In the wake of Orlando and Pride Month, we now have the 153rd, 154th and 155th shootings and killings of low-offense, unarmed Black men by police officers. As my close friend Cedric Hill said, "They're just shooting us out there. Willy nilly. Don't need a reason. It's scary." This from a highly educated, very talented and large black man who was raised partially in the Islands and partially here in Newark, NJ. He's frightened to walk his own streets. As well he should be.
The fight for community for the LGBTQ populace is completely related to the #blacklivesmatter campaign. There is no way that any of us: gay, straight, black, white, brown, queer can sit idly by while our brothers are being shot down - whether they're in a gay nightclub or on the streets, whether it's by extremists or men in uniform.
I have questions that beg for answers
My black brothers are being killed in their own neighborhoods
On corners of avenues and roads and every where where they should be safe
Every where from Baton Rouge to Baltimore to Staten Island to Ferguson
I see families left without fathers, brothers, uncles and sons
I see white cops hiding behind a thick blue line
Behind shiny silver shields
Behind guns they wield like toys
They say boys will be boys
But this is no game
And there is no time out
And the blame is getting tossed around
Hot potato Hot potato
Not me Not me
Not the police, Not the judge, Not the jury
Must be black society
Raising all these troubling looking Negroes
Who don't know how to act right at night in sight of cameras that take videos
Of their assassinations.
And you say you feel overwhelming helplessness and devastation?
But, you're alive
Your heart still beats
You can demonstrate in the streets
You can denounce these acts, these problem-white-cops
You can call for a fair and impartial judicial system
Oh, but wait
Let's get something straight
The fair and impartial judicial system doesn't exist, right?
Juries intimidated by the potential retribution of indicted cops vote down true bills
The wills of partisan judges allowing party politics to play out in their courts go unchallenged
To quote a crook and an idealist: This system is rigged
You don't have to dig at all to get to what's rotten in the USA
White male cops are feeling their days are numbered
And this makes them nervous
And when a young, straight, white, male cop gets antsy
And he is armed with a lethal weapon
Add a dose of "why is everyone in this land turning brown?" brand racism:
Powderkeg
155 deaths at the hands of cops and counting
I'm not exactly sure what to do
I wish Obama would just overall the DOJ already
Clean house, cut out the fat and make it do it's job.
But until I do know what to do,
I'm going to write and yell and write and scream
I'm going to preach and preach
And teach
And reach out to anyone who will listen
So that maybe we can put together a coalition
And get some justice for those who have fallen.
Black Men in our country, they're living in a Powderkeg
Who knows when death is coming around the corner
Dressed in a uniform, with sirens and a black and white car?
Could be tonight
or tomorrow night
or the next night
But they're coming to a street corner near you, don't act surprised...
This plague runs deeper and more insidiously that any of us can realize.