Black & Poor: The crimes that Eric Garner died for.

The American justice system has been broken for a long time. It's been broken long before I was born, and it will remain that way as long as those who control it hold racist and/or ruthlessly capitalistic views. I'm warning you now that this may not be the most eloquent and I will run off on a tangent, but I will try and tie it together at the end.

The recent events of the Mike Brown & Eric Garner verdict, coupled with my views of race relations in America has lead me to the belief that being black in America is considered a stain. Being black and poor is even worse. 

 

Now do I believe my skin color is a stain? No. My race, my complexion, my bloodline is a thing of unparalleled beauty. I look upon our people and see kings, queens and gods walking the earth. Unfortunately I also see the fallen. Some of the damage done by our own hand, but the hands of others have also contributed to our demise. Blacks in America have gone from property to second class citizens, to citizens. But the one thing we've always been, was a target.

Ask yourself how President Obama, the most powerful man in the free world(or so we'd like to think) has been one of the most openly disrespected president we've ever seen. Political colleagues, and the general public have taken their shots. I'm not an Obama supporter(for my own reasons) but to deny the existence of a racist undertone from some of his political colleagues would be a flat out lie. His color is a stain in many of their eyes. Never heard of a presidential candidate asked for verification of his U.S.citizenship. I can't recall any past presidents having their daughters (ages 13 & 16) likened to tramps at a bar.

I can list a few more rich or powerful black figures that have been treated unfairly strictly on the count of race (Magic Johnson, Oprah, Jay-Z), they've all encountered it. We can look at pundits, critics or your nearest YouTube comments section and it'll be littered with the most vile slurs. I don't feel particularly sorry for those I've mentioned, because  they've made it past the biggest hurdle in America, poverty.

If being black is a stain, then being poor in America is a crime, and prison is big business. It doesn't matter what color you are. 

There's a level of respect that comes with wealth. You live well, dress better, and your values maybe different because frankly your world is vast, you're exposed to more. You're treated differently, with a certain reverence, depending on the circle you're in. There are issues that you can focus on that you otherwise wouldn't be able to, if you were poor. Money isn't happiness, money is freedom, and that gives you to chance at happiness. Everyone wants to be wealthy or least comfortable, doesn't matter what color. 

You can live with being black and affluent, because that at least makes you a citizen. But when you're black and poor, you're no citizen, you're cattle. 

Eric Garner was black and poor. 

Mike Brown was black and poor.

Both were killed in circumstances that would ultimately not exist if the system was built egregiously unfair. A system that has historically targeted your race and socio-economic class with equal force. A system that wasn't designed for us.

Systemic poverty affected their values, the choices they made, as well as Police treatment. Their skin color made it only easier for the police to get away with it.

Since the Mike Brown situation is shrouded in doubt, with the one blatant fact that he was unarmed and several feet away from Darren Wilson, lemme tackle some arguments that I've heard about the Eric Garner incident.

He was breaking the law:

Selling untaxed cigarettes is a crime, but so is selling fake mortgages. Where's the eagerness to arrest the folks that sent the country into a tailspin? Was any one arrested? I wonder if they resisted arrest

would they have gotten choked? What's funny is that in the video, the police were responding to a fight, a situation that Eric Garner diffused prior to their arrival.

An unhealthy diet and pre-existing conditions lead to his death:

I hope by pre existing, you mean the fuckin knee that the cop had in his back along with having his face pressed against the concrete. 

*I could make a case about his years of eating genetically altered food approved by our government, as well as not being able afford shopping at Whole Foods, which isn't as readily accessible in his neck of the woods, like any fast food spot, but that's weak.

He could have resisted: 

He could've. But watching the entire seven minute video (not the 30 seconds that they show on TV) you saw that Eric Garner was frustrated. The cops that arrested him, knew him. They harassed him, if what he was doing was so terribly wrong then he would've been arrested every single day. But like every shop that sells loose cigarettes or fake bags in China town, the cops pick and choose who to harass. 

Eric was fed up because he wasn't killing anyone, he wasn't stealing. He purchased the pack of cigarettes he decided to resell. A product that knowingly kills you, but since you can tax it, it's all good. 

He was simply tired of the harassment. He had six kids, he hustled, just like the cops hustle for overtime by arresting people and call it cleaning up the streets. 

He was tired because all he was trying to do was keep his head above water so that he and his family could breathe. But like he told the police officers, 11 times, I Can't Breathe.

We can get into the logistics of the actually arrest and say that the chokehold was not a legal maneuver. Some might say that once it was a applied, Eric could've laid down. But if he moved forward, the cops grip would've tightened, leaning backward ultimately swayed him off balance because the murde- I mean officer was shorter and was pulling him backward. So explain to me again how can a man simply lay as soon as he was put in a hold like that?

I'm not gonna make Eric Garner or Mike Brown out to be saints, when you're living in hell, how can you be? But I shouldn't have to make a case for them to have rights. 

Basic human rights.

Eric Garner had a right to live. He had a right to voice his physical distress and have a cop do his job and monitor his condition so that excessive injury doesn't occur(that falls under the guidelines of serve & protect). He wasn't a savage, thug, or mental patient. It's sad. 

Jesus, he was killed on video.

There's a hash tag floating around that says "Black Lives Matter". And while all lives matter, black lives have unjustly swirled in the oceans, soaked the roots of trees, and stained the concrete far too long. Police brutality is real and the country has turned a blind eye.

When a man can be killed on video, his death ruled a homicide and still not get an indictment, something has to change. It starts now. It starts with us.

THE SHMURDA THEORY: Is Bobby Shmurda too raw for Black people? Yes, Black people.

*Shmoney dances while looking at my phone*...I've wanted to blog about my guy, Bobby Shmurda for quite some time. Next to Barack Obama, Bobby Shmurda is probably the most polarizing figure in urban America today. His song "Hot N*gga" along with the "Shmoney Dance" are undeniable. Granted, the dance is not original (look up any 90s Bad Boy video with Diddy you'll find proof) but dammit if it ain't cool! The other day, I was watching ESPN and they made a Bobby Shmurda reference. He is everywhere and he is exactly what his song says, the Hot N*gga, much to the chagrin of many people of color.

For weeks I've been hearing about how Bobby Shmurda has set Black people back with the success of his song because of the content of his lyrics. For those who have been under a rock, Bobby's lyrics are laced with tales of murder, drug dealing and growing up in streets. I'm not going to give details, but it's honestly the most ignorant set of lyrics you may ever hear on a record. But while in the midst of his rap, you're hamstrung by the beat and drawn by the dance. A few minutes pass and you're left wondering how could you have enjoyed such a song. Some of my circle of friends as well as fellow bloggers have expressed a level of uneasiness when listening to his song. A friend of mine said that he uncomfortable with Bobby Shmurda performing on Jimmy Fallon. To paraphrase, he was disturbed by the stereotypical image he portrayed and shouldn't be glorified on TV to a largely white audience.

I for one have no shame in saying that I like the record. His flow is far from the greatest, but he has awesome energy. The content.. well...no damn that, the content is real. A savage kid taking enjoyment in his savagery. From a macro perspective, Blacks (African American, Caribbean American etc) rose from the ashes of slavery and the Jim Crow to achieve the highest level of academic and economic affluence in their history. We have a president who happens to be black. One would like to say that as a whole, we should be proud. I guess, but being proud seems to come with a level of prestige, a need to see yourself a better light. That can create the need to distance yourself from the unsightly parts of the world from which you came. Kinda like the guy you gets rich, comes back to old neighborhood decides to circle the block a few times before parking. Or the guy that decides not to eat the food around way anymore because it isn't good enough.

Bobby Shmurda, is that uncle you don't invite for Christmas dinner because he gets wasted and passes out on your couch. He's family, but you rather not have him around. My point is yes, Hot N*gga is uncomfortable to listen to. Line for line it one of the saddest songs I have ever heard. The song is sad because Bobby is 20 years old and has lived a life no one should. There are folks that said that he could've rapped about something else other than violence and drugs. My reply to that is, what would you rap about if you grew up on 95th & Clarkson Avenue, having to sell crack as a 5th grader because your poor and your dad was locked up? Forgive him for not being the next Aristotle under those circumstances. Jay-Z rapped about it his entire first album, the only difference is that he did it better. Now Hoc has cleaned up since. I'm sorry if Bobby Shmurda isn't clean enough to represent Black America. Being systemically poor isn't an excuse for being ignorant or violent, but being systemically poor with a lack of proper education, leadership and values could be. In my opinion, that is what we lack overall. Anyone that makes it out of a poverty stricken community is an outlier, strictly on the basis of how many get left behind.

The hard truth is that Bobby is part of Black America, the gritty part. He is the part that people in high positions love to exploit and vulture, the part that more refined black folk have a difficult time acknowledging. It's the scar that reminds us that we have not overcome. There is a large segment of the black population that have not made it out of the savage land. While the media parades around The President, Bey and Oprah, with ninjas paying 25k a plate for campaign fundraising, the goons are killing each other in the street everyday. There are those that do a ton for their community, way more than I have, and to those people I'm eternally grateful. But there are those who fancy themselves elite, above the negativity, to the point where they feel it's not their problem. Meanwhile they have no qualm telling you what's wrong with society and how guys like Mr. Shmurda (say that aloud) contribute to its devolution. Bobby Shmurda needed that Hot N*gga song, it saved his life, it also saved the lives of his friends. He's a product of a broken system, a system that was broken before he was born. Without that song he'd be right in Brownsville, doing exactly what he said in the song. And you know who wouldn't care? You.

So for those who are quick to chastise and dismiss his impact on entertainment, think about where he came from and what he could have been doing. Is he ignorant? Yes. Is he raw, yes. Is he a negative stereotype? No doubt. But he's also one of us and there are people out there that see him no different from you and you could be wearing a suit. You can ignore, you can cringe a little every time it plays on the radio but I'll root for him. Because this experience is better than any life he had before. Hopefully it can broaden his horizon and maybe he'll learn how to be a better man, when he actually becomes one. He damn sure wouldn't have learned it on 95th & Clarkson. And maybe, he might be that spark that gets people off their high horse and look into what's coming out of our community. I was really trying to fit a line in with "Mitch caught a body bout a week ago" but I couldn't. Smh...*tosses fitted*

NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE. A WORD OF INSPIRATION.

I remember my days in elementary school, sitting in class, daydreaming incessantly. I would imagine that while in the middle of the teacher's lesson, a giant robot would suddenly crash through the wall and start attacking my classmates. Everyone would be screaming in panic, but then I'd hurl a chair in order to get the robot's attention. The robot and I would go on to have a fierce battle and somehow I'd rip it's cables out, defeating the foe. It was probably from that point on I realized that I wasn't a normal kid.

Most children have great imagination, the ability to easily transport themselves to a world where nothing is impossible. They laugh, play and live without a care, their innocence is beautiful. Unfortunately as we age, the realities of life tend to strip away at this fabricated world they/we created. The real world tells us that the word 'impossible' is more than a word. To many of us, impossible is a culture. Impossibility, is a culture of negativity that impedes the progress of all that you try to accomplish. If it doesn't impede you, then it simply redirects, alters, keeps you off course. Before you know it, your imagination dies and with that, your drive does as well. We've been brainwashed for years, whether it's by systemic poverty, poor education and lack of leadership(from family and community) we believe that certain things aren't achievable.

Without dreams, you limit your mind, stifle your potential and narrow down to what the world wants you to be. I did that to myself, definitely brainwashed to some degree. I mean, how far could I go? I'm a poor kid from Brooklyn, raised in a single parent home. I lived everywhere in good old BK, but where am I supposed to be in life? That was the programming talking. But now, I actually spend everyday of my life reconditioning myself to think otherwise. Live better, think better, be better. It's not easy, but I'm hard pressed to find something that's worthwhile to ever be easy.

You ever wonder why most people love athletes and celebrities? My opinion, it's not only because they're rich and beautiful, its because we see in them what we once saw in ourselves. They are the personification of impossible. So here's the "Not so secret" secret, so are you! You know what separates you from any successful person? The unwavering desire to never give up. We're literally looking at people who followed their dreams while we sit and watch. Yes, some are born with amazing physical attributes and natural talent that put them ahead of the curve, but does that take away your access to the environment they're in? You can't shoot, but you can learn the game and be a broadcaster, coach or an agent. Hell, be a sports attorney. Too fat to be a model? So how about you become a stylist or fashionista to the stars? You can't act, then direct, write. Why limit yourself from what you love?

I can hear the excuses forming in your mind right now as we speak. Yes, I know, you've made mistakes and bills have to be paid, but guess what, bills are gonna be there when you're a success as well. Think about how much things you've wasted time on. You have the ability to convert that time into achieving what you want. And make no mistake, I'm not saying we should all celebrities and athletes, that's bogus. I'm simply saying, chase your dream. Success is accomplishing any goal you set forth. It comes in all levels, if your goal was to sweep floors, then you've made it in life and there's no one that can tell you different. If your dream was to be a doctor, teacher, entrepreneur, author, activist, cop, janitor, do it, because it's in your reach. In my opinion, all of these things are feasible. Take a year, carve out a plan, take action. You know what's funny? I could delve a bit deeper and say that already are a success, just think about where you came from and how hard you've worked to get there. If the odds were against you, but you're still standing, one might say that you are.

Don't let the culture of impossibility kill your dreams. Don't let it kill your potential. I'm writing this for myself, not just for you. I fear failure just like you, but what I hate more than failing, is that sickening feeling of not trying, because of fear. I hold on to that bitter feeling, because that regret trumps the fear I feel while in the moment of chasing my dream. So look around you, look at this "real world" Then take your fingers, rip the sky and strip away at it, until you find that world you may have lost as a child. Nothing is impossible.