Why The Protests Of Today Are NOT Enough

Photo Courtesy of the women of Rescued Church Boston

So it happened again. I woke up to a slew of social media posts regarding another unarmed black person killed by police. My heart began to race as I tried to remain as calm as possible while watching the video on the train to work. I kept repeating to myself "slow breaths Gess". I remembered my previous reaction to the murder of Philando Castile. How I burst into tears and sobbed in public like he was my own brother. How the white people on the train tried their best not to make eye contact and the black people gave me looks of comfort. I didn't want to lose control the way I did before. 

Now I sat watching this new video. This new video with the same old familiarity. A black man on the side of the road because his car broke down, was confronted and shot by police for looking like a "big bad dude" to them. His name was Terrence Crutcher. The next day another black man was shot in his car while waiting for his son. His name was Keith Lamont Scott. 

I have reached a point where I'm not surprised by these incidents and I expect more of them to occur. The outrage is felt for a few weeks through rally's, protests and news coverage and then it dies down until the next injustice. Picket signs and catchy chants are not making a difference. Yes it brings light to the issue and gets people talking, but not enough movement towards change. What can we do when protesting isn't enough?

I think back to when protesting made a difference. When protests resulted in actual change. What comes to mind the most was the Montgomery bus boycott. To fight the injustice of segregation within public transportation, 40,000 African American bus riders stopped using the service. Instead, they car pooled with one another or walked to get to their destination. This wasn't just a one day thing. This boycott lasted 381 days. Back then, African Americans made up 75% of Montgomery ridership. This boycott resulted in the U.S Supreme Court ruling that any law requiring racially segregated seating on buses violated the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

A change was made because white society was beginning to become affected economically. No black bus riders meant 75% of revenue was lost until justice prevailed. Imagine if we could do this in today's times? If as a collective every black person made a decision to boycott UNTIL change is made. And I'm not talking picket signs and marches. I'm talking like refusing to purchase anything from white owned companies until a law is put in place that bans shoot to kill so the suspect can have a chance to be tried fairly. If we don't take a united stand and stick to it until we see results, it's very unlikely that these murders will stop. We as a people have been mistreated since we were forced to come to this land. Isn't it time to truly unify?

You may ask, how is it possible to avoid buying from white owned companies? Where will I eat? Where will I purchase groceries? The problem is we rely on and invest so much into white owned companies that we forgot how to survive on our own. This is the time to research black owned business including black owned farms, markets, retail stores, restaurants, banks, etc. Reach out to the closest black owned businesses in your area and assemble to start a plan to support one another. Let's all get on the same page. If we can make a big enough impact economically, we can push for a change. 

Below are a few links that can get you started. Reach out to the black leaders in you neighborhood and begin a movement in your community:

Black Owned Banks List: http://watchtheyard.com/life/black-owned-banks/

Black Owned Restaurants: http://www.idontdoclubs.com/2016/07/08/black-owned-restaurants/

Black Owned Farms: http://preview.blavity.com/black-farmers-to-buy-from/

Black Owned Grocery Stores: https://blackmainstreet.net/black-farmers-and-grocery-stores-to-buy-from/

Black Owned General Directory: https://www.supportblackowned.com/

#BUYBLACKMOVEMENT
#SUPPORTBLACKBUSINESS

Harriet On the $20. Why I'm NOT impressed

Rumors turned into reality. Anti-Slavery Activist Harriet Tubman will be the new face of the $20 bill sometime in the year 2020. So far a burst of positive exclamations have circulated on my timeline in support and celebration of Tubman's new acknowledgement. I haven't yet spoken on my stance as I have been pretty torn by the subject matter. But in thinking about it, I am not impressed and I will tell you why.

America continuously tells us to forget about slavery. "It happened, we know it was bad, but now it's over so you need to move on from it." It's like they don't have the understanding to comprehend the extent of damage and the repercussions slavery has had and still is having on black people today. We as a people have been ripped from our land, forced to be enslaved for hundreds of years in unknown territory, our identity was stripped and we are left not knowing exactly where we came from. Families and tribes forever lost. And that is just the surface! I did not mention the torture, embarrassment, humiliation, and the irreparable damage that has been done. And there's more! But I would be left writing a novel. 

In being "freed", we have started from ground 0 with the past following us in every step forward without any assistance from the people that are the cause and so "sorry" it happened. Instead of putting a face of one of our own on money that a majority of us aren't able to claim in large enough quantities, how about we receive reparations for the atomic damage done.

What are Reparations you ask?

Reparations for slavery is the idea that some form of compensatory payment should be made to the descendants of Africans who had been enslaved by the Atlantic Slave Trade.

Think it's a far fetched idea? Well reparations were definitely made to slave OWNERS.

According to the National Archives and Records Administration, The District of Columbia Emancipation Act paved the way to compensate slave owners for their “loyalty to the Union” and for the loss of income incurred by freeing slaves.

On April 16, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed a bill ending slavery in the District of Columbia. Passage of this law came 8 1/2 months before President Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation. The act brought to a conclusion decades of agitation aimed at ending what antislavery advocates called “the national shame” of slavery in the nation’s capital. It provided for immediate emancipation, compensation to former owners who were loyal to the Union of up to $300 for each freed slave, voluntary colonization of former slaves to locations outside the United States, and payments of up to $100 for each person choosing emigration. 

Over the next 9 months, the Board of Commissioners appointed to administer the act approved 

930 petitions, completely or in part, from former owners for the freedom of 2,989 former slaves.


Today $300.00 per slave would be equivalent to $8,369.80 per slave. Do that math.

I believe this is just another historical band aid to blind us from the real issue. I am not taking any shine away from Ms. Tubman. She has paved the way for many others after her to fight the good fight towards the equality that we shouldn't have had to fight for in the first place. But honestly, do you really think she would be grateful for this accolade?  

Not impressed