Black Music Month- June 2: WTUG Blacks Out, Here’s My Why!

Today, WTUG is Blacking Out!

What exactly is Blackout Tuesday about?

It began as an idea to fill social media with black squares symbolizing emptiness to give the time usually dedicated for the things we’d normally share to instead give others time to educate themselves on the social injustices and systemic racism that has plagued our country since the beginning of time.

On Tuesday, June 2, the music industry is calling for a “blackout” in response to George Floyd’s death and as a way to stand in solidarity against racial injustice in our country.

Source.

Though we’d like to believe that all men are created equal, many don’t believe so. The current political climate further empowered those who believe otherwise.

It is reprehensible for some who’d have to look up the meaning of that word to think that the color of a person’s skin deems him unable to properly function in society, to believe that darker skin is innately savage, irresponsible, and unworthy of respect and justice.

For our forefathers to have been taken from their homelands, enslaved, and made to help build a country that was savagely stolen from its natives by immigrants who “discovered” what was already there to have those same immigrants treat them as if they’re beneath them, to be offended when humane treatment is requested, and then to RIOT against their establishments for no reason other than it was done without the oppressors approval…

The justice system has never been JUST.  When a Black man who is ACCUSED of a crime can have a death sentence immediately imposed by public hangings, when Black men convicted of selling marijuana receive harsher sentencing than those convicted of more serious drugs that plague other communities, when a traffic stop can mean being killed on the spot because an officer “THINKS” he sees a gun, when a jogger can be killed because people driving by don’t think he belongs in a particular neighborhood… And the murders are not arrested until others become aware of the case and question it….

THERE IS A PROBLEM, and it can no longer go overlooked.

During slavery, Black people were counted as 3/5 of a person.  It’s over 100 years later, and though it’s not on paper, we still are! A life is a WHOLE life.

Furthermore, Black people shouldn’t have to work twice as hard as our counterparts to be considered equal! We shouldn’t have to prove we’re worthy of trust, that we aren’t lazy, that we have no loyalty! Our ancestors proved all of this for hundreds of years in this country.

There are questions about why current protest methods have been adopted.  Here’s the answer…. This is what gets the attention!

Kneeling?  Didn’t work.  Ridiculed for it. Ostracized because of it.

Holding forums to teach what to do during a traffic stop just to SURVIVE it… First of all, it shouldn’t have been necessary.  Yet, we did it! Guess what… Didn’t work! We are still slain in the streets or in our very homes because our lives don’t matter. It’s been proven.

Here’s the deal, though… The history taught in schools aren’t the only lessons we’re taught.  There’s also this thing called oral history.  Our grandparents told us of running and hiding under their beds as the Klan came in search of a relative.  We know how the city of Rosewood, Florida was burned down by white supremacists, how Black Wall Street was burned down in Tulsa, Oklahoma in an act of racial violence.

So, you don’t understand the destruction of property? Guess whose example is being followed. Is it right? Was it right when you did it?  Of course not, but what else can be done when civil conversations don't work?

How long are we expected to remain docile?  How long can we overlook injustice? How long are we supposed to just accept that “that’s the way things are?”

HOW LONG???

You take a family and use them as livestock! Man and wife have a child, and that man is taken to another woman to produce another child and then taken to another woman to produce another child, and so on.  So, you intentionally create broken families and continue that cycle, then wonder why our communities have so many broken homes.  We’re working to combat a behavior that was ingrained in us!

Many of our grandparents and great-grandparents weren’t able to finish even grammar school.  They had to work to support their families; and even then, they barely got by. So, when their children became old enough to work, guess what happened… Right! They stopped school and went to work.

WHY is there a United Negro College Fund? Communities had to piece together the money to send ONE child to college.  That child was expected to come back and help his community by sharing the knowledge he’d gained. WHY are there Historically Black Colleges and Universities?  People of color weren’t allowed to attend other pre-existing institutions!

Some would like to believe that white privilege is a myth.  They probably never have to pray that their child returns home safe from a simple drive to the store.  They probably never think to do a full vehicle inspection before leaving their current position out of fear that a bad signal light could lead to their death.  They don’t live in fear of reproducing a child that could be killed for no other reason than the fact that his skin makes him a suspect. They surely don’t think that their skin deems them as less than anyone else or incapable of producing quality.

Simply put, Black lives matter as much as any others! Granted, all lives matter.  But until THAT is not only recognized but also put into action, get used to the revolution.

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