Black Women Deserve Better

The Vent One comment

Rest in peace to Breonna Taylor, and may the ancestors be with all the other Breonna Taylors we’ll never know about.

Note to Reader | Before I get started, I want to warn readers that this piece contains some graphic mf language. As you know, I’m hella unfiltered, and unapologetically Black. This piece, like all my others, is a refection of all that shit.

I started to write this piece the day we received the verdict, but decided to hold off and let my feelings process before sharing them with the world. One thing I’m learning on my journey of cultural identity reservation and resurrecting my Afrikan consciousness, is accepting the role emotions play in my life. Societal pressures of the West has fooled many of us men (specifically Black men) into believing emotions are for the weak, or that emotions are for females (which also speaks to how many of us view women 🙄). Many of us have bought into a corrupted idea of what masculinity is, and because of that, we don’t know how to process our emotions or truly understand our feelings. We know how to suppress our feelings, but we don’t know how to actually deal with our feelings.

So instead of venting and rushing my thoughts out to you all, I wanted to take some time to collect my thoughts and fully process my feelings.

So how do I feel?

I’m feeling a lot of things bruh. I’m hurt… I’m upset… I’m depressed… I’m angry… Like, so fucking angry bruh.

Mad Cuba GIF - Find & Share on GIPHY

But one thing I’m not tho, is surprised. In fact, I saw this (the Breonna Taylor verdict) coming weeks ago. In fact, as soon Daniel Cameron’s clown ass announced that they’ll be using a grand jury, I knew that this day would unfortunately come…

Ferguson, and the Mike Brown rebellion was not that fucking long ago bruh. The psychological scares are still fresh for many of us who lived through those times. I remember seeing the city prep for war, days before the verdict was planned to be announced. Just like Louisville did a few weeks ago… Declaring a State of Emergency just days before a verdict is planned to be announced not only is a key sign that an injustice is about to take place, but more importantly, show’s that the system itself knows that they’re acting against the will of the people. It shows that the system would much rather rip this country apart rather than correct itself.

There are few things I want to talk about, but for those who have short attention spans, let me leave you with this…

Fuck the system. Period.

This so-called justice system is so fucked that it’s beyond reform. If you’re driving a 1989 Honda and the mf only works on select days or select moments throughout the day (Keyword here being SELECT) and you decide to take it to the shop for repairs guess what the repairman is going to tell you?

“Ain’t no fixing this shit. You need a new car.” On that same note, ain’t no fixing, or reforming this broken justice system bruh. In fact, let me correct that. This justice system isn’t broken. It’s operating exactly how it was designed to.

Like Richard Pryor used to jokingly say, it’s called the “justice system” cause it’s “just us” in the system… Which is exactly why we need to throw the whole thing away.

I had to get that out the way for those who don’t like long reads, cause please believe I gotta lot of shit to say.

Worth

How much is a Black life worth to you? Many people say life is priceless, so I’d assume those reading would saying something similar. But in a literally sense, how much is a Black life worth to you? Better yet, how much do you think a Black life is worth to America?

Just a few weeks ago we learned that Breonna Taylor’s family will be receiving a $12 million dollar settlement from the city of Louisville. For a lot of Americans, especially us Black folks, $12 million dollars is a lot of money. A lot of us saw that number and thought, “at least they got that.” A few of us probably even thought $12 million dollars is a reasonable amount to account for what these murderers did. I even saw a few of ya’ll saying that the Taylor family, ‘sold her out,’ by accepting this money in replace of justice 🤦🏾‍♂️

$12 million dollars. Keep that number in mind. Write it down if you have to.

$12 million dollars.

I should also add that a $12 million dollar settlement for a Black family that has suffered loses due to police misconduct or excessive force is extremely rare. We must not forget how America valued the lives of our other less fortunate brothers and sisters. The families whose loved ones deaths didn’t go viral, or have multi-billion dollar marketing campaigns profiting off their pain.

Now that you have that $12 million dollar settlement in mind, Let’s travel back some 3 years ago… July 15, 2017 to be exact…

Justine Damond.

Do you remember her? She was the white women who called 911 in July 2017 to report that she had heard a woman being attacked. After arriving in her neighborhood, a cop named Mohamed Noor (Black man), ended up murdering her by shooting out of his partner’s window while sitting in the car.

Unlike Breonna Taylor’s murder’s, Mohamed was convicted of third-degree murder, which carries a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison, and second-degree manslaughter, which can lead to as many as 10 years in prison. One could end the story right here and be satisfied that justice on behalf of Justine Damond was carried out, but we all know that’s not how the story ends… Justine Damond‘s family also received a $20 million dollar settlement from Minneapolis. $20 million. I mean, the disparities between the two outcomes of both cases are so jarring it’s almost impossible to believe this really happened.

This is just one of the thousands of reasons why we say, Black lives matter. When we say, “Black lives matter,” understand that weren’t reppin’ some political organization bruh. We’re literally saying, BLACK LIVES MATTER. OUR LIVES MATTER, because according to America (and the West as a global power) our lives are expendable.

Are We Our Sisters Keeper?

I’ve been asking myself this question everyday, nonstop, ever since the verdict dropped. The unfortunate answer I’ve came up with is no.

No, we’re not our sisters keepers. If we were we wouldn’t abuse them they way we do… We wouldn’t degrade them the way we do… If we were our sister’s keeper, mfs like Daniel Cameron wouldn’t be around… Why? Cause mfs who had Daniel Cameron’s mindset would be “ideological extinct,” to put it mildly.

Daniel Cameron Ain’t Shit

For those who don’t know, Daniel Cameron is the Attorney General of Kentucky. The same mf responsible for handling the investigation into Breonna Taylors murder. Like many negros in the West (and I use that word in the most literal sense), Daniel Cameron suffers from an extreme case of internalized racism. Part of living with internalized racism, specifically speaking for Black people, means doing whatever it takes to be accepted by a group of people who will NEVER accept you. This also includes shit like completely rejecting ones cultural, spiritual, and ancestral ties to Afrika, as well as, doing whatever it takes to reinforced the system of white supremacy.

Although I don’t personally know Daniel Cameron, after careful and extensive observation, I have no problem diagnosing his clown ass with an extreme case of internalized racism.

Mfs like Daniel DO NOT speak for Black people.

That includes the clown himself. Which leads me to my next point.

During the press conference for the verdict, Daniel said something he had no mf business saying…

“I understand that as a Black man, how painful this is … which is why it was so incredibly important to make sure that we did everything we possibly could to uncover every fact,”

Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron during Taylor announcement

Again…

Daniel Cameron isn’t a Black man. Daniel Cameron doesn’t speak on the behalf of Black people.

Daniel Cameron is a negro, and negros have no voice of their own. Negros only speak on behalf of their master, and that’s exactly what that negro was doing.

A real Black man would’ve done everything in his power to make sure Breonna Taylor’s family received true justice,. The same justice Justine Damond’s family got… Not to mention, he’d do whatever he could to ensure that Breonna Taylor would be the last Breonna Taylor. In other words, a real Black man would stand up to the system. A negro would do whatever he could to uphold a justice system that punishes, “just us.”

I was scrolling through my IGTV feed the other day and ran across a video featuring the fearless Tamika Mallory. She was replying to Daniel’s coon ass comments (see above) when she said something that many of our elders and ancestors warned us once before.

All skin-folk, ain’t kin-folk.

Tamika Mallory

Sidenote: I love our fearless sister Tamika Mallory, and I understand that there is a place and time for everything. However, I must say that the time for us to stop spreading the myth that our ancestors sold us into slavery has been passed. That’s not say Black people didn’t participate in chattel slavery once they were brought here, because they did. However, our ancestors on the motherland had no concept of chattel slavery. Not to mention that the concept of “Black” as an identity is fairly new, so our ancestors didn’t see themselves as Black or belonging to one so-called race. Below is a great clip that dispels this myth from the homie HomeTeam History.

Atlantic Slave Trade: Fallacy of Blacks selling Blacks

Everything Tamika Mallory said about Daniel Cameron was spot on. Daniel is no different then the negros who willfully participated in chattel slavery. No different than the negros who had no problem living under master’s whip as long as he had a “decent” living arrangement.

Daniel Cameron, you’re not Black bruh 🙄 and you’re damn sure not a Black man. You’re exactly what America wants you to be.

A negro.

Time to Step Up

Awhile back I was watching a lecture featuring Master Teacher Dr. Ben when he said something that will stick with me forever.

“In the ancient times of our ancestors they never said, ‘I’m my brothers keeper,’ or ‘I’m my sisters keeper.’ They just took care of them.”

Yosef Ben-Jochannan (Dr. Ben)

Which basically means we never said what didn’t need to be said. Instead, we did what had to be done. Or, in the language of the streets, “we ain’t really with that talking, bih’ we ’bout that action.” That “action” of course being stepping the fuck up bruh.

I should also add that this includes ALL of our sisters. ALL. You’ll notice that the cover for this piece includes ALL women who have fallen to ignorance and bigotry here in the West. Remember what I said that our idea of what masculinity is, and what masculinity looks like is corrupted right? Don’t let that corruption fool you into believing your duty as a Black man is to only protect the Black women you love or the Black women in your life. Just to turn a blind eye to the Black women your narrow mind might not fully accept as such. The fight for Black liberation includes the intersectionality of ALL Black people. PERIOD.

Say their names

Hope

I wanted to wrap this up with some positive shit, or something that would give some people some hope. I don’t know if I’d consider this “positive,” but at least it might give someone reading this some hope.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CFs5S9IBswt/

I’ve said this a thousands times, and I’ll continue to say it until mfs get their act together. Brothers, there is no other group of people on the face of this Earth that understands our struggles better than our Black sisters. It is our duty to protect them from ANY threat that endangers their body, mind, and(or) spirit by any means necessary. If we don’t then we are doomed to die.

Fuck Daniel Cameron.

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