For the last two weeks we’ve been overloaded by the media regarding the outrage by the black population after the death of another unarmed black suspect at the hands of white police officers. Protest marches, all out riots and looting have and continues to happen in all corners of the country and there doesn’t seem that there will be an end to it anytime soon.
At first it was a demand for justice, but the white police officer and those who stood by doing nothing have all been arrested and will most likely be spending a considerable amount of time in jail for their crimes… and I do believe they deserve to be punished. Isn’t that what the black community wanted? So why are they still protesting… why are the black leaders encouraging the mob mentality instead of trying to calm the masses down. I think they have made their point, the change they believe should happen isn’t going to happen overnight, so can we expect this kind of response to last months and maybe years?
The whole ordeal has now morphed into a call to defund police departments, which is the most ridiculous idea that I have ever heard of. Do they really want complete anarchy? I know for the criminals that is their biggest wet dream… however I don’t see anything like that happening in ours or any other country on the planet.
My observation is this… we have a black community that is rightfully outraged by the way white police officers react to them. Stories of young black men being harassed are a dime a dozen and repeated over and over by the media till even I start to believe that this is the norm for every young black male in this country. However change can’t be a one way street. The perception that young black males are always up to no good and deserve the scrutiny that they get comes from decades of bad behavior on their part. The current looting and destructive actions that are happening side by side with the legitimate peaceful protests are a good example and justification for the bad rap that hangs over the head of young black males.
Young black males grow up in households where it is reiterated almost daily by their parents, local and national black leaders that they can expect to be harassed simply because of their skin color. Young black males are told at an early age that only the white privileged have the opportunity to succeed. All that has got to change too if there is ever going to be any meaningful change in the way our two races interact with each other. Without the black community recognizing that they hold as much blame as anyone and commit to make changes inside their own neighborhoods that go hand in hand with changes in society in general will we ever see the true peaceful utopia that is being sought after.