Enough!
Police have shot and killed 130 black people in 2016, according to a project by The Guardian that tracks police killings in America. Meanwhile, a total of 256 whites have been shot and killed by the police. You don’t hear a lot about that.
In 2015, according to the Washington Post, 990 citizens were shot and killed by law enforcement officials. Of that number, 494 were white, 258 were black, and 172 were Hispanic. You don’t hear a lot about that, either.
The number of police officers shot and killed in the U.S. so far this year (26) is 44% higher than at this time last year following the Dallas ambush Thursday night that left five officers dead, according to data from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. Does the media make that a front page story? Hardly.
For the record, blacks are more likely to kill cops than be killed by cops. This is according to FBI data, which also found that 40 percent of cop killers are black. A police officer is 18.5 times more likely to be killed by a black than a cop killing an unarmed black person.
Some may argue that these statistics are evidence of racist treatment toward blacks, since whites consist of 62 percent of the population and blacks make up 12 percent of the population. That is bullshit! Statistics from the Bureau of Justice Statistics reveal that blacks were charged with 62 percent of robberies, 57 percent of murders and 45 percent of assaults in the 75 biggest counties in the country, despite only comprising roughly 15 percent of the population in these counties.
None of what you read above is a condemnation of blacks. It’s simply the facts. Make of them what you will but before you decide that every white cop is a racist hellbent on killing blacks, at least think about it. Too many people – both white and black – would love nothing more than to have you believe their side of the story and ignore the facts. Don’t you do it!
And now these thoughts…
People continue to argue that much of the violence we are witnessing is still a result of slavery! They apparently forget that by blaming slavery, they are basically arguing the black community is too lazy to move up in 6 generations over 160 years. Entire empires have been built and fallen in the same time.
But wait, maybe using slavery is nothing more than a convenient excuse. There ARE racists out there, don’t get me wrong. They come in all colors, and yes, far too many of them are white. But the only systemic racial barriers come from within. There are plenty of racial names blacks have for other blacks for “acting white”. From Oreo to Uncle Tom, there is a division within whole neighborhoods about how to act and unfortunately, the one winning is the uneducated “blame others” narrative instead of strong black leaders desperately clinging to each other trying to save themselves from themselves.
Two generations ago most Americans were indifferent or hostile to blacks’ demands for equal citizenship rights, now the ideal of equal opportunity is upheld by our laws and universally embraced in our politics.
How many young black girls can quote Maya Angelou? How many young black men know how far George Washington Carver walked to get an education? Most young, black people don’t even know who those two are. How can they constantly bring up slavery, but have no idea how many slaves lifted themselves, or how they did it or what they did?
But how many know (by heart) Kanye West’s song lyrics? For too many, his words are more important to them than those written with such passion by Maya Angelou. They … WE … would all do well to set aside lyrics like this from West – “Stop talking about your boyfriend since he is not me. Stop running up my tab cause these drinks is not free. You drunk and hot girl. We go through too much bullshit just to mess with these drunk and hot girls.” – and remember instead this quote from Angelou’s stunning Letter To My Daughter. “You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.”
Look, it’s all pretty damn simple. Black Lives Matter … White Lives Matter … Every Life Matters.