50 years of what?

if you thought

the dream

was alive and well,

wake up.

the death knell tolls

to usher in

the living hell

which has engulfed

a nation in turmoil.

america,

the land of the free,

still desires strange fruit

hanging from a tree.

brown skin,

dark skin,

it really doesn't matter

because the end result

is splattered brain matter

amidst the party and bullshit

rhetoric

of justifiable homicide.

they claim genocide

but that's a racist rant

which coincides

with the apathy

displayed

when it's time to convict

for the loss

of black souls.

...and the death knell tolls.

can you feel the pain,

the welling of tears,

the sordid fear

of terrified black children

as a police cruiser

pulls near?

are your eyes wide shut

as a mother cries

while her son dies

over and over

on a digital cloud

for an insatiable crowd?

two score and ten,

the blood lust

has returned again.

scarlet life

runs thick,

spilling into cesspools

filled with angry white sheets.

three k's a day

will help keep those

negroes at bay.

the media sends images

precise and subliminal

that make all the monkeys

look like criminals.

...and the death knell tolls.

bow your head and weep.

does God hear the screams

of his children

gathered like sheep

for the slaughter?

there is a movement

to make people of color

the guilty entity,

even if the truth

sings loud and clear.

does black flesh

not bleed,

does it not shed tears

and hope for the future?

maybe it's more appropriate

to don the facade

of a modern day slave

and watch

the invisible whips

reign once more.

fear of a black planet or the real america?

What’s happening in Ferguson isn’t new.

If you’re black and living in this land of the free called America, you’ve been programmed to accept the madness. There is a fear that resonates through America. It's a manufactured fear that all black men should be watched closely. The problem isn't in the people. There's a deliberate glitch in the system. We are ALL brainwashed to react a certain way. The value of an African American life is no less than any other. Yet when viewed through the media lens, we don't mean shit.

What about MY fear as a black man? Will a fed up police officer, having a bad day, use me as target practice? Will other people, who embrace violence, lash out at me for being an undesirable color? The challenges of being Black in America are REAL. If you're not a rapper, athlete or actor with cash, your life is worthless. Those are the attributes necessary to survive and function in the post racial United States of America. If you come up lacking in any of these areas, you’re automatically labeled a thug. People want to see you eradicated for the vermin that you are. You’re an uneducated piece of crap that needs to be shipped back to Africa. The next time you hear that insanity, take the offer. Politely ask the idiot to fund your trip back! People are going to say and believe what they want. What’s the bottom line? Being black in America puts a target on your back.

There’s a resounding sadness that comes with viewing another incident like this. Each time it happens, the level of acceptance grows. Each time an African American body lies cold in the street, the disrespect of the individual begins immediately. No longer is there a time for grieving and asking of questions. There is the rush to guilt factor. Obviously there has to be some kind of crime committed because the person shot to death…was black.

No. I’m not going to write a glowing epitaph for Mike Brown. I’m not going to call him a hero, like so many are doing for Darren Wilson. What I will say is that none of us are perfect. I woke up hating my boss for lying to me. I didn’t pray, when I was supposed to. Instead of eating a balanced breakfast, I scarfed down half a bag of potato chips. Hell, I even had a few lurid thoughts about sex! Does that mean I need to be gunned down?

We have become so insecure and obsessed with race, right has become wrong and wrong has become the norm. We no longer see each other as equals, until proven different. If there’s black and white, there has to be a problem. Unfortunately, the aftermath is overwhelmingly death.

We will never be understood or respected, until the deliberate brainwashing of this nation is addressed! There will be more lies spread to discredit and insult the integrity of the African American race. People are afraid of what they don’t understand. The first instinct is to kill it. That means there will be no need to waste time trying to justify acceptance.

When attacked by an angry mob, John Merrick, aka The Elephant Man, cried out, “…I am not an animal! I am a man!” Have we come so far, as a so called nation, that we ignore the pleas of the downtrodden and shove their rights under the rug? Better yet, has that rug been replaced by bloody sheets? Are we going to see water cannons and dogs unleashed, as people simply ask to be treated with dignity?

A tad over 500 miles away from Ferguson, monuments stand in Birmingham’s Kelly Ingram Park, reminding of the fight for equality and understanding. The horror, brutality and racist acts, which where committed, happened 50 years ago.

To anyone oblivious to what took place, it might as well have been yesterday. For anyone who thought they were living in a post racial utopia, it’s time to wake up.

No. This is not new. Google "1960's riots" and you'll discover horrible, disturbing photos that could describe tensions today. Reality is a hard pill to swallow…especially when it’s being served with a glass full of bullshit.


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