By Let’s face it, we have all experienced racism at some point in life – whether you are white, black, yellow or green.
Memories…
I remember so clearly as a young child growing up in a predominately white area; recall knocking on my friend’s door for him to come out and play. I could see that the TV was on but no one came to the door. To cut the story short, my friend came to me the following day at school to apologise and say that his brother hated black people and that’s why the door wasn’t answered. I was only 11 then and simply laughed it off. What else could I do?
This short story brings me to discuss The BET awards that happened last week. More and more events have become more politicised! Isn’t it just great? It goes with exactly what I’ve been saying- which is, everything is politics … (within reason of course) There is a sense of black politicians arising, standing and becoming more and more unapologetic. I wish I had the sense to do at that young age. So because of my failure to stand up for myself when I had the chance, I’ve decided to open up a new page of political entertainment. So do read on.
Last Sunday was the BET awards, which had a lot of shocking performances. Beyoncé (my queen) and Kendrick Lamar’s opening performances. Ushers performance “Don’t trump America”. There was an underlying message being clearly displayed here don’t you think?
Jesse Williams who plays Jackson in the famous series Grey’s Anatomy spoke with integrity, displaying facts calling out and stating that we are not alone.
I watched his speech more than once. When he won his humanitarian reward, his speech was more than powerful, it was political. It stood for the political movement of black lives matter and touched me when he said:
“What we’ve been doing is looking at the data and we know that police somehow manage to de-escalate, disarm, and not kill white people every day. So what’s going to happen is we are going to have equal rights and justice in our own country, or we will restructure their function in ours. …
Yesterday would have been young Tamir Rice’s 14th birthday. So I don’t want to hear any more about how far we’ve come when paid public servants can pull a drive-by on a 12-year-old playing alone in a park in broad daylight, killing him on television and then going home to make a sandwich. Tell Rekia Boyd how it’s so much better to live in 2012 than it is to live in 1612 or 1712. Tell that to Eric Garner. Tell that to Sandra Bland. Tell that to Darrien Hunt.”
He spoke up not just for the audience that stood up and clapped for everything he said but everyone of black skin (like myself) that still today fights the prejudice, discrimination and hatred of racism!
You don’t need me tell you he was right because you know that he was! It is about time that we unite and speak out for what is right! Using music to get the message out is just one of the ways we can do that. There, of course, needs to be more said and more done, we still have a long way to go and we can do it!
We, therefore, need more speeches like that of Jesse Williams.
Peace peace. Thank you, Debra. Thank you, BET. Thank you Nate Parker, Harry and Debbie Allen for participating in that {video}.
Before we get into it, I just want to say I brought my parents out tonight. I just want to thank them for being here, for teaching me to focus on comprehension over career, and that they make sure I learn what the schools were afraid to teach us. And also thank my amazing wife for changing my life.
Now, this award – this is not for me. This is for the real organizers all over the country – the activists, the civil rights attorneys, the struggling parents, the families, the teachers, the students that are realizing that a system built to divide and impoverish and destroy us cannot stand if we do.
It’s kind of basic mathematics – the more we learn about who we are and how we got here, the more we will mobilize.
Now, this is also in particular for the black women in particular who have spent their lifetimes dedicated to nurturing everyone before themselves. We can and will do better for you.
Now, what we’ve been doing is looking at the data and we know that police somehow manage to deescalate, disarm and not kill white people everyday. So what’s going to happen is we are going to have equal rights and justice in our own country or we will restructure their function and ours.
Now… I got more y’all – yesterday would have been young Tamir Rice’s 14th birthday so I don’t want to hear anymore about how far we’ve come when paid public servants can pull a drive-by on 12 year old playing alone in the park in broad daylight, killing him on television and then going home to make a sandwich. Tell Rekia Boyd how it’s so much better than it is to live in 2012 than it is to live in 1612 or 1712. Tell that to Eric Garner. Tell that to Sandra Bland. Tell that to Dorian Hunt.
Now the thing is, though, all of us in here getting money – that alone isn’t gonna stop this. Alright, now dedicating our lives, dedicating our lives to getting money just to give it right back for someone’s brand on our body when we spent centuries praying with brands on our bodies, and now we pray to get paid for brands on our bodies.
There has been no war that we have not fought and died on the front lines of. There has been no job we haven’t done. There is no tax they haven’t leveed against us – and we’ve paid all of them. But freedom is somehow always conditional here. “You’re free,” they keep telling us. But she would have been alive if she hadn’t acted so… free.
Now, freedom is always coming in the hereafter, but you know what, though, the hereafter is a hustle. We want it now.
And let’s get a couple things straight, just a little sidenote – the burden of the brutalized is not to comfort the bystander. That’s not our job, alright – stop with all that. If you have a critique for the resistance, for our resistance, then you better have an established record of critique of our oppression. If you have no interest, if you have no interest in equal rights for black people then do not make suggestions to those who do. Sit down.
We’ve been floating this country on credit for centuries, yo, and we’re done watching and waiting while this invention called whiteness uses and abuses us, burying black people out of sight and out of mind while extracting our culture, our dollars, our entertainment like oil – black gold, ghettoizing and demeaning our creations then stealing them, gentrifying our genius and then trying us on like costumes before discarding our bodies like rinds of strange fruit. The thing is though… the thing is that just because we’re magic doesn’t mean we’re not real.
Thank you.
What do you think?