Ad Infinitum — for Jordan Davis, Trayvon Martin, Emmett Till, etc…

Mr. Ron Davis, the father of deceased 17 year-old Jordan Davis, made a beautiful post-trail statement this evening. Which got me thinking…

I do not believe this country will ever recover from its self-concocted racism, the fuel of the tormented Black men and women who worked to build this nation, and the life-blood of the system that enabled it to accrue the wealth necessary to establish an industrial revolution and beyond.

I have love and hope in my heart, but when I continue to see re-organized and re-energized examples and extensions of that same racist mind-set in laws such as Stand Your Ground and drug possession laws that disproportionately devalue the lives of Black people (especially to financially support the Prison Industrial Complex, the latest lucrative and effective form of enslavement), I must throw up my hands.

At some point, those in power must admit evil and those transgressed must demand that admission and quit praying to “overcome.” I’m not afraid to say “I hurt.” Even if nothing has happened to me personally, it hurts me to see these things that have happened and continue to happen to Black people—to my father and his; my mother and hers; my cousins, or friends…

Yes, there are many other wrongs and so many victims in every sector and walk of life. But I don’t want to hear about injustices to any other group right now. Let’s talk about this, just this right now. I need your attention.

But I’m afraid it will never happen. How can it? It would be like the light of God. Too bright. Too right. And so another black mother and father accept the untimely death of their son at the hand of a gun and are watched by the nation as they face and bear this greatest of tragedies with strength, grace and dignity. And we all relearn how to accept this and things like it, like the good people that we are.