LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Melo Anthony, and Chris Paul open the 2016 ESPY Awards by saying, "Philando Castile. Alton Sterling. We're Tired of This!"

I had written the follwoing piece before seeing the opening of the 2016 ESPY Awards when LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony, and Chris Paul stood up and gave this powerful message:

I applaud these brothers for taking such a strong, public stance and for encouraging their fellow athletes to join them in fighting the injustices that exist in our country and in our black communities.  I am completely with them in this mission and I'd like to share the thoughts that I had even before hearing their message.  Here's what I wrote:


This year, I spent my fourth consecutive birthday traveling away from my home country, the United States.  I am quite comfortable celebrating my birthday away from home now. in fact, I have come to greatly appreciate the opportunity to review my life while seeing new places, meeting new people, eating new foods, and observing new cultures.  My first "birthday" piece, posted last year (Another Birthday?  Learning to Enjoy Aging!), contained my general musings on the process of and the lessons learned from aging.  It was written during a relatively peaceful time as thankfully there were no major disturbances in my immediate and general circles.  Sadly, the arrival of my birthday this year coincides with several tragic incidents in the States.  Two Black men, Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, were senselessly murdered by police officers.  Mr. Sterling was killed in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on July 5 while already restrained on his back, on the ground by two officers.  Mr. Castile was killed in his car in Minneapolis, Minnesota after being pulled over by an officer.  Mr. Castile was shot as he was reaching for his identification, as instructed to do by the officer.  Mr. Castile had already informed the officer that he was licensed to carry a handgun, as all people who receive weapon carry permits are instructed to do, yet the officer shot him four times killing him in the front seat of his car - in front of his fiancé and 4-year old daughter.  Thousands of people across the country immediately voiced their anger about these murders both through physical rallies in many cities/towns and also by expressing outrage via social media and other outlets.    More death occurred as 5 police officers were killed, and 8 other officers and several protesters were injured, by gunshots from what is claimed to be a single gunman during a rally in Dallas, Texas.  The suspected gunman was killed by bomb detonated by a police robot.

As I watch the coverage of these incidents both through my limited access to English-speaking television programming and by scouring various internet sources, I share in the deep pain being felt by the families of those killed and by the millions of others who know that they easily could have shared the same fate.  "There but for the grace of God go I," is the thought that immediately races through my head and the heads of countless other black men in America whenever events like these occur.  It infuriates me to not only have to continue watching brothers be outright killed in the streets as I have for my entire life, but also to have to discuss these tragedies with my son and other young black men who are now realizing exactly how perilous their existence at home is.  How do I help them come to terms with this nonsense?  How do I help them understand that, despite having Black President, the United States is nowhere near a post-racial society?  How can they ever feel safe and free to walk the streets as their white friends do?  How do I tell them when these events will stop happening?  How do I answer these questions for myself?  I just turned 54 years old and it seems like nothing at all has changes regarding the amount of "value" placed on a black person's life despite the valiant efforts of many people, including, but not limited to, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Angela Davis, Malcom X, Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, Cornel West, Bell Hooks, Thurgood Marshall, Stokely Carmichael, Fannie Lou Hamer, and so many others during those years.  WTF?????

Dr. Joy DeGruy's book Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome explains the serious condition that the black community in America suffers from due to generations of suffering and oppression faced by the initial Africans brought here during the slave trade and their ancestors.  She explains that this compromised mental state was created not only due to the institutional forms of slavery but also by imbibing all people, black, white and other, with the necessary beliefs that blacks were inherently and/or genetically inferior to whites.  The overt and subliminal systems created during slavery times have been updated/replaced by new and improved forms in order to maintain the status quo.  Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, explains, in a detailed, fully referenced manner, the latest rendition or version of the continuance of slavery in America.  Both of these authors expertly explain the current depressed physical, mental, and financial state of black folks in America as well as the ancillary issues and conflicts.  It is very important to note the often overlooked mental stressors felt by oppressed people as they often contribute greatly to the physical ailments and issues.  After all, oppression is much more effective when the oppressed peoples are "convinced" that they are inferior thereby rationalizing the need for the oppression in order to preserve social rank and hierarchy. Obviously, we NEVER received our '20 acres and a mule" but we also never received any mental health treatment either to address our damaged mental condition.   

One must note that American whites, despite the fact that the majority of them never truly lacked for anything, also never received mental health care to overcome the same false beliefs that were drilled into them to pave the way for slavery (the inherent inferiority of blacks relative to whites).  These beliefs were "created" well before the beginning of the slave trade, however, we may focus on the work done during those times to gather acceptance for the brutal institution as it was substantial.  As with American blacks, these "beliefs" have been overtly and covertly instilled deeply into their psyches for over 400 years.  They are passed along in words, actions, and traditions.  They are so ingrained that white people not only fail to even recognize their existence but also will argue against their existence when issues are brought to their attention by black people.  I will NEVER forget the argument that I had with my former college roommate in 1986 just after Michael Griffith was hit by a car and killed while being chased by a mob of white teen boys who had severely beaten him and his two friends as they tried to find help for their car which had broken down in the Howard Beach neighborhood of Queens, NY.  My roommate, with whom I was so close that he had served as a groomsman in my wedding in 1985, came from a nice, Italian family in Freeport, Long Island where I had visited on many occasions during our college years.  Throughout our years together, he had never expressed even the slightest racist attitude so imagine my surprise when he told my wife and I, as we all sat in the living room of our apartment in Queens, that he felt that Griffith was at fault for his own death because he should never have tried to cross the highway!  I actually laughed when he first said it because I thought he was joking - just messing around trying to be funny.  But he adamantly stated that Griffith should have stopped running once he and his friends were trapped between the highway and the mob and just fought with the mob.  He refused to alter his position even when informed that the mob, at least 10 white men some of whom had, and had used, baseball bats in their attack of Griffith and his friends.  He said that he thought the mob (the group was primarily of Italian descent by the way) were just "young guys goofing around."  Despite a LONG argument, he never changed his opinion leading to the effective ending of our relationship.  This incident led me to seriously worry about the ability of many white people to fight the effects of the psychological training they have received to justify slavery and racist attitudes.  Prior to our argument, I felt certain that my roommate was not the least bit racist and truly viewed all people equally.  Most importantly, he was a very intelligent, well educated person (we roomed together during our undergraduate years at Yale) and not the ignorant, uneducated type of white person normally associated with holding racist beliefs.

I am not sure what to do now.  I am tired of seeing black men like me killed in cold blood and having their murderers walk away with impunity.  I am tired of watching grieving mothers, fathers, and family members mourn the loss of their innocent loved ones of all ages.  I am tired of living my life in fear of the exact people whose job it is to protect me.  I am tired of having to fight for rights and opportunities that others receive freely simply due to the color of my skin.  I am tired of people making ridiculous assumptions about me and other black people based on state sanctioned racial profiling,  I am tired of people grieving more for the murdered police officers while not doing the same for the murdered victims of unwarranted police violence.  The dead officers deserve to be properly mourned and their familes properly supported as this should occur whenever lives are lost, however, it is unbearable to watch communities mourn for the officers who never felt moved to do the same just a day or two earlier for Philando Castile, Alton Sterling, and their families.  I am tired of traveling through other countries and observing the consternation they have regarding the proliferation of guns and violence in the States.  I am tired of being fully accepted and embraced while abroad but regularly questioned and feared at home.  Most of all, I am tired of watching a country possessing such abundant resources and seemingly limitless possibilities for its citizens to acheive greatness remain convinced that it is better served by maintaing a restrictive, oppressive approach towards a segment of its population based on the belief in white superiority.

This has to change! 

Power to the Purple (and the People)!