The last time I committed murder I was George Floyd and I was killed because I couldn’t breathe. I was Tamir Rice and I was killed because of a toy gun. I was Breonna Taylor and I was killed because I was scared because WTF. I was….Ohhh, there’s a long list. Whomever is keeping track, knows this. Every time I look in the mirror, I am me. And me stares back at me, and wonders when was the last time I committed murder again, remembering it’s as recent as Ralph Yarl’s attempted murder and the string of murders continue to occur because everyone must have a gun in order to satisfy their fears. I want to ask you a logical question, “Should Black people use their fear of prejudgment by Whites to guide their need to be safe and shoot first and ask questions later?” Is this what Black people should do, run around like chickens with our heads cut-off, stomping at trees in our way, barking at White people driving by, telling them not to look at us, asking them why and how do they drive that nice car, wanting nothing more than for them than to disappear and be more than happy to use Our Guns and our professions to make it happen? There’s no need for this…
I have committed murder because I am African American and marked as a troublemaker in the eyes of blinding racism and prejudiced biases, hurtful, painful, reckless, dangerous, assumptions being made about why I exist. At some point, you have to see right pass the chalk line of the sport of “killing unarmed Black and brown people, particularly Black men,” and call a spade a spade. You have to see right through Florida’s rambunctious fun of making laws that attempt to deny the undeniable evil and racism still flowing through White hearts and communities in 2023. It’s as if we kidnapped ourselves, enslaved ourselves, raped ourselves and kept ourselves from reading, and more, did all these things to ourselves and we’re just lying and our history therefore should be wiped from schools and libraries, from even existing on paper and in archives. When the spade is DENIAL. The spade is Unspeakable DENIAL. No matter who kidnapped, raped, beat, killed, pilfered our spirit and souls, or enslaved whom first or last, slavery was/is an evil thing by any measure.
We could go on planting rose bushes. Planting tomato vines watching them grow ripe blooded flowers and fruits, imagining every tomato representing our ancestor’s blood, their sacrifices and their pain; creating instead undertones of our pain, anger and intolerance towards deadly overt actions by Whites. That’s the pain of ALL children having the right to know and especially Black and Brown children being denied their history, witnessing the revelation of continued global injustices, wrongs needing made right, calling for an Equal Rights America with the most beautiful multicultural remedy that cannot be denied. We want to teach all other atrocities, legacies and injustices of a people, but not the people of the mother land. The human race is beautiful when everyone is FREE to obtain life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness without detriment to their culture and skin color.
Let’s Break Every Chain of Murder and Mayhem…Let’s kill it with Love, Facts and NEW Laws by Any Means Necessary…Amen.
The Rant Bar – Commentary by Darlene M. Fenrick Washington, Copyright DMWBooks.com/DMW Publishing 2023 All Rights Reserved