No Comparison

I was just scrolling through Facebook and noticed this photo that one of my social media friends had shared. I'm not sure if it was the photo or the caption that caught my attention. Attached to the ppst was the following: "Hey Ferguson. Hey Baltimore. This is South Carolina. This is how we do it. We are family. No riots. No looting. Nobody acting like animals. No Obama. No Sharpton. We don't need Obama's politicizing attitude. We don't need Sharpton's divisive presence. Both of you STAY AWAY!"

Even in the midst of tragedy, the seeds of hate are being spread. When I saw this, it reminded me of a similar post I viewed shortly after two police officers were killed here in Mississippi. There was a meme showing how calm things were here in comparison to what hapoened in Baltimore. During the funeral of one of the slain officers, Officer Tate, the minister asked "where was Al Sharpton? Didn't this black life matter?" Many people, especially those in the law enforcement community, ran with that misplaced question. When Officers Deen and Tate were murdered, the accused killers were apprehended before the bodies of the officers made it to the crime lab. In Baltimore, there were riots because the community knew James Gray died while in police custody and they were fearful that justice would not be served. So, to compare the calm, organized processions, honoring slain officers after their memorial service is like comparing apples to oranges. Another inequitable comparison is to show the masses praying for the nine victims killed in South Carolina and use that moment to ridicule tne activities that took place in Ferguson and Baltimore. There's no comparison. The situations are totally different.

After the death of the police officers in Mississippi and the death of the nine victims in South Carolina, there's a reference to Al Sharpton and his presumed divisiveness. Apparently, this is an effort at revisionist storytelling. Let's get some facts. When Al Sharpton got involved in the Trayvone Martin case, Martin had been dead for weeks. Trayvone Martin was killed on February 26. The Stanford Police Department ruled the death as justifiable homicide and Gerorge Zimmerman was released after giving his statement to the police. Meanwhile, the family of Trayvone Martin were trying to get access to the evidence, the 911 call and surveillance footage but they were denied access. On Ma4ch 20, Al Sharpton became involved in the case, garnered national attention and eventually got a trial. So, to label Sharpton as divisive is a mischaracterization.

Let's be clear, there's a long history of bigotry and hatred in America and every time there's a story in the mecia, involving black people, that hatred manages to bubble to the surface. Everytime something tragic hapoens in this county, we look for a response from the President. Why are their fragments in this society that do not want to hear from the President? Is it the color of his skin? The incidents in Ferguson, Baltimore and Charleston cannot be compared because they're not the same. Just moments ago, the judge said that the family of Dylann Roof are victims. No sir. The families of those nine people killed by an act of domestic terrorism are victims. Jon Stewart summed it all up on last night's episode of The Daily Show. "In South Carolina, the roads that black people drive on are named after Confederate generals who fought to prevent blacks from having freedom...The Confederate flag flies over South Carolina and the white guy is the one who feels this country has been taken from him."

For We Wrestle Not...

I was watching Anderson Cooper and the program was interrupted with news of a shooting at a church in Charleston, SC. Shortly afterwards, it was revealed that nine lives, including the life of the Pastor and State Legislator, Clementa C. Pinckney, had been tragically cut short by an act of terrorism. The place of this massacre was "Mother" Emanuel AME Church, founded in 1816 and is the oldest black church in the American South. During Wendesday night bible study, allegeded gunman Dylan Roof, entered a place of worship, a place of peace, a place of serenity offering solace among the beauty of stained glass windows and shot nine congregants in the House of the Lord. Emanuel AME survived slave revolts, banning of all black congregations and fire only to fall prey to modern day terrorism. But those of us familiar with history know that black churches have always been the target of thugs and terrorists.

In September of 1963, four little girls, Addie Mae Collins, Carol Denise McNair, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Diane Wesley, were murdered when their church was bombed on a Sunday morning shortly after Sunday school was dismissed. Much like the nine killed in Charlotte, the girls were at a place of worship, learning more about the One tbat so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son. In the midst of worshipping God, a seed of hate manifested itself. Amazingly, the eulogy delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King at the funeral of tne little girls in Birmingham are still poignant today.

"And yet they died nobly. They are the martyred heroines of a holy crusade for freedom and human dignity. And so this afternoon in a real sense they have something to say to each of us in their death. They have something to say to every minister of the gospel who has remained silent behind the safe security of stained-glass windows. They have something to say to every politician who has fed his constituents with the stale bread of hatred and the spoiled meat of racism. They have something to say to a federal government that has compromised with the undemocratic practices of southern Dixiecrats and the blatant hypocrisy of right-wing northern Republicans. They have something to say to every Negro who has passively accepted the evil system of segregation and who has stood on the sidelines in a mighty struggle for justice. They say to each of us, black and white alike, that we must substitute courage for caution. They say to us that we must be concerned not merely about who murdered them, but about the system, the way of life, the philosophy which produced the murderers. Their death says to us that we must work passionately and unrelentingly for the realization of the American dream."

Dylan Roof has been taken into police custody and I can help but wonder when will they start his defense based on mental illness or being deranged. Unlike the many black men who's blood was spilled in the streets for allegedly stealing cigars, selling cigarettes, owing child support, carrying a knife or playing with a toy gun in the park, Roof will sit in a jail cell, have the opportunity to present a case before a judge and jury; an opportunity Mike Brown, Eric Garner, Freddy Gray, Walter Scott, Tamir Rice and countless others didn't get. This country allows seeds of hate to be planted every time a black person is killed, every time the current president speak or whenever the police are called out for their abuse of power. Time and time again, people like Roof are being taught at home, in school, by the police that black lives don't matter and this act of terrorism is the product of what he learned. This country is focused on Isis but ignore the terrorists that are growing up in their homes. What happened today is nothing more than an act of terrorism but Roof will never be categorized as a thug. News outlets won't bring in guest that will delve into the semantics of white crime. Instead, it will be swept under the rug, and calls to take back our country will serve as a battle hymn because any attacks on Roof will be turned into a pseudo they want to take our guns movement. Wake up America, your true colors are showing.