czvasser Afroticity, Morning Coffee

Battle Plans

“Fight for the things you care about in a way that will lead others join you.”

Ruth Bader Ginsberg

You need to make Battle Plans, not for the Zombie Apocalypse, but sooner or later They are Going To Come For You. You’re confused about “your place”. You’re not “staying in your lane” and it ain’t working for them. Now that we got a bit of justice for George Floyd, a settlement for Breonna Taylor and policemen across the country losing jobs for their criminal, racist acts, they know we’re going to want more and that video is going to be our irrefutable witness and give us our day in court.

We are still the “race problem” and the camel’s nose under the tent. They don’t want us at the table. THEY ARE NOT GOING TO GIVE UP POWER AND SHARE PRIVILEGES! I am not advocating violence. I am advocating self-protection and self-determination. They are still killing us. Black Lives Do Matter! I could get all Nation Of Islam about this, but understand, they are not going to give up their place in life to be our allies. When the rubber meets the road, when the battle lines are drawn, most of them are going to drive in the other direction and join the other side.

czvasser Afroticity, Fried Chicken

Afrodescendant

I confess, I’ve was confused about who and what I was. I wanted to believe I was descended from African kings and queens. As a kid, I had posters on my wall of Shaka Zulu and Hannibal, distributed by Ebony magazine, payed for by some beer company. What we wanted most was integration. It seemed a panacea for Jim Crow. How could they discriminate if we were sitting next to them at lunch counters? Surely, the ham sliced for sandwiches didn’t have a white side and a negro side. We would be equal then.

We wanted so badly to be included. We talked about black kids going to white schools. We talked about integration. We wanted to go to their schools even if school buses were tanks and teachers were national guardsmen. We watched other kids play and wanted to be part of the game. We worshipped Ruby Bridges but none of us really wanted to be her. All that seems so long ago.

No matter how many kids were bussed, some things never changed. Northern Jim Crow became the norm. In the north, people smiled a bit more but housing redlining was the same. Schools in minority neighborhoods are still underfunded. Unemployment rates in communities of color are twice the national average. We are still being murdered, albeit, by the police, instead of vigilante mobs, but dead is dead: murder is murder and we are still a long way from equal justice.

When we take a knee in protest, they say we are interfering with their worship of football. When we ask for equal employment, they say we are taking their jobs. When we ask to live and for fair and equal treatment under the law, they say they are not our laws. The laws were written by their forefathers for them. We were considered and marginalized so why should we be included now?

Because there is a price for freedom and peace and discrimination, violence and murder is the wrong currency. We need to pay with sharing and understanding. All lives matter, but right now, in this time, Black lives continue to be taken and destroyed for continued dominance and privilege.