices. If you want someone indicted for abuse and neglect, violence and indifference towards the black community, we need to indict ourselves. And I am positive with this indictment will come an unequivocal guilty verdict. And the sentence, of course, should be a lifetime of community service.

I suggest instead of holding up signs that say black lives matter we should start using the hashtag #ACCOUNTABILITY. If we don’t care, who will!?

S. McGill

One of the most powerful things in the world can be obtained and used liberally by anyone who chooses to use it.  "If" can be the beginning of something great or the acquiescence to defeat. How will you use your "if"?