Yes, Your Life Matters
By 
Were you ever followed by department store security because your skin is white?
If not, your life has always mattered.
Were you ever denied a job simply because your skin is white?
If not, your life has always mattered.
When your son was old enough to drive, did you sit him down and tell him: If you’re ever stopped by a white cop, roll the window partially down, put both hands on the steering wheel, and do not reach for your registration in the glove compartment. He’s likely to think you’re reaching for a gun and he’ll shoot you, no questions asked. It’s called “the talk.”
If not, your life has always mattered.
Were you ever handcuffed at your front door while trying to enter your own house . . . in a white neighborhood?
If not, your life has always mattered.
Was your great, great, great grandmother raped by the man who owned her, then forced to bear his child who would be sold into slavery? Was your great, great, great grandfather sold on an auction block like a piece of merchandise?
If not, your life has always mattered.
Was your son ever snatched from his bed in the dead of night, then hanged from a tree to die?
If not, your life has always mattered.
All we Black people ask is to be able to say our lives matter . . .
Just like your White life has always mattered
Author of You Can Go Home Again
This was an eye opener for me. If you were under the impression that ALL lives matter, or if you were of the opinion that systemic racism is a fallacy pushed by the far left.
systemic: relating to a system, especially as opposed to a particular part.
This is a partial list of a few notable historical figures in U.S. national politics who were members of the Ku Klux Klan before taking office.
1.1 Robert Byrd
1.2 Hugo Black
1.3 Theodore G. Bilbo
1.4 John Brown Gordon
1.5 Joseph E. Brown
1.6 Elmer David Davies
1.7 Edward L. Jackson
1.8 Clarence Morley
1.9 Bibb Graves
1.10 Clifford Walker
1.11 George Gordon
1.12 John Tyler Morgan
1.13 Edmund Pettus
1.14 John W. Morton
1.15 William L. Saunders
1.16 John Clinton Porter
1.17 Benjamin F. Stapleton
1.18 David Duke
Google some of these names. These are long term senators, congressman, supreme court justices and politicians in general. Home of the free? No, not really.
Ask the cops in Chicago why they killed two leaders of the Illinois Black Panther Party. To protect white people from the black people. It was later through much forensic work that it was proven that these two men were killed on purpose. Most instances of this type of racism are not so glaring and obvious. It’s the invisible, the unspoken, the wink and nod, the jokes, etc… that divide us. It’s up to the individual to change. Change only occurs when the pain of not changing is greater than the fear of change itself.
Thank you, Robert, for your ongoing dialogue. Your last two sentences really speak to the heart of the matter.
I wonder if there’s some unspoken truth that my white life matters so much, that the police think they have to protect us from the black ones. Or, that the black youth is doomed anyway, so…may as well arrest them and charge them, ya know….when in doubt, or if you happen to need a scapegoat.
There’s sadness in your words. Something to think about.
Yes, Desisa,. There are some things that cannot remain unsaid.
Were you ever followed by department store security because your skin is white?
yes
Was I ever assaulted by a black youth holding a knife
Yes (twice)
Yes, John. Sadly you know what it feels like to be on the receiving end of unjustified actions.
And have you been forced to read racist false equivilencies, like this one here? I have, by whute people taught to shat rascism is a false invention yo shield their complicancy.
Why does the race of your mugger matter? Do poor white kids not rob on the street? Why does your race matter in a mugging? Are rich black people not mugged at knife of gun point? A better question is why do so many white people make such a great target for street crime, like you? Are you gonna tell us “hard work?” Try inter generational wealth from red lining , segregated schools, Jim crow. And why are so many black kids desperate & street savvy? The war on drugs, job discrimination, intergenerational poverty. You, John, cannot state the definition of institutional racism even though you ate it for breakfast and puked it out here. Go learn.
Duncan – Your ideas may differ from others’ responses, and may even add additional facts. However, if you cannot state them in a respectful way, please refrain from commenting.
Wow ! That really says it all
, my friend ????
Whoa! Now that’s explicit. Great job of helping people understand. patricia
Thank you, Patricia. I needed to say what goes unsaid.