That’s how I’m going to explain it – you can agree or disagree with the two world’s concept but this is how I’m explaining it to my friend.
James,
The white world many times just doesn’t know, care or understand anything in the other worlds, but we the inhabitants of the other worlds understand everything in the white world because we have to be a part of it. This isn’t so for the inhabitants of the dominate white world. They must make an effort to understand our subset worlds and those that don’t are then amazed when we in the subset worlds of color react differently to the same exact things.
One such occurrence happened on Saturday July 14th when an all woman white Jury, presided over by a white Judge in Sanford Florida said “not guilty” in the George Zimmerman trial. Many whites agreed, few African-Americans did. Many white’s identified with GZ and believed the GZ story that he was afraid for his life, while most blacks felt GZ pursued, chased and stalked TM who was scared of a “creepy cracker” that was following him. To us it’s a clear case of profiling, and murder. Many of us, whether criminals or not are profiled all the time. Its our life experience that many in the white world diminish or disbelieve.
As African-Americans generally we all know we were brought here as slaves and have been treated as second class citizens for centuries. As a Blackman in America I’ve always been in touch with the racial disparities of America, in law enforcement and the law themselves. My friends and I, family and associates have all been victims of it. We also understand that tremendous strides have been made over the last 50 years to make the principals of equality in our Bill of Rights apply to us as well. I believe we are truly moving in the right direction.
Supreme Court Cases like Brown vs. Board of Education of 1954, legislation like the Equal Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965were all attempts at creating an equal environment and a level the playing field for us. Affirmative Action and employment equality were created to attempt to equalize the 400 years of oppression. To help us as a race to catch up to the white world, due to official oppression policies and institutional racism that’s been ingrained in America for the last 400 years. These cases and laws were designed to kill Jim Crow. Some whites call these acts and laws reverse discrimination.
I also know the President Nixon jewel; the Controlled Substance Act of 1970was in-effect the resurrection of Jim Crow. The CSA was a declaration of war, a war on us. The CS-ACT has re-enslaved more African-Americans into today’s concrete plantation system than were released from the plantations in 1865. The “war on drugs” is clearly racist and has been used to disenfranchise and devalue African-Americas, turning us into the “chattel” of the New Age Concrete Plantation systems of today’s American slave industry. I view whites caught up in the drug war as collateral damage of the racist drug war, they are victims too.
I’ve known this my entire life and most of my adult life I’ve spoken out against the “war on drugs” marijuana’s inclusion of it especially. I’ve always viewed the war on drugs as racism, and I’ve labeled my activism against it as a civil rights effort. Thru these efforts I’ve gotten nationally known and some would call me a counter-cultural figure or a folk hero to many. To me I’m always first and foremost an African-American male. I’ve noticed over the years whenever I speak the truth about the racial aspects of the war on drugs, some of my white contemporaries get upset and call me a racist. LOL – Many of my white contemporaries in the marijuana legalization movement simply look at the marijuana prohibition differently than me – to me it’s always been a civil rights violation. Speaking about it in racial terms should be spoken on more in my opinion but the dominate world isn’t interested in this, so it’s a footnote to most.
As a child my mother held black history/empowerment classes in our home for her children and our neighborhood friends. I’m glad I learned things outside of the larger white dominated world of Government school programs that taught us nothing of ourselves, and diminished what was taught. Long before we began to be included in school history classes and attempts such as black history month etc.,. I learned about positive black influences in our society despite the official non-mentioning of these influences in our school books. As an adult these teachings helped me be able to speak my own mind as a individual who thought he was as equal as any member of the larger world. This is why I’m one of the few African-American marijuana legalization activist. – lol – Blame it on my mom.
Both of my parents used history books and the new encyclopedia Britannica to teach me about slavery, the black codes after slavery. I learned of segregation, discrimination and lynching’s that followed that era. We learned of the Scottsboro Boys, Megan Evers and the Emmett Till case’s. Those were our “BOOGEY-MAN” stories and many other black men I know – know these stories. I doubt any of my contemporaries do. There wasn’t a need for them to learn this or to identify with the victims in those cases. As a child I could careless about the Jersey Devil, “Klansman” stories scared me. I was in junior High when the Atlanta child killings where going on and we all thought it was a Klansman. The prospect of being tried by an all white jury, or having justice rendered to us by a all white jury became my childhood nightmare. These are the horrors that made me understand the jury system and how Jury Nullification could be used. Personally on the marijuana front I used Jury Nullification to keep me from being enslaved in New Jerseys prison system last year. But I know Jury Nullification has a bad side too. These cases taught me that, these were our BOOGEYMAN stories and this George Zimmerman case to us is scary.
Additionally many black families have their own personal stories, and my family is no different. Everyone in our family was taught many things that are a part of our collective African-American family history.
- Example 1: My grandma Ida Woods-Worthington lost two brothers to racial murders, her 12 year old brother CORNEILUS-WOODS was murdered in Ben Hill Georgia Dec., 27 1923. Because of that horror her family fled immediately afterwards to Berlin NJ, only to have her brother 17 year old McClinton-Wood’s shot (murdered) by a NJ State Trooper in 1952. A few days later his murderer was poetically avenged – the NJ Trooper was likewise killed in a car accident with a Blackman.
- Example 2: On the other side of my family was my grandma Forchion who was the grand-daughter of a rape victim. Her grandfather was a rapist-whiteman, she herself looked nearly white. I am high yellow as a direct result I always knew I was light-bright because of a rape. As a child in the “black is beautiful” movement of the 1970’s I thought this made me ugly and compensated by being afro-centric, by reading more of my history.
To my followers in different parts of the country I didn’t grew up in one of the ghettos of New Jersey. I understand plenty of times when I represent I’m from New Jersey people think I’m from Camden, or Newark. Just the opposite as a suburban kid growing up in Sicklerville NJ, going to racially diverse Edgewood High School, with white friends and family members I thought I was a part of the larger world. I knew I was the first generation of African-American to be legally equal. For those reasons I almost always took these lessons as history, things of the past historical events that should never be forgotten but the past. My childhood friends were mainly white, my earliest memories of school and little league, and boy scouts were shared with white kids. I rode dirt bikes, hunted in the woods and went fishing in new brooklyn lake with white kids. I knew I was a equal to any of them. I think as a child I was called “wigger” (white-nigger) more by blacks than I was called “nigger” by the white kids I grew up with. I had blacks friends too obviously but in shear numbers by location I had more white friends. I wanted to believe that even as I encountered racism here and there thru my adult life I continued to think we as Americans were moving forward. I myself served proudly in the US military and was honorably discharged from the Army in June 1990.
I long ago lost count on the number of times I’ve been profiled, called suspicious and confronted by law enforcement. Part of what pisses me off about this case is GZ wasn’t even a law enforcer he was a “overzealous wanna be cop”. He profiled TM as suspicious and pursued him, stalked him and murdered him in my world. 100% his fault. My only fault with Tyvon is he didn’t run all the way home. The Tyrvon Martin (case) – George Zimmerman “NOT GUILTY” verdict a the hands of a all white jury to me and millions of other African-American signals a return of the scary past! Our Boogeyman isn’t GZ, its the Jury condoning him thats scary.
My first thoughts of a true return of the past came withthe George Bush “Coup d’état” of theWhitehouse in 2000. I understood he was going to turn the Supreme Court into a conservative court (redneckcommittee) and he did. This summer was the first time they’ve had a real chance to turn the clocks back to the 50’s and they did, to me this has been a eye opener and I feel I’ve been changed forever. I today realize my nightmares and scares aren’t the past it’s the present and the future. Jim Crow is alive and walking, smiling and plotting and planning the resurgence of white dominance is here, slavery already has returned thru the justice system and prisons.This is a fact that we know: There are more black men enslaved today than were released at the end of slavery
- On Monday (June 24th 2013) Jim Crow raised his ugly head when – (the US Supreme Court) the GWB redneck committee (with its pic-a-ninny Thomas) all but Struck down Affirmative Action so the return of all white universities in America is returning soon. Especially, in the southern part of the United States.
- Then on Tuesday (June 25th 2013) to the chagrin of all minorities the GWB Redneck Committee (US Supreme Court) decimated the Voters Rights Act of 1964. I never before expected that historical legislation to be dismantled. Now I’m expecting the disenfranchisement of minority voters nationwide to begin. Texas, North Carolina and Mississippi have not failed me in this thought. These states have moved already to limit minority voters before the ink was even dry 30 days.
Then on Saturday July 14th 2013 an all white jury in Florida exonerated the murderer of a black teenager which many of us identified as another Emmett Till case. George Zimmerman became the real life boogeyman, even thou he didn’t wear a hood and his skin color had a hue too. The system was the same, the verdict the same. The days of the Goldsboro boys, Emmett Till all white Jury trials are back. It’s a lot more politically correct now and no one wears sheets anymore but the actions are the same Jim Crow is alive. This is what we saw.
The actions of the Supreme Court were scary this summer, I never imagined that the civil rights, voter rights and Affirmative action would be dismantled in my life time. They were designed to correct 400 years of oppression – how could it be fixed in less than 50 years.
I know there is far more black on black murders. When I was in seventh grade On Dec 9th, 1977 my own Grandfather Horace Worthington was murdered by a blackman named Cecil Wright who was convicted and imprisoned. He was released before I was out of high school. My family felt the light sentence was a indiction of how cheaply the system felt his live was, this is how we now feel the jurors felt in the GZ case. They identified with GZ and had no value or respect for TM life, or worth. Over the years I’ve known a few murder victims, including my best friend Chris Ferguson Feb 6, 2002 all killed by other blacks. His killer killed 5 others and was sentenced to life. But statistics show to kill a blackman you get a lighter sentence than if ther murder is of a white person. We know this the media doesn’t need to tell us. If we say anything about guns, the white world erupts into 2nd amendment hysteria. New Town has made the white world holler, in our world (20 kids killed) it happens everyday.
I know I’ve heard Americans talk of 12/7/1942 being a day of infamy for the whole country, or black people talking of MLK’s I have a dream speech in Washington DC, on August 28th, 1963 as that day that changed them. More recently 911 is a day that many Americans feel changed their view of world.
To me and millions of other African-Americans the Zimmerman case is no different than the Emmett Till case or that of other cases we as black families know all too well. My whole world changed on Saturday July 14th.
The Jewish Holocaust perpetrated against the by the German Third Reich lasted from (1929-1945) and is estimated to have killed 6 million European Jews and everyone in America is supposed to understand the plight of the Jew and their saying of never forget. It didnt even happen here in America. When we bring up our past we are called RACIST, Race hustlers and Race baiters. Why are we not given the same understanding? Why isn’t the same sympathy afforded to the African-Americans who for 246 years (1619-1865) suffered thru our own holocaust perpetrated by white Christians here in America. Our Holocaust was so horrific it’s impossible to estimate how many MILLIONS of Africans were killed in these years in this foreign land as captives, sub-human Chattel. Additionally millions of Africans were transported all over the world to be slaves for close to 400 years. Then here in America and elsewhere we suffered second class citizenship for over a century afterwards.America became the powerhouse, superpower because of 246 years of free labor. Imagine owning a business and the labor was free, just feed them and fuck them when you want too “Thomas Jefferson style”.
I belong to the first generation of African-American born after the Acts I mention earlier (Board of Education case, Voting Rights, civil rights acts) I was born in 1964, my parents are children of the segregationist era born in the 1940’s. Looks like the equal rights may not have lasted one generation.
NJWEEDMAN
Respectfully written to my friend James
P-S- July 14th, 2013 changed my world and sense of equality forever. My white contemporaries can’t understand this, some have un-friended me on facebook, I’ve gotten nasty emails and have been accused of being Al Sharpton, and Jessie Jackson. BTW – To me these two guys have always spoken out against racism but to the dominate world they are vilified as race baiters and race hustlers. Which is ironic, very few in the dominate white world would speak out in support of ending racism, these two who do.
P.S. #2 – I shouldnt have called the U.S. Supreme Court the George Bush redneck committe.