Mike Brown. Trayvon Martin. Kendrick Johnson. Ezell Ford. Renisha McBride. Jordan Davis. Barry Montogomery. Eric Garner. & that’s just to name a few.

Something strange is brewing in America. The air seems a little thicker, the sun seems a little hotter, hearts are feeling a little heavier, and my skin seems a little darker. With the tragedy of young unarmed teen Mike Brown being gunned down by a police officer in Ferguson, MO it all seems like one bad lucid dream that will never end. In the land of the free, does that not include the freedom to be black? While the world looks down upon darker skinned people as scary individuals catalysted by the correlating stereotypes purportrated within the media every day, that black people are to be feared. It seems as though that is the reason and excuse that society uses to justify why our lives our worthless…to them. Blacks in America have been living in fear since the first ship landed at the docks 0f Chespepeake Bay and sold into eternal slaveship. Since mothers were torn from their babies. Since our language, original religion and culture was torn from us and forbidden. We are the ones having to live in eternal fear from the day we are born. We wear the Scarlett letter that says, it’s okay to treat these humans as though they are not even though they are the original man. Even though we gave the world language, science, math, philosophy, your idea of Jesus, Buddha, Muhammad or whoever you choose to worship. Even though our ancestors raised your children, healed your sick, cooked your meals, harvested your crops and us descendants have yet to turn our backs on the nation that continues to flog and bring us down everytime we try to to do better for ourselves.

Which brings be to my next point: can we talk about the Black Panther Party for a second? How I was taught at my elementary school is that the Black Panther Party were terrorists and an evil organization. I was taught that if you wore an afro that you were seen as an extremeist. I was taught that the Black Panther Party was equivalent to the Ku Klux Klan. It wasn’t until I watched the documentary, Black Power Mixtape that I learned the truth about the Black Panther Party. I was lied to; we all were. They were an organization from Oakland, CA that were teaching blacks to protect themselves from the people who were put in place to protect ALL citizens but does not. They were an organization that was teaching black people to protect themselves to prevent a Mike Brown. They are the reason America’s children, today, benefit from the free breakfast and lunch program. Former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover was quoted as saying that it wasn’t the guns that were the biggest threat from the Black Panther Party, it was their free breakfast program.

“The Breakfast for Children Program B represents the best and most influential activity going for the BPP and, as such, is potentially the greatest threat to efforts by authorities B to neutralize the BPP and destroy what it stands for.”- J. Edgar Hoover, Former FBI Director (read more here)

This is a statement from a government official that was supposed to protect it’s people yet is conspired towards the failure and disempowerment of US citizens that were involuntarily brought over here hundreds of years ago. This is why the Black Panther Party existed. Doing what the government refused and pretended to do. So whom are they really protecting? I guess that is why Malcolm X and Tupac Shakur had to go.

Today, we take the passive route. We don’t speak up because most of the world, including a few of us, thinks we should let it go and it’s really not about race. When Trayvon Martin was shot and his killer gets to walk around free, we should let it go. When Valdosta, GA’s Kendrick Johnson’s body was exhumed and his organs were miraculously missing, we are to let that go. When Mike Brown was shot and murdered by an officer who is employed with tax dollars to serve and protect the community, are we supposed to let that go and not come together? Ferguson looks like something from the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s with police officers and their guns, dogs, and snipers intimidating peaceful protesters. Mike Brown was a black man. If you say this is not about race, please take off your rose colored glasses, and as Iyanla Vanzandt would say, “let’s call a thing a thing.” In America, that is the only reason a person needs to murder us; for us to be black. The way we choose to style ourselves is ridiculed yet appropriated. The way we talk, in that fancy vernacular we so commonly use, is hated yet appropriated. The way we walk, dance, move, and hold our heads up high through everything we go through on a daily basis is envied, yet appropriated. We are taught through school and shown in the media to think we are anything less than great, yet every single thing we do is appropriated; even our cells. Please Google Henrietta Lackes. Destroy blacks by any means necessary and steal their creations has been the name of the game since January 2nd, 1492.

The crimes committed against Black America have been ongoing for hundreds of years. When do we go to court to get our justice? Oh yeah, going to court usually never falls in our favor. So we have a black president and since he’s been in office there has been an up rise in the amount of hate we receive. If you ever paid attention in U.S. Government 1301 you would know who truly runs the government and it is not the damn president (Sorry, Obama). He can’t do anything for us. Anyone with an inkling of intelligence knows and understands this. Stop looking to Obama to fix things. This begins with US and our need vote in every single local Senate and House of Representatives election. We need to come together and be ourselves. Please stop thinking of ways to get others to accept you and accept yourself. Accept your families, your women, your men, your children, and your lives. Respect each other. Stand up for each other. I see too many of us tearing each other down in favor of other cultures and races. Love and appreciate your own! Don’t be too jaded and blind to see that the world loves and appreciates our culture (maybe not us, but certainly our culture) more than we in America do! Accept yourself and your people! Right now, is a great time to make positive change in America and in how the worldviews blacks in America by forgetting everything we were taught about ourselves. Pick up a book and discover the true story about everything the U.S. Education system has failed to tell us. We are the world. We are the Earth, the moon, the sun and the stars. Our melanin filled skin is all the evidence we need of this. It is akin to the chlorophyll in the leaves of the trees that breath life into the Earth and grows with the rays of the sun. Without the trees and oxygen we all die. Think about that for a second. Our hair kisses the sun when in it’s natural state. We are naturally strong and resilient. We will overcome all of this as it is written. Nothing, any group of people conspire to do at their little roundtable conferences that may include a few of their favorite tokens can change what the universe has in store. We are the reason. Understand this. We are great. Our spirits rise above all things secular. This is the reason for our hate. Believe that you are great just as much as Kanye West believes he is great. It is okay! They can try and bring us down with each progressive step we take with their Hollywood stereotypes but we are waking up. So, thank you America for our wake up calls and until you do right by us, everything you touch will crumble. Let’s pray for America y’all, come together and be a force of positivity and light of what overcoming adversity looks like. Let’s tramsform our way of thinking, support each other (economically, mentally and physically) and LOVE each other a whole lot more.

RIP Mike Brown, Trayvon Martin, Kendrick Johnson, and the rest of our black men who have been murdered without justice. Hello to all my revolutionaries.

And I leave this post off with a visual for you guys: Kendrick Lamar’s “HiiiPower”. Shout out to TDE (especially Ab-soul) & the black hippie movement.

Who said a black man in Illuminati? Last time I checked that was the biggest racist party. Last time I checked, we was racing with Marcus Garvey on the freeway to Africa till I wreck my Audi. And I want everybody to view my autopsy so you can see exactly where the government had shot me. No conspiracy, my fate is inevitable. – Kendrick Lamar, “Hiiipower”

#hiiipower

The opinions expressed in this article are soley of the writer and are not a reflection of the views of Vault of 1502.

Catrise J

Catrise J is the owner of Vault of 1520 and Content Creator for Dirty Glove Bastard (DGB). Catrise is a self described “free-spirit” and always shares what’s on her mind. She enjoys Hip Hop, nature, reading, 420 and 90’s R&B. Her idols include Angie Martinez, Tupac, Oprah, and Warren Buffet. You can connect with Catrise on social media.