Consider for a moment an American society where all whites were armed with concealed weapons and all blacks were not. Then have all of our young black boys walk around with the most menacing Ice Cube stare they can muster. Get the picture? That’s right – time to bring out the body bags by the thousands. While the Bernhard Goetz episode may now be just a blip on the screen the above scenario is not as hypothetical or far-fetched as laid out. For it is without question that the Goetz case was a catalyst that helped spur the slew of Stand Your Ground laws throughout southern states and elsewhere. Obviously, the above scenario won’t be universally true. All whites will never be armed, nor will all blacks walk around unarmed, but let’s take a look at yesterday’s and today’s trends
FELONY CONVICTIONS
The one thing that will permanently bar a person from having the legal right to carry a concealed weapon is a felony conviction on their record. Have you got yours yet? Felony convictions and African Americans are fast becoming as synonymous as pie and ice cream. We show up at the courthouse for any assortment of crimes, pick up our felony (or felonies) and leave branded for life. You’d think life was difficult enough for African Americans without adding the forfeiture of rights that a felony conviction brings and the employment opportunities that disappear as well. But how do you impart this to 13 and 14 year old black boys who don’t know what their rights are and are too young to work? Yet, this is who wants to run around the ‘hood on gun-slinging crime and murder sprees. They’ll grow up (or not) unable to legally protect themselves or their loved ones with a firearm because even that act will land them in prison. To the largest extent we have none to blame but ourselves. These traps that we and our children step into have been laid for years. When we willingly step out there on whatever mission we think we’re on we’d better know that there’s an apparatus out there called the Criminal Justice System waiting for us to feed it and countless families at the expense of our own. This understanding needs to be taught to our children as early as possible if we are to interrupt the cycle. We don’t necessarily need guns, but in America, they’re not the worst thing to have a legal right to. In this scenario staying sucka free means staying felony free.
WAR TALK
Did you know that there are a bunch of white people around the country training and preparing for what they believe is a coming race war? I kid you not; they’re out there with arsenals upon arsenals of guns and weaponry that would make your head spin, just waiting for the right impetus to come along or, in some cases (such as the Dylan Roof case), try to become the impetus. Personally, I believe government sponsored reparations to African Americans for slavery would set it off. This element of Timothy McVeigh type terrorists have been a grassroots underbelly of domestic terror for more than 140 years and their default purpose has always been to deprive ex-slaves and their descendants the fruits of American prosperity. We got a very good glimpse of them on January 6, 2021 as they laid siege to the U.S. Capitol. They march, they strategize, they recruit and they practice all manner of paramilitary training in preparation to kill you and me and any who would aid us. And guess what? Virtually every weapon/firearm they have is legally registered and backed by law. As free speech protects the garbage they spew, no one has the legal authority to step to them and take their arsenals away either. We need to be in a similar position, minus the rhetoric. Again, we should look at the example of the state of Israel. Armed to the teeth so that no one ever again enslaves them or subject them to hideous brutalities. Given our history in America we can’t afford to be unarmed, defenseless sitting ducks with hostile elements out there planning our demise. War talk and threats must be taken seriously.
POLICE PROTECTION
How much police protection is available to us when police departments all over the country are widely viewed as a hostile occupying force in our ‘hoods? Just look at the numerous killing of unarmed black men, women, boys and girls by police officers who shoot first and ask questions later. While we should not throw a blanket indictment over all police, the track record we have to work with does not lend itself to a lot of trust. What we’ve come to trust is that the fastest police responses materialize when it’s said “a black man did it.” The best example of this is the case in Boston where Charles Stuart killed his pregnant wife Carol, called 911 and blamed it on a black man. Boston police ran down on the ‘hood and sure enough, came up with a suspect. We have a long way to go before we can rely on a police officer’s gun being pointed anywhere other than at us.
The vital point here, however, is that many genocidal traps are laid all around us and we march much too often right into them like sheep marching to their slaughter. Then we cry entrapment and set up, always looking for the loophole instead of avoiding the traps altogether or taking responsibility for our actions afterwards. So when we practice death and self-destruction what’s to prevent more Bernhard Goetzs’ from getting a little live target practice in? Nothing! Certainly not the law because by and large the laws tend to protect white police or white people who kill black people. All they have to do is utter one of the magic phrases: “I felt threatened” or “I feared for my life.”