Opinions
When 2014 feels like 1964
I don’t know where we are heading but I certainly hope it is better than where we are.
When 2014 feels like 1964.
So…
I have been trying to distance myself from the past events. Not because I don’t care but because I find myself caring too much.
Caring so much that I have been walking around with anger that I know is not safe for me to carry.
For some carrying anger is not good for them because of their health. Well for me, anger is not a good thing because I find myself figuring ways to fight back.
So with all of the black men being killed I have been finding myself feeling broken and question my worth to society.
For example; 2 cops from Baltimore are facing prison time for killing a dog but no one is doing time for killing black men. How does this even add up?
Don’t get me wrong… killing a dog is not okay but what I’m gathering from the American justice system is that a dogs life is worth more than the life of a black man!
I try to tell myself that all of these things are coincidence; but how? Repeatedly?
How is it that a man with his hands in the air can be shot while surrendering?
I try to force myself to find a way to understand it all. Sometimes I do this through writing. So I was writing a piece about how I feel and the way the N word is thrown around.
When I write sometimes I like to infuse the actual definition of words. SO, I wanted to use the definition of the N word. Now, growing up the definition was described as a person who is ignorant.
But the definition has drastically changed today:
n-·-er
ˈnigər/
noun
offensivea contemptuous term for a black or dark-skinned person.n–ger
[nig-er]
Despite this, the sense referring to a “black person” is sometimes used among
contemptuous and hostile. noun 1.
Slang: Extremely Disparaging and Offensive.
- a contemptuous term used to refer to a black person.
- a contemptuous term used to refer to a member of any
- dark-skinned people.
2.
Slang: Extremely Disparaging and Offensive.a contemptuous termused to refer to a person of any race or origin regarded as contemptible,inferior, ignorant, etc.3.
a victim of prejudice similar to that suffered by blacks; a person who is economically, politically, or socially disenfranchised.
When 2014 feels like 1964
Maybe it’s just me but now I feel totally labeled. Now I feel like this term is being widely accepted as a term to describe me. Who do I become mad at? Others; or my own people for being ignorant enough to use the term openly, and now it is on paper a way to describe who we are? What happen to the the definition simply being a term to describe an ignorant person?
I look around today and I can’t believe the way some things are going. I can’t believe that the past is really still here.
Every time I turn on the news there is a new story about a Black man being killed for walking while black. And in return we have these marches and rallies.
But I wonder what difference they really make. I don’t know where we are heading but I certainly hope it is better than where we are.
Follow DaRuddest Jones on Twitter.
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