Kimberly Jones: 'they are lucky that what Black people are looking for is equality and not revenge', The Reasons for Riots - 2020

“So…I’ve been seeing a lot of things talking of the people making commentary. Interestingly enough the ones I’ve noticed that have been making the commentary are wealthy Black people making the commentary about we should not be rioting we should not be looting we should not be tearing up our communities and then there’s been the argument of the other side of “we should be hitting them in the pocket”, “we should be focusing on the black out days where we don’t spend money.”

But you know, I feel like we should do both and I feel like I support both and I’ll tell you why I support both: I support both because when you have a civil unrest like this there are three type of people in the streets. There are the protestors, there are the rioters, and there are the looters.

The protesters are there because they actually care about what is happening in the community they want to raise their voices and there are there strictly to protest.

You have the rioters who are angry who are anarchists who really just want to fuck shit up and that’s what they’re gonna do regardless. And the you have the looters.

The looters are there almost exclusively there just to do just that. To Loot.

Now. People are like, “what did you gain? What did you get from looting?” I think that as long as we are focusing on the “what” we’re not focusing on the “why” and that’s my issue with that. As long as we’re focusing on *what* they’re doing, we’re not focusing on *why* they’re doing it. And some people are like, “Those aren’t people who are legitimately angry about what’s happening, those are people who just wanna get stuff.” Okay. Well then let’s go with that. Let’s say that’s what it is. Let’s ask ourselves, why in this country in 2020 the financial gap between poor Blacks and the rest of the world is at such a distance that people feel like their only hope, and only opportunity to get some of the things that we flaunt and flash in front of them all the time is to walk through a broken glass window and get it…that they are so hopeless that getting that necklace, getting that TV, getting that change, getting that bed, getting that phone, whatever it is that they’re gonna get is that in that moment when the riots happen and that presents an opportunity of looting that that’s they’re only opportunity for them to get it, we need to be questioning that why. Why are people that poor, why are people that broke, why are people that food insecure, that clothing insecure that they feel that their only shot…that they are shooting their shot by walking through a broken glass window to get what they need?

And then people wanna talk about “well there’s plenty of people who pulled themselves up by their bootstraps…and got it on their own…why can’t they do that?”

Let me explain something to you about economics in America and I am so glad that as a child I got an opportunity to spend time at PUSH where they taught me this. We must not forget that economics was the reason that Black people were brought to this country. We came to do the agricultural work in the south and the textile work in the North. Do you understand that? That’s what we came to do. We came to do the agricultural work in the South and the textile work in the North.

Now if I right now decided that I want to play monopoly with you and for 400 rounds of playing monopoly I didn’t allow you to have any money, I didn’t allow you to have anything on the board, I didn’t allow for you to have anything. And then we play another 50 rounds of monopoly and everything you gained and that you earned while playing those rounds was taken from you. That was Tulsa. That was Rosewood. Those are places where we built Black economic wealth, where we were self-sufficient where we owned our stores, where we owned our property, and they burned them to the ground.

So that’s 450 years. So for 400 rounds of monopoly you don’t get to play at all. Not only do you not get to play you have to play on the behalf of the person that you’re playing against! You have to play and make money and earn wealth for them and then you have to turn it over to them. So then for 50 years you finally get a little bit and you’re allowed play and everytime they don’t like the way that you’re playing or that you’re catching up or that you’re doing something to be self-sufficient, they burn your game, they burn your cards, they burn your monopoly money. And then finally at the release—and at the onset of that—they allow you to play and they say “okay now you catch up.” Now at this point, the only way you’re going to catch up in the game is if the person shares the wealth, correct? But what if every time you seek to share the wealth then there’s psychological warfare against you to say “oh, you’re an equal opportunity hire.” So if I play 400 rounds of monopoly with you and I had to play and give you every dime that I made and then for 50 years every time that I played, you didn’t like what I did, you got to burn it like they did in Tulsa, and like they did in Rosewood…how can you win? How can you win?! You can’t win. The game is fixed. So. When they say, “why do you burn down the community?”, “Why do you burn down your own neighborhood?”…It’s not ours! We don’t own anything! We don’t own ANYthing.

There is…Trevor Noah said it so beautifully last night. There’s a social contract that we all have. That if you steal or if I steal then the person who is the authority comes in and they fix the situation. But the person who fixes the situation is killing us! So the social contract is broken! And if the social contract is broken, why the fuck do I give a shit about burning the fucking football Hall of fame…about burning a fucking Target? You BROKE the contract when you killed us in the streets and didn’t give a fuck. You broke the contract when for 400 years we played your game and built your wealth. You broke the contract when we built our wealth again on our own by our bootstraps in Tulsa and you dropped bombs on us…when we built it in Rosewood and you came in and you slaughtered us. You broke the contract. So fuck your Target. Fuck your Hall of Fame.

As far as I’m concerned, they could burn this bitch to the ground. And it still wouldn’t be enough. And they are lucky that what Black people are looking for is equality and not revenge.”

Kimberly Latrice Jones is a YA author who wrote ‘I’m Not Dying with You Tonight’.

I'm not dying cover.jpg
Source: https://www.instagram.com/tv/CBGUPgBApio/?...

Muhammad Ali: 'How come is everything white?', Parkinson interview - 1971

Aired 17 October 1971, London, United Kingdom

I asked my momma, I said, ‘Momma, how come everything is white?’ I said, Why is Jesus white with blonde hair and blue eyes? Why is the Lord’s Supper all white men?

Angels are white, Pope, Mary and even the angels.,

I said, ‘Mother, When we die, do we go to heaven?’
She said, ‘Naturally we go to heaven’

I said, ‘What happeend to all the black angels when they took the pictures?’

..

And the angel food cake was the white cake, and the devil food cake was the chocolate cake.

I always wondered .. and the president lived in the White House,

And Mary had a little lamb, his feet as white as snow, and Snow White, and everything was white.

Santa Claus was white.
And everything bad was black.

The little ugly duckling was a black duck. And the black cat was the bad luck. And if I threaten you I’m going to blackmail you.

I said, ‘Mama, why don’t they call it whitemail, they lie too!’

I was always curious, and this is when I knew something was wrong.

Source: https://twitter.com/LordAshcroft/status/12...

Samuel Getachew: 'When did America fall so in love with the sound of gunshots?', Fourth of July poem, “Arms” - 2018

19 Februrary 2018 (uploaded to Twitter @EighteenX18) USA

This amazing 15 year old poet is Samuel Getachew. He is on Twitter @samuel_sgd

After Philando Castilles murderer was acquitted of all charges, I thought a lot about how he told officers he was permitted to carry a handgun

I thought a lot about the second amendment, how it doesn’t seem to apply to everyone

How a black man with a gun is a threat

But a white man with a gun is a patriot.

Or how a black child playing with a toy gun in a park is thug

But a white man with an AK47 strapped to his belt in a grocery store is a patriot

 Or how a black woman firing a warning shot to her abuser is a danger to society

But a white man with a gun showing up to the memorial  of a victim of police brutality is a patriot

Or how a black child with some skittles is one of those asssholes that always gets away.

But a white man with a gun following a 17 year old around in his gated community is still a patriot

Still has the right to stand his ground

And I think that too often we forget that Trayvon Martin wasn’t killed by the police,

Just by a white man with a gun on neighbourhood watch who fancied himself God for the evening

Thought he’d decide who lived, and who died that day

I find it fascinating

How the right to bear arms comes second only to free speech, but is eleven amendments above outlawing slavery.

I wonder when we got our priorities so out of order.

And as I sat at home on the Fourth of July

And listened to the sound of fireworks go on for hours.

I wondered to myself.

When did America fall so in love with the sound of gunshots?

That she wanted to hear them on her birthday.

Source: https://twitter.com/EighteenX18/status/965...