This morning as I'm sure we all did I woke up to the the horrific news of the shooting at the midnight Batman showing in the Colorado theater. As I scrolled through different tweets and the internet trying to figure out what was going on I was disheartened by the fact that several Black people that I follow thought it was appropriate to tweet either in general or at POTUS and ask why weren't the 45 people getting killed in Chicago on any given day news? Obviously the crime in Chicago is horrific and disgusting but it is NOT appropriate to "plug" this violence in the wake of a mass shooting or tragedy. This got me to thinking, as Black people do we only care when other Black people are killed if the shooting is done by a non-Black person or by the police? I would bet all the money in my bank account that 98% of people killed on any day in Chicago are done by Black people killing Black people. Why is POTUS responsible for that? What are we doing to clean up our own communities? Where the hell is Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson cuz I haven't seen them since Trayvon Martin was top news? We are only hurting ourselves so I ask you why should white people or anyone else in the country care? The North side of Chicago certainly doesn't have the same issues as the South and the West Side. Some of my boys from high school and elementary school refused to even come home during summer vacations in college because it got so bad. We need to stop acting like Barak Obama is the President for only Black people in this country!! Clearly he's standing in a majority republican, racist, white government fighting tooth and nail so that we can have basic things like health care and other goverment aide that many of us need and we sit here on our ASSES whining about what he's not doing when Black people are killing themselves. Well, what the fuck are you doing?
Granted, equal education is not accessible to all. Lord knows Chicago Public Schools are a piece of shit but have we rallied? Have we petitioned? There have been no walks, no free breakfast, no car pools or bus pools. Many of my aunts work in the Public School system and I've heard them tell story after story about how they tried to meet with parents ALL year and the only time the parents want to show up is at the end of the year when they realize their kids aren't gonna pass into the next grade. We need to become better parents better teachers, taking responsibility when raising our own kids. Just because you have a child young does not give you an excuse. Get off of facebook and twitter with you petty arguments and foolishness GO RAISE YOUR CHILD!! And you know what? The rest of the community needs to say something when you see inappropriate parenting myself included. A few years ago I was on the CTA (Chicago Transit) I had long micro braids and I felt a hand tug them, I turned around to see a little baby boy no more than 2 years old and his mother preceded to beat the shit out of him for tugging my braids. I WAS HORRIFIED!!! Clearly he was too little to know any better, but I became part of the problem when I said nothing and looked away.
STOP LOOKING FOR INSTANT GRATIFICATION!!!!!!! Like I said I realize that school is not for everyone but we need to start looking past the next Jordans that come out. Can you see past your mama's or your grandma's basement? Why is your mama/grandma/auntie/sister raising YOUR CHILD? Being a flashy ninja is only bound to get you killed or messed up because people out here are jealous! I'm not saying don't have nice things but why are you selling your blood to get your one-year old Jordan when your light bill isn't paid? You have zero dollars in the bank is it really that important to go to the nail shop?!!!!
Have Black people had it easy in this world, especially in this country?! HELL NO!! But we're damn sure doing a hell of a lot better then we were just fifty years ago and we certainly aren't out in any fields picking cotton, tobacco or sugar cane. Yes, the ramifications of slavery, discrimination and injustice run deep within our community but what are we doing to help ourselves?
We need to stop being concerned about things like people sexual orientations that are for one, non of our business and are only spewing more hate into our communities. We need to SAY SOMETHING when we see something!!! Stop bringing these perverts around your kids and when your kids say somebody is being inappropriate BELIEVE IT. Stop sweeping stuff under the rug, because its all going to come out one day causing way more harm then you could ever imagine. We need to stop acting like we don't know what's up stop living in this generation of strangers.
I'm sorry if this seemed harsh but its the truth through my eyes Chocolate Girl In the City
I'll be praying for the victims and families in Colorado and those in my hometown.