Black mental health matters
Even during Mental Health Awareness Month, folk show they are unaware of Black humanity, or they just straight dismiss it. For example, New York subway rider Jordan Neely was having an obvious mental episode, and according to fellow passengers, was yelling, “I don’t have food, I don’t have a drink, I’m fed up.” Minutes later, he was killed. The lawyer for the man who choked the life out of Neely said Neely aggressively threatened his client and others. Problem is, researchers have shown that whites have a built-in fear of Black bodies that makes them exaggerate our size, height, strength and level of aggression. So, just being Black is considered a threat enough to choke the life out of someone or stalk/kill a 17-year-old child on his way home from a corner store or shoot/kill a 12-year-old child playing in the park with a toy gun that you can purchase at any Toys R Us. Their crime? Being Black.
Florida anti-immigrant backlash lesson
Florida Law SB 1718, makes it a felony to work without papers and requires employers to verify employee citizenship, making it impossible and illegal for “undocumented” individuals to work. The result? A mass exodus of the vast majority of Florida’s construction and restaurant workers. For the past few days, they’ve been getting the hell outta dodge. White workers attempted to fill in for them and quit the same day. Some much for immigrants stealing jobs. The GOP wrote an anti-immigrant check that their Republican behinds can’t cash, and the Latinx folk aren’t staying around to beg for acceptance. They’re moving on to make a life somewhere else. The lesson for Blackfolk? The criminalization of Black history (i.e., anti-critical race theory laws) should have us doing the same — participating in a mass exodus of anti-Black institutions, stepping out on faith to make our own way.
Waco? What about MOVE?
These days, all eyes are on Waco, with the anniversary of the Branch Davidian tragedy just recently passing. Google “Waco” and a gazillion movies and documentaries pop up. HBO’s “Waco: The Aftermath” is running currently, and shows how violence by the Feds made Waco a galvanizing event that gave birth to the terrorism unleashed by Timothy McVeigh (Oklahoma bombing) and other anti-government, anti-police, anti-Black individuals and organizations. What’s interesting about Waco is, it’s one of the few examples in U.S. history when law enforcement treated a group of whites like they (mis)treat Blackfok daily. Case in point, the police bombing of the Black organization MOVE in Philadelphia (May 13, 1985), killing 11 adults and children, and leaving 250 people homeless. Everyone knows Waco. Few know anything about MOVE. And for all the GOP accusations that Blacks are violent, anti-government, anti-police thugs, it’s their own constituents who evidence shows are the biggest initiators of domestic terrorism on US soil. But hey, demonizing Blackfolk gets their constituents to the polls, political donations coming in and sky high ratings for their favorite media outlet.
