sgordon
27 posts Location:
Brooklyn
United States |
20.02.2012 16:32The More They Remain The Same...The More Things Change
African Heritage Month 2012 began with a sad reminder that the more things change, the more they remain the same when on February 2nd Officer Richard Haste of the New York City Police Department shot unarmed Ramarley Graham in his chest, killing him at home in his bathroom. Immediately after the killing, the word went out that 19 year old Ramarley was running from the police but a video tape clearly shows him walking into his home followed by a pack of police officers rushing to the house and attempting to kick in the locked door before retreating to the rear of the house where they gained entrance.
After this senseless killing by officer Haste, Chief Gomez had the gall to begin addressing the community at a precinct council meeting by cautioning the community not to allow outsiders to come into the community and disrupt the great relationship with the police: a teen is murdered in cold blood by police and Chief Gomez characterizes this as a great relationship before going on to explain that he has no intelligence regarding what happened as the investigation is ongoing.
In response to disquiet in the audience, the chair of the meeting moved quickly to push back by admonishing that the chief was her guest and should be heard regardless of what he was saying, a somber reminder of yet another aspect of black history. In his treatise on the house negro and the field negro, Malcolm X noted: “If the master’s house caught on fire, the house Negro would fight harder to put the blaze out than the master would. If the master got sick, the house Negro would say, ‘What’s the matter, boss, we sick?’ We sick! He identified himself with his master more than his master identified with himself. And if you came to the house Negro and said, “Let’s run away, let’s escape, let’s separate,” the house Negro would look at you and say, “Man, you crazy”.
In my own experience with the anti apartheid movement, I recall young South Africans firing up community meetings with expressions of their resolve to “render apartheid ungovernable” and look back with pride on being a contributor to the fall of the apartheid system in South Africa. Until the present mode of policing is rendered ungovernable, the abusive stop and frisk practices and the cold blooded killings will only continue and we must be no less resolute in our struggle against these modern day apartheid practices. As evidenced by the actions of the chair of the community precinct council in containing community reaction and silencing speakers who dare speak against the status quo, the house negro conundrum still plagues our quest for human dignity.
Reggae music, has historically provided the sound track for the movement of Jah people and in the reggae arena, we must continue to “sing them songs of culture, sing them songs of love…”
Forward ever. Backward never.
Edited by sgordon - 20.02.2012 16:53
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