Justifications, Stereotypes, Vigilantes and Thirteen Year Old Bites The Dust

It has gotten to the place that no Black child is safe in America.  I take that back.  No Black child is safe in America.  As a matter fact, no Black person has ever been safe in America. Being black in America means that on a daily basis, we have take extraordinary measures just to survive.

Seventy-five year old John Henry Spooner killed Darius Simmons a thirteen year old boy.  Spooner accused Simmons of burgarizing his home and stealing his guns.  However, when the burglary took place, Simmons was in school.  Spooner assumed that Simmons was the thief.  Simmons and his family had only lived next door to Spooner for 29 days.  His mother said she called herself moving into a better neighborhood.  Now, she mourns the lost of her child thinking that she was moving into a safer neighborhood.

However, it did not just get like this.  It has always been this way.  Dr. Robert Persley & Hasan A. Sharif once wrote in their book Why Men of Color Are An "Endangered Species" in America that men of color have an invisible bull's eye on their back and don't even know it.  But I disagree with them, Black males know it and so do Black females. 

Black people know that they can be murdered and that the justice scales will tip in favor of the murderer if he is white.  In addition, Black people are aware that if they become a victim or a perpetrator that their whole family tree all the way back to when their first ancestor set foot on American soil will be investigated. 

Anything negative in their background regardless to how minor it may have been will be magnified to make them out of the culprit instead of the victim. We are aware that if a Black person has a clean slate that people will come forth and make stuff up to smear them because Black people are not allowed to have a clean slate in America.  Black is always seen as evil and bad!  History has taught us that!

So my question is this, why do we even bother to try and seek justice in America?  Apparently, murdering our Black youths seems to be an agenda.  Innocent young Black children are being killed and the only legal recourse for their demise is justification for their demise as in the case of Trayvon Martin.

Our youths are automatically labeled thugs because of what they wear although it wouldn't matter what they wear.  As far back as the early 1900s, Blacks males wore suits, slacks, and shirts, but that did not stop them from being labeled thugs--scary black males and brute beast or being murdered with justification. 

Being a Black woman in America, when I read about incidents like this, I think about my own grandsons and son and I pray for their safety.  My grandsons and son are decent law-abiding Black males.  However, the color of their skin has become a burden for me because their safety in America is a serious issue.  It has become an issue that is not being solved, but seems to be getting worse and only a justification.

Even my daughters, granddaughters, and my own safety is of concern.  Often I pray that none of my family becomes a justification like I've observed many other Blacks whose lives have been taken such as Oscar Grant or Sean Bell or many others whose skin is a darker hue.  The other day, I read about and wrote about a pregnant Black female being kicked in the stomach by a police officer.  I read the comments in a police forum comment section and here is an example of some of them:

"Hit that bitch so hard someone else shit themself.. Epic..." ~~Duece~~

"Obviously she's looking for her payday.. and she'll get it...twice over." ~~Mtc High Priestess~~

"Further - Merconium in the amniotic fluid is common - and quite frankly - if this welfare leech was inclined to endanger her meal ticket to attack police over her shitstain brother being arrested - who's to say she didn't get into a fight with someone else? Babydaddy's other babymamma?"~~Mtc High Priestess~~

Bullman says that Wheeler, at the advice of his supervisor, arrested Dozier because he would "need to be justified" for kicking a pregnant woman if "something were to happen to the baby."~~Rightwing Liberal~~

Black communities have their share of bad actors just like all other communities.  We also have decent human beings that live in the Black community that are seeking a better life and the American dream. However, when someone in our community does something bad the whole Black community is painted with a broad brush that is unjust and unfair to those who are decent and law-abiding.

The Black community has some good decent kids, church folks, college students, students, working class folks, and professionals as well.  However, those people are overlooked, ignored, and lumped in a barrel with the bad seeds among us. That's what is scary! It makes all Black people possible justifications and stereotypes.