Last Sunday I spent the day in the house watching DVDs. Not only did I finally get around to seeing For Colored Girls (via bootleg), but I also rented Denzel’s THE GREAT DEBATERS. It was everything I thought it would be, and, being a member of United Black America, I watched with an eye towards the situations that they (the cast) faced back in 1935 that are still applicable today.
I did find quite a few, but the number one thing that leaped out at me during the movie was this statement:
“Crime is a form of oppression”
The relevance of this statement didn’t hit me until I put it into the context of the present day. But before I get into that, let me differentiate between the two types of crime as they relate to this post; overt and covert crime:
Covert crime is criminal activity that is disguised as being either just, righteous, or committed unintentionally. An example of this would be the Bush administration’s war in Iraq, the torture of suspected terrorists, and the CIA involvement in the drug trade during the 80s. Overt crime is assault, rape, robbery, and the other usual activities.
Now heres the thing: We all know that Blacks here in America are oppressed, plotted on, criminalized, profiled, and marginalized. But is that any excuse for us to participate in our own oppression with overt crime against one another? If crime is a form of oppression, then we are our own worst oppressors. Damn near all crime is Black on Black crime.
You can blame this on the covert criminal campaign waged against us by the white establishment or what have you, but when it comes to the destruction of our race, the buck stops with us. Anybody advocating brash violence against his people is an oppressor. I talked about this in an earlier post entitled Enemies Foreign and Domestic.
I dont care what anybody says, if you got enough balls to beat the hell out of a black man, rape a sista, but you all “yessa boss” when white people are around you, you are a f*@*#&$ coward. and you belong in the pen with all the other f(&@(&# cowards. You want to get violent with somebody? Run yo ass up in the rich, white neighborhoods and rape, rob, and steal from your oppressor. Otherwise, acknowledge yourself as Bitch Made and commit suicide, ASAP.
For those of us in the community, its our responsibility to (1) communicate the reality of our situation by exposing Blacks to emerging Black Consciousness(2) redirect the anger and self-hatred that fuels our violence against one another and (3) offer a new way forward. Thats the real reason for this site, and should be one of the driving factors behind any movement that you get behind (NOI, NGE, MSTA, even traditional Baptist churches).
And for those of you who are tired or hearing about Black on Black violence, like the issue is a dead horse, that should underline the fact that the issue is still ridiculously out of hand. Let me quote a South Carolina newspaper called the Shelby Star: ”Despite overall crime numbers falling in recent years, black-on-black [emphasis added] violence remains a prevalent issue”.
If we are tired of this issue being brought up, then we should be actively stomping it out with solutions and activism.
Have You Read These Yet?
