Photo Courtesy of ABC News
I just read an extremely naive and misguided post here. In it, this woman explains how she now realizes black people and white people are treated differently in our society.
I'd like to think it's great that she has been "awakened", but there are still some glaring issues Chelsie hasn't considered.
Her first mistake:
“You better make smart decisions. Safe decisions. No robbing a gas station. No walking down the street swinging a sword around. No rioting. You are to be respectful. You are to be a member of society that contributes to the world. You are to be proud of who you are and your heritage. If you are anything less than these things, you might not come home to me one day.”
Trayvon Martin didn't walk down the street swinging a sword. He had skittles and tea as some overgrown gun happy man stalked him in his own father's neighborhood.
Sandra Bland didn't riot.
Terence Crutcher wasn't robbing a gas station.
Charles Kinsey wasn't rioting, robbing a gas station, or swinging a sword; he was aiding his autistic patient.
I'm going to say this and it's going to be a shocker to some people, not everyone mistreated by the Police did something bad. Sometimes officers are bad, and in most cases, most people don't deserve to die, even if they did break the law. Petty theft shouldn't be a death sentence, talking smack to a cop is worth an execution, being black in and of itself is not a crime.
When people like Chelsie figure this out, then we can have a real discussion on police brutality and it's implications on people of color.
"He would drive my car always on the lookout for police and in the event that he saw one he would quickly take another road, pull over to the side and wait for them to pass. I wasn’t quiet about my annoyance to his situation often complaining about his need to feel that because he was black the police were always out to get him."
You're dismissing his concerns. Sometimes, the police are out to get you. Sometimes there are bad cops, and sometimes due to prejudices and stereotypes; people defend these bad cops and justify the murder of people.
In our society, that shouldn't happen.
"People who fortunately and unfortunately have the same equal opportunity to decide how they live their lives."
I live in America and I find we are not all treated or created equal. It has never been that way. We find ways to live our lives to survive the system, we make strides and move ahead, but my Children aren't safe. People don't always see my children coming from a two parent home with educated parents. They just see thugs. My kids can never ever really be just kids because our society treats them as if their melanin makes them a threat.
"All I keep seeing are officers who are afraid of my husband now more than ever."
Have you ever thought about how scared your husband is of those officers? Police can be terrifying to certain people.
Did you mourn the death of Tamir Rice, a child? Did you call that senseless, or were you trying to make up reasons why it's his fault he's died?
That's the problem we have in America, people can't and don't value the lives of others and have no concerns about demonizing people and children to justify their deaths.
"I see parents teaching their children to be afraid of the police instead of teaching them to respect those that put their lives on the line to keep us safe."
You see parents teaching their children to be afraid of the police because they have reason to fear the police, the police aren't there to protect and serve them always, sometimes they're there to terrorize them. It's a cold, hard truth you failed to mention in this blog post. I can't do that because my children have value, my black family has value. A value you place lower than the value of a police officer, so much so you can't acknowledge that sometimes police officers can be dangerous.
"It comes from raising law abiding citizens that respect those around them."
I'm still waiting for someone to tell me what law Philando Castile broke to justify his death?
You seem to keep putting the blame on the victims instead of the perpetrators, and if we can't acknowledge the victims of police brutality, then we can't move forward because the discussion becomes one sided and fruitless.
Martin Luther King, Jr. broke the law!!! He went to jail for his demonstrations. If
Rosa Parks had never broken the law, we wouldn't have the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Disobedience is what fueled the movement to eliminate Jim Crow laws, the same laws you think should be respected and not broken. Laws that would have prevented you from marrying your husband in many states.
"It comes from teaching your children that wrong decisions are coupled with consequences and that life isn’t always fair, it was never meant to be."
Every black parent tells their black kids these things, but for some reason, white parents don't tend to teach their children this and even more infuriating is their kids are allowed to make mistakes with virtually no consequences, while some kids make no mistakes and still end up dead. That's the difference between white and black America. You can afford to be oblivious, we cannot.
Life isn't fair, but life is deadly in America for black kids, even the ones with good parents who tell them life isn't fair, and it's insulting to reduce the systematic murder of people to life being unfair. It's downright infuriating and clueless and sick.
"Violence no matter how oppressed you may feel will never yield the trust and peace filled relationships we yearn for."
This is the most infuriating of all. Bloody Sunday was called Bloody Sunday because of the violence. The violence of the police officers. Violence is why Martin Luther King Jr. is dead. Violence is what the Little Rock Nine endured. Violence is why Ruby Bridges needed armed guards to desegregate a school after the governor of Louisiana wanted to defy the law and keep segregation going. Violence is how slavery was sustainable. Don't be concerned about violence now when the people who were victims of it now perpetrate it, they were taught by the very people calling for them to be peaceful in the face of adversity.
Violence has always been necessary. America wouldn't be America without it.
