Another Everyday Occurrence

She wasn’t shot by cops, so you probably didn’t hear about this story. They won’t protest, won’t burn down the city, won’t be upset when the shooter gets released after a minimal amount of time. This is just another everyday occurrence.

There won’t be any video showing the shooting because this is not a story of a racist cop shooting an innocent woman in the back while she was trying to strap her child in the car. This ain’t a story of a cop slamming a black boy’s head into the trunk of a vehicle followed by a vicious uppercut to the jaw of his mother for trying to protect her baby. This is not the story of a man being beat senselessly with billy clubs, a murder of an innocent immigrant reaching for his wallet, a gas station epileptic attack leading to a barrage of bullets, or a young brother being tased, err, shot in the back while handcuffed. This is just another everyday occurrence.

The city won’t erupt with violence, the evidence will arrive slowly while we honor the code of no snitching, the apprehension will barely register a blip on the radar, the sentencing will be conducted only in front of the families of the perpetrators and the victims. Justice? Back page of the news; this is just another everyday occurrence.

There will be more people at the funeral for the “N” word than in the church for her going home. The community won’t cry, fight, nor go to jail protesting the senseless violence. There won’t be a nationwide call to raise money or awareness black on black crime; because let’s face it, there were no earthquakes or tsunamis here, there was no shooting of an unarmed man at the hands of the police, there were no innocent men with mistresses falling at the hands of Osama. No, there is nothing sensational about a mother being shot in the back by “one of her own” while trying to shield her baby from the horrors of our world. It will be chalked up to the hood, to pride, to boys being boys, to Niggers being Niggers, to keeping it real. This is just another everyday occurrence of inner city terrorism.

Beyond the initial shock, you won’t see much on the story, you won’t hear or remember her name, and you won’t be able to find her on Wikipedia. No one will care beyond a candlelight vigil and a $5 donation at a car wash to raise funds because this ain’t Amadou Diallo, this ain’t James Byrd Jr., this ain’t Tyisha Miller, this ain’t Oscar Grant, and this ain’t the racism of a boy getting arrested for sagging pants. This is just another everyday occurrence.

Even though we are a bigger threat to ourselves than the KKK, or the racist police, or the crooked judges and their crooked system led by their blind ho;

Jessie ain’t coming
Cornel ain’t coming
Obama ain’t coming
The Republicans and their system of traditional values ain’t coming
The Democrats and their array of social programs ain’t coming
The NAACP and their programs geared towards advancing Colored People is not coming

and Osama’s dead, so we can’t hire and train him to fight our black Russian demons

This story does not have a happy ending. There are no Hollywood “saviors” coming to rescue the little “Wildcats”, or to teach the children to become “Freedom Writers”, or to stop the little ghetto kids from being “Blindsided”. Madonna and Angelina aren’t coming to rescue of the third world American children from poverty. There are no more abolitionists or Underground railroads to save us from the vices of our horrors. For these problems, we’re all alone on the rooftop of hopelessness; think Bush – flying his whip overhead during Katrina, because this is just another everyday occurrence.

We are running out of veils to cover the ugliness. Running out of sagging pants stories to distract us from our troubles. Running out of shadows to blame for our worries. There are no more bogey-Bushes and Cheyneys, Sarah went from a presidential hopeful to a Saturday Night live skit, and the New World Order is bordering on becoming Paul Bunyan folklore. With each self inflicted act of self hatred, each unsolicited stroke of a Pastors hand up a skirt or on a boy’s privates, each innocent life that’s lost at our hands that we cover up, it becomes more apparent the racists aren’t the one’s pulling Pinocchio’s strings and our noses are growing from trying to cover up our imperfections. There are no more excuses for the kind of senseless acts that left Monique Nelson lying breathless in the door of her SUV, and her son motherless.

We are the only one’s left who can fix it; the only question that remains is where can we start to prevent these “Everyday Occurrences” from happening again and again?

About Sean King

Husband, Father, Writer, Philosopher, Humanitarian

Posted on June 22, 2011, in My Thoughts. Bookmark the permalink. 9 Comments.

  1. As you say, it’s an everyday occurrence among your people. That’s not likely to change because the underlying cause of it isn’t poverty or anything like that. It’s because Blacks will behave in any way that they can that both different from- and antithetical to normal, White, American culture. Violence is just part of that exilic ideal.

    • An interesting perspective that begs the question of what is normal White, American culture? Historically and currently speaking, one could argue that America was founded on violence and has violence embedded in every fabric of its DNA from its inception to the star spangled banner to what it is today.

      • You can look around and see what normal or normative American culture is. Or, if you don’t like looking at Whites, you can look back to the Blacks in the days of Segregation and how they behaved among themselves, which was functionally identical to how the majority of us behaved.

        It’s quite informative to look at the transition of Black culture away from the normative that took place with ending of segregation. The “Black Community’s” desire for a separate identity took a turn for the worse and outre when there were no more physical separations from Whites…and almost of those changes were to your people’s detriment.

      • Rather than waste a bunch of time in cyberspace debating with you about our differing perspectives; I will simply ask – what is your purpose for commenting and what is it that you wish to accomplish in this conversation and in life?

      • My purpose here was simply to make you think about the underlying causes of the problem you’re venting about. It’s good to state the problem; it’s even better to properly establish who’s the actors in it; but it’s best to think about the actual cause.

      • …and what is your purpose in life and what are you personally doing to contribute to the resolution of all of the problems that you see?

        On a side note, what has been your personal (non-media) experience with non-white people?

      • Honestly, I’m not sure what my purpose in life is in these latter days. I knew what it was, defending the nation and her interests, but I’ve been retired due to injuries for some time now.

        As for my personal (non-media) experience with non-white people:

        I served with them in the military, though that likely won’t count for much since there are no Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, or Whites in the military because the 1st thing that happens is your birth culture is sandblasted off and replaced with your branch of military’s culture.

        I lived and worked among them in more nations than I can easily count. Again, that won’t likely count for much because the non-Whites in other countries, especially their native countries and pseudo-countries, bare few cultural or behavioral similarities to those in the US.

        I currently live among far more non-Whites than Whites as I live in Bedford-Stuyvasent in Brooklyn.

        And finally, I’m married to a woman with all the genetic markers and traits of a Black, though only a small subset of their dominant culture’s traits.

      • Thank you for the honest answer. As for me, I grew up in both a multicultural (in terms of the makeup of the people) environment that was both impoverished and racists. I attended school with skinheads, as well as many other cultures, and there was always a tension that existed. My high school had a 50% drop out rate and a teen pregnancy center on campus, because it was essentially a poor high school.

        All of that said, there was a time when I viewed the world in terms of black and white. Today, I understand there are several layers to the conditions that exists and nothing fits neatly into the boxes we have created. I am always learning and growing and working to be open… I have friends all over the globe and through them have gained an appreciation for what we have, who we are, but also an understanding of what we lack.

        For the record, when I look at America, I don’t see white and black, I see human beings that exists in an ecosystem and a country that will fall apart if we continue to fail to find a common ground for common growth.

        Peace and many blessings to you and your family. The fact that you want to make conditions better is enough for me to respect you, even if we don’t see eye to eye on the how to do it or the what is wrong. I give respect to you as a man, as a human being, and as someone who has risked your life to serve others.

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