Elusive Justice For Black Americans

Why is injustice centered at Black Americans seemingly more valuable to White Americans than providing a semblance of equal justice to Black Americans by those same White Americans in the 21st century?

This is a question that I feel shouldn’t even be one be asked it still is asked and still not yet answered by this nation.

This morning while pursuing the Huffington Post looking for something that would engage my 60-second thought on a day that winter’s cold has finally arrived in my neighborhood. I came across and read Marian Wright Edelman’s thought-provoking essay “Why are guns more valuable than children in America?”. She spoke of America’s love for the rights of gun-owners other than the sacrificed lives of children aged five and under killed by those weapons of immediate destruction. Marian Edelman even noted that statistics showed that in 2014, 30 more preschoolers were killed by guns in America than law enforcement officers carrying firearms to protect themselves. The evidence is clear that in 2015 more pre-schoolers will be killed than law enforcement officers this year as well.  The article was fair in its assessment that something needs to be done by legislators in Congress to put an end to this senseless, needless violence done by those weapons of immediate destruction. However, that article provoked another thought for me this morning it aroused in my mind this question? 

Why is injustice towards Black Americans more valuable than providing justice, real justice to Blacks in America?

Oh, it’s easy to answer “racism” which is the most simple response to this question. You have our folks screaming that white Americans simply hate and revere blacks in America. Whites in this nation always have had a deep-seated hatred of Black Americans and they always will have this hatred. But is it that simple?  Hell, those bastards stole us from our original homelands in Africa. Hell, there is even historical evidence that many of our black ancestors were the indigenous people that this land was stolen. Our ancestors already here in America and those evil white people not only stole our lands they massacred millions of red brothers and then enslaved the strongest of the remaining black ones. This provoked essay is simply going to ask the question and simply wonder why since the emancipation of our ancestors in 1865. Why has America done so much to impede equal justice being applied to black citizens in this nation? Oh, some will say the assassination of Old Abe sat back the plans to provide the impetus to secure those rights promised by the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments of the Constitution. That possibility could be explained since his predecessor Andrew Johnson was not a true friend of the abolitionists and Radical Republicans who fought for blacks securing freedom before as well as after the Civil War. Yet, Reconstruction was implemented during his Presidency and there indeed were magnanimous plans put in place in those southern states to bring true freedom to newly freed slaves.  During those years overt racism could indeed answer the question posed by my thought this morning. Yet, why wouldn’t it have been easier just to allow let freedom to ring after the most heinous battle this nation had ever encountered?

Why was it necessary once Blacks were unlocked from the bonds of slavery to continue to impede the full implementation of equal rights and true justice to every one of our ancestors. I mean why even have judicial considerations for Plessey vs. Ferguson? Why have a segregated armed force until 1947?  Why separate the races in federal workplaces, when before that edict it had been shown that either race had shown no problem with workplace conditions before Wilson’s racist change in direction? Why did our Government allow the destruction of Black Wall Street in Greenwood, Oklahoma to go unpunished not only at the time of the actual incident in 1921 but even up to this very day? Why was it even any reason for dead black bodies to hang on trees like strange fruits as Billie Holliday sang so eloquently? Why was no white man in the south ever convicted of killing a black person even when the heinous acts were done in public view for all to view and admire their acts of hate? Why were ghettoes allowed to flourish in the so-called greatest economic nation the world had ever known? Why did 4 little black girls get blown to smithereens simply because they attended a church that stood for justice? Why did the federal government not step in and reinstitute all the monies that were stolen from newly freed blacks who had placed their funds in the Freedman Banks? Why in the early 1970’s when the Central Intelligence Agency needs funds to create havoc worldwide. Why didn’t anyone in the room say hell no when they decided to flood guns and drugs into America’s cities to get the cash necessary to engage in mischief worldwide?  Why did no one say to Ollie North, Reagan’s chief architect of a misguided policy “you have lost your freaking mind” if you think you can flood the streets of Black America with drugs to pay to arm your little rebellion in Central America? Why is it to this day that some blacks in our communities feel that it’s best to ignore our conditions rather than confront them? Why when law enforcement bullets riddled black bodies our communities strike straight to the streets crying injustice but when our brothers and sisters riddle bodies similar to those taken by the bad police officers our community sits in silent acceptance of those acts? Why can Americans black or white view monitors of visual information daily and see the destruction caused by America’s weapons of immediate destruction and act as if those destructive actions won’t have some casual effect back on our streets? Why do we rush to movie theaters across the nation as our communities implode around us to see stellar destruction but our community members won’t give that same enthusiastic response or support to rebuilding, building, or growing construction of real-time living? 

The question of why injustice is so easily attained is that justice takes the union of two forces aligning for a common magnificent objective. It seems that never in the history of America has that alignment of objectives between the races been aligned.  From either side when blacks needed the full force of the might of the US Government to attain a full measure of justice, real justice,  no one in a position of power answered that call.  Can we simply answer our dilemma with “it’s whitey fault” you know that normal racist response?.  You see in many instances blacks have been called to support their own and in many of those instances, those calls have gone unanswered. Brothers and sisters for real justice, I mean absolute justice the call for action must be answered as it was in Montgomery, Alabama, or Greenwood, Mississippi, or Selma, Alabama, or the Mall in Washington DC as it was in 63, 95, and 15.  Those calls must be answered ten-fold and the response must elicit actions from both sides, not just one side.  If you have the attitude that it is “whitey’s fault” then do something about it build up, link up, and make a significant difference in the lives of those around you. If you feel that this world is more than about the color of someone’s skin but the content of his or her’s character then do something about it build up, link up and make a significant difference in the lives of those around you. See something familiar? Yes, same action but different feelings internally but the same actions are aligned for the common good of people living around you. Whites in America have neglected justice but our communities have continued to look towards those White Americans to address our concerns for justice. Justice has been elusive and it's time for justice in America for blacks to be captured.