I watched the the movie, Malcolm X, today. It is one of my favorite movies and Denzel really personified the spirit of Brother Malcolm. It made me think about when I first read the Autobiography of Malcolm X. It was so powerful, I really appreciated the love that Malcolm had for his people. It wasn't easy standing up for people of color during that time. In doing so you risked your life and the lives of your loved ones. Watching the Malcolm X movie made me think about my own vision. I want to be just as influential as Dr. King and Malcolm X in my lifetime. I want to be a beacon of light for all the people that are in darkness. I will fight against poverty, oppression, racism, and inequality for people all over the world. History has showed us what they do to revolutionaries, they don't get applauded for their efforts, they get their legs caught off. It doesn't matter if your violent or non-violent, if the system deems that you're a threat, it will do anything to stop you. History gives you a clear perspective about what America feels about liberation.
It's currently 2016 and billions of us are still suffering mentally, physically and spiritually. Our ancestors didn't die and give their lives for us to still be living like this. I know history has taught you that when you stand up and fight the system comes up with a plan to get rid of you. You know why the system does that, the same reason why a computer will get rid of virus's in your hard drive. Imagine what would happen if you let the virus in your computer go unattended it would destroy your system. You get where I'm going with this? We were not created to live in fear and hate like this. The system has killed so many people because it's scared of what will happen if people started to view other people like family. The system is scared for us to start coming together through love, spirit and respect. The system doesn't care when we are killing each other, the system doesn't care when when we only think about self. The system doesn't care when we watch other human beings suffer and do nothing. The system only reacts when individuals like myself and like Malcolm X, and Dr. King come around. People like Aaron Swartz, like Medgar Evers, people like John F Kennedy. I know it's a scary thing to give your life for a cause but remember an injustice to one of us is an injustice to all of us. We were never born to die that's why our spirits are eternal. While you are on this planet you have to stand for something. I know that I have the opportunities I have today because millions of my people were hanged, killed, exploited, walked for miles, sacrificed their families and everything that was important to them so that the future could be better. So imagine me sitting back and doing nothing. That some sucker shit, if your skin is like mines then you exist and are able to live how you want because somebody sacrificed their life for you to do so.
I can't wait until the day when we all look at each other's as human beings and see spirit before we see nationality. But until that day I now and forever will recognize that I'm an African American man that still lives in a world where the country we live in is still trying to disenfranchise, exploit and oppress people of color. We still live in a country where white supremacy rules. This is not me coming at White people, this is me recognizing a system that allows White people to excel, maintain their dominance over other cultures and benefit from wealth and opportunities that came from slavery, Jim Crow and systematic racism. Now we can act like this system doesn't exist but like Bill Cosby said the proof is in the pudding. People of color still suffer from lack of opportunity, bad schools, failing communities. Police brutality has become the new form of lynching people of color. The police are killing people that look like me at alarming rate. You can't go and research and you will see over 5,600 unarmed black people have been killed within the last 10 years. Slavery was created to force a group of people to do labor and work for free. Without slavery and the exploitation of black people, America would not have been able to become the world's superpower. Not much has changed since the 1960's, the plantation still exists, it's called the work force. We are still on boats they are just trains and buses now. We are still slaves and although white people get a head start, they are still in the same boat unless they are in that one percent. This country is a corporation and we are all workers for that corporation. It doesn't matter if you're on the top or the bottom, you're still in the building. The goal for the corporation is to distract and manipulate us, while we all work and pay off debt that shouldn't be ours. Isn't that something? The system has found a way to get a variety of different nationalities in a maze of work and labor. It's nothing wrong with working hard and smart so you can support your family. But if you're in a system where you live check to check, you can't build savings, which means you can't invest, so you will be in a never ending system until you die.
I still feel people of color need to unlearn a lot of the bad habits that are keeping us disconnected. If we had unity among each other, if we respected each other and treated Our women with more respect then we wouldn't have the problems of poverty, oppression and mass incarceration. The system knew that eventually that we would get tired and fight against it. So instead that system brainwashed millions of people to hate people that look like them and to only think about self and to ignore the injustices to other people that look like them because it's not happening to them personally. Well guess what an injustice to one of us is an injustice to all of us. But to be honest we know that people of color can come together to work for a common cause. People of color showed you that with the Civil Rights Movement. When we decided to come together we created a movement that's responsible for creating the civil rights bill, the immigration bill, and the voting Rights Bill and this didn't just help people of color. It helped people of all different nationalities get equal rights and an opportunity to better their lives. It's time for all of us to stick together, I'm talking about Black, Asian, White, Indian, Native Americans, Latinos, all nationalities to work together for the common cause of changing this world. We won't be able to get to heaven until we create it right here. We could live in paradise and peace everyday if we choose to. It doesn't matter what your race is, if you're not working toward equality for all people then you are a part of the problem. In this day and age, we don't need people's opinions, we need people's actions. To end this blog, I'm going to say that White people have to acknowledge that White Supremacy exists and actively work along with people of color to end it. Collectively we can create a new system that benefits all but we have to do it together. Love will save this world; hate will continue to destroy it. I hope this piece inspires you to think outside of the box and forces you to step outside your comfort zone. Not being aware of the issues that exist is just as bad as being a part of the problem.