Sunday, March 18, 2012

The Harsh Reality of Injustice

This could easily have been my child. What are we supposed to teach our children? "Since you happen to be black and a male, it would be best if you stayed inside the house until the sun comes up so that no one will mistake a jungle juice for a gun." "Since you happen to be black and a male, anyone who feels threatened by your mere existence on Earth is able to gun you down." "Since you happen to be black and male..." Look, I'm already afraid for my child for those very same reasons, he is black and male so society already has a prejudice against him; society already fears him and will not accept him unless he's toting a ball of some sort. It doesn't matter that he speaks proper English, has a quite decent GPA, and is quite mannerable. It all boils down to those two things: 1) black and 2) male. That condition makes him Sisyphus: doomed to push a rock forever up a hill. It's the reality.
Update: Leonard Pitts addressed this better than I could. 

QoMV

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