The need for understanding and recognition is as natural for human beings as eating, sleeping and dropping three hot ones a day. (BTW...if you're not doing the latter, then step your whole grains and water games up, slim. I drop PSAs within PSAs.) However, Black people, who weren't even legally considered 100 percent human for 78 of their first 246 years in this country, have struggled mightily with those basic human needs more than most other races in American society. Between erasing and replacing our entire heritage, language, religion and culture, it was clear from the outset that we were a disposable people. Pepper in some of the most heinous acts in world history including but not limited to all of American slavery, the Black Wall Street Massacre of 1921 that killed over 3,000 Black people and the gruesome murder of 14-year-old Emmitt Till and it was even more apparent. So when you have groups of people who insist on changing the hashtag as well as the narrative from #BlackLivesMatter to "#AllLivesMatter" or "#BlueLivesMatter", Black people are once again faced with the harsh reality of living in a country full of revisionist historians who don't understand why we've been saying variations of "Black Lives Matter" since forever. Hence, as I soldier on with Part 2 of "Get Down or Sit Down", I will attempt to unveil how these assertions of which lives matter cunningly detract from Black people's issues...
Although Black people have constantly burdened the brunt of racism and discrimination since being brought to the Americas against our will, it feels like it's been open season on Black people since the death of Trayvon Martin in February of 2012. However, since last week's senseless murders of 37-year-old Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and 34-year-old Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, Minnesota by police officers, there appears to be an uprising in the making because Black folk just aren't having it anymore. The pain of constantly being reminded that our lives don't matter has stirred up the need for urgent solidarity among our people to send messages to the establishment that we are no longer just marching or protesting, although none of that will cease or desist until justice is achieved. The problem is that while some of us are heeding to the "all aboard" call, there are many in our own ranks and outside who are either inadvertently or purposely subverting the spirit of the movement and the efforts of those trying to make progress for our people. Chalk it up to disingenuous behavior, apathy, confusion, distraction, ego, cynicism, ignorance or flat-out negativity, but either way, the attitude is simple: either get down or, like Jesse Williams insisted in his 2016 BET Awards speech, "sit down". Hence, this series is dedicated to helping folks identify whether they truly care about justice and the advancement of Black people or if they're just in the way...
