Black Women Matter

 I watched the 2012 version of Steel Magnolias and I liked it more than I thought I would’ve. I saw the personalities of women I grew up with who were tough, with gentle hearts, razor sharp wit and went through the loss of one of their own. They were a family that loved one another. They were as the title suggested tender yet strong.  I saw my sisters, cousins, Aunts, and even my nieces. These black women in my circle mean the world to me. They are a part of the man I grew up to be, they are irreplaceable. I walked away from the movie appreciative of the women I knew and grew up with, would call my friends and argue with like we were siblings.

Then there is another movie playing in my head and I for the life of me want it to end. I want it to end because unlike Steel Magnolias it seems to be repeating constantly on a loop with different names and situations with the same result and the same refrain.  “If they didn’t” If Sandra Bland didn’t mouth off” “ If Rekia Boyd weren’t out with their friends”  “If Aiyanna Jones weren’t at home sleep”  “If police Pearlie Golden & Yvette Smith  didn’t answer the door for police”. “If Shantel Davis didn’t run the red light and strike a vehicle” ALL OF THEM just might be alive today. These things are very minor and black women are dying for just living while black. Racism isn’t only a man in a white hood calling me nigger; it can be someone explaining why I deserve to die in police custody. After all, police can do no wrong…even when they arrested Charlena Cook for no good reason other than she was upset at a dispute she was involved in…when the cop didn’t even ask for the white woman’s ID she was in the dispute with

But these people deserved to live even though they did much more than Sandra Bland, even pointing guns at police---white privilege on display front and center

Sarah Culhane, she kicked three officers in the head, caused 3 accidents

These 2 men pictured here who shot up a Wal Mart and were taken without incident. I had a hell of a time trying to find their names.

Or Dustin Lee Gunnels, who reached for his gun twice

EJ Watson and his road rage

James Holmes the Louisiana theater shooter John Houser & let’s not forget Dylan Roof who got Burger King after he shot and killed 9 people.

Julia Shields, got taken in without incident after having body armor

Jesse Delflorio had a judge express sympathy for him at his trial

Joseph Houseman had a standoff with police and got his gun back the next day.

What happened to Sandra Bland wouldn’t have happened to a white woman

I have established a PATTERN which unmistakably links race to behavior by cops. Social experiments bear this out: WWYD Bike Thief, another one where a white man and black man both open carry an AR15 and try to steal a car. If you refuse to acknowledge that they’re treated differently, you and I aren’t watching the same video

I am TIRED, TIRED of this happening and tired of the cop defenders when they try to deny the pattern of black women, black men, and people of color being shot and killed by police. We need to start holding a cop accountable for the murders of unarmed civilians and demand that they stop treating people of color like we’re not people at all

I don’t care if you agree with me, racist policing has to end and you don’t have to agree that policing is racist in areas predominantly of color…it’s a fact whether or not you agree with it.

A Salon piece has called out something very important and I state it here:
Black girls are never deemed feminine enough for their sexual and adolescent vulnerability to register for white people. They are frequently viewed as aggressors by both police and regular citizens alike, even for doing very adolescent things like mouthing off to those in authority. This is the reason why education scholars suggest that Black girls are suspended from school six times as often as white girls, because even simple adolescent forms of testing boundaries are perceived as far more aggressive based on race.
Citizens have the right to “mouth off” to police. We have the right to question how we are being treated, why we are being arrested, why we are even being approached. Far too many police deploy accusations of disturbing the peace or obstructing justice to quiet citizens who question them within legal bounds. As long as we don’t threaten or enact physical harm on police officers, we can “mouth off” all we want. We don’t have to be polite to police officers, and they clearly have very little interest in being polite to us. And for those who keep demanding that we act civilly, the point is, “incivility” is not a crime.
There are many more women of color who have died in incidents involving police -- including all-too-frequent encounters with the mentally ill, like Michelle Cusseaux, Aura Rosser, or Margaret Mitchell. These women were armed and considered dangerous according to police, but their deaths point to failings in how police work with mentally ill individuals.
I am tired of seeing people of color constantly treated as if our lives don’t matter. Until a majority White America really sees how this is for themselves, I am afraid that they will never demand it until it happens to them with the kind of regularity that it happened to Tanisha Anderson, Natasha McKenna, Darnisha Harris, Mya Hall, Shelly Frey, Alberta Spruill. Only when it happens to them, only when they keep seeing the faces and hearing the stories will they care, only when it happens to them…IF it ever happens to them will they understand how it is being a black woman in a white man’s world where they are the ideal, even if most crime has been committed by white men in this nation’s history and no one cares to call that to the carpet. I feel like I’m under siege, like I’m always trying to defend my life and the lives of other black people when they’re victimized. I guess then they will finally stop calling black people overly sensitive and diminishing the racism we face and saying it’s all in our heads and actually be willing to tackle it

It’s horrible that people are more aggravated with Sandra Bland for KNOWING her rights, than the police officer for VIOLATING her rights

Thanks Youtube

See you later!