Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Who You Callin' a BITCH??!!??


         
It’s not about the flag. It’s not about disrespecting anything. That is the insidious power of ignorance. I often tell myself that ignorance is everywhere. Stupidity is everywhere. Racism and bigotry can be found in every country, every state, and every city. It pisses me off that the President of the United States would go to the state of my birth, Alabama, to one of its most beautiful cities, Huntsville, to vomit all over what this nation is supposed to be.

On July 6, 2016 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Alton B. Sterling, a 37-year-old African American man was arrested by two white police officers. They wrestled him to the ground. While he was pinned to the ground at least one of the officers pulled his service weapon and shot him several times. Mr. Sterling died. The event was captured on cell phone video and broadcast to the world on social media.

The following day, Philando Castile, a 32-year-old African American man was driving his car in a suburb of St. Paul, Minnesota. Riding with him was his girlfriend. Her 4-year-old daughter was riding in the back seat. Police officers pulled him over. According to his girlfriend, Mr. Castile informed the officer that he had a license to carry a firearm and that it was in the car. The officer shot him as he sat in the car. Mr. Castile died. His girlfriend used her cell phone to record the scene, including the haunting image of the officer’s weapon pointed menacingly inside the car. The video was broadcast around the world on social media.

On July 19, 2015, a Cincinnati police officer shot and killed Samuel Dubose in the head while he was sitting in his car. Mr. Dubose was not obstinate or belligerent, he was not threatening. He was stopped for not having a license tag on the front of his car. America and the world saw and heard it all.

On July 10, 2015, a Texas State Trooper stopped Sandra Bland. Her mistake was changing lanes without turning on her turn signal. The trooper got angry when she refused to put out a cigarette, threatened her with a stun gun, ordered her out of the car, wrestled her to the ground, handcuffed her and took her to jail. A few days later she was found dead in her jail cell. The officer’s dash-cam and a bystander’s cell phone recorded it all.

On June 5, 2015, McKinney, Texas police were called to a pool party attended by Black teenagers in a gated community. Cell phone video captured one of the police officers pointing a gun at several of the teenagers before grabbing a Black girl in a bathing suit, tackling her, and shoving her face into the ground.

On April 12, 2015, cell phone video allowed the world to see Freddie Gray being arrested and dragged into a Baltimore police van. He was in obvious pain. His legs were not moving. He would die of a spinal injury a week later after being tossed around without a seat belt in that van before arriving at the police station.

On April 4, 2015, in North Charleston, South Carolina, a bystander with a cell phone recorded video of a white police officer shooting Walter L. Scott eight times in the back as he ran away. Scott was not a suspect in any crime. He was unarmed. He had been pulled over for a traffic violation. He died on the scene.

On November 22, 2014, In Cleveland, Ohio, 12 year old Tamir Rice was playing with a toy gun in a public park. A white police officer arrived, got out of his cruiser and immediately shot the Black boy twice from point blank range, killing him. Surveillance video captured it all.

On August 9, 2014, in Ferguson, Missouri, cell phone video shows Michael Brown, an 18 year old Black teenager lying in the middle of the street for hours after he was shot and killed by a white police officer. He was unarmed.

On July 17, 2014, in Staten Island, New York, several police officers tried to arrest Eric Garner for selling illegal cigarettes. Mr. Garner was wrestled to the ground, placed in a chokehold, and strangled to death. A friend’s cell phone recorded it all.

According to the Washington Post, Black people are seven times more likely to be killed by police than white people. In 2015, 259 were killed. In 2016, 233 were killed. So far in 2017, 165 have been killed.



        
Colin Kaepernick was once the starting quarterback for the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers. He is the only player in NCAA Division 1 history to amass 10,000 passing yards and 4,000 rushing yards during his college career. During the 2012 NFL season he led his team to the Super Bowl. In 2013 he led the 49ers to the NFC Championship game. During the NFL’s preseason games in August of 2016, Kaepernick decided to sit during the national anthem to protest the killings of Blacks by American police. He would later start to kneel on one knee during the playing of the anthem for the same reason.

          My father was a minister. Since I was old enough to remember anything, I have been taught to kneel to pray. I kneel as a sign of reverence and respect for the God that I pray to. I was taught that Jesus Christ took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee to the Garden of Gethsemane on the night before his crucifixion, fell to his knees, and prayed. If kneeling before God or even a pagan king is a sign of reverence and respect, how in the hell is kneeling during the playing of the national anthem a sign of disrespect?



          There are several definitions of the word “bitch”. They include; “The female of a dog”, “a lewd or immoral woman”, “a malicious, spiteful or overbearing woman”, etc. On Friday, September 22, 2017 in Huntsville, Alabama the President of the United States referred to any National Football League Player that kneels during the playing of the national anthem as a “son of a bitch”. He also said they should be fired, repeating the “fired” for emphasis. The crowd roared, and America sank even lower into the cesspool of bigotry.

          As an educator, I have spent most of my life trying to help young people understand that the foundation of our country is the right to peacefully protest. Freedom itself is the right to disagree. The very first amendment to the Constitution, the first thing enumerated in the Bill of Rights guarantees the American people freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom to assemble, and the right to petition the government to address our grievances.

        
Professional athletes and all the rest of us have a constitutional and unalienable right to protest the indiscriminate and racially motivated killing of Black people by the police. We will continue to do that.

That son of a bi….got in the White House won’t stop us.  

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