(OLD) EDITORIAL: Blessings Despite & Throughout
Great day everyone. Hope all is peace with you and yours.
Thanks to Alisha Jenkins for reposting this writing I did in 2016. These thoughts are still relevant and the actions mentioned are STILL going on. 4 yours later.
I want to share this…in the light of everything that’s going on. It makes sense to and it makes sense to show yall that I’m still battling this fight…along with my kind. Hope you dig it and are still making efforts to change things…with my kind and people not of my kind (kind = I’m a black man that pushes humanity…always).
Enjoy the read and the weekend. #TOTHETOP
P.S. I need to write more. Also, if you have a story you would like to share in regards to social injustice, police brutality, please feel free to contact me on here or mpnmanagement@gmail.com.
Mr. Al Pete
Jul 10, 2016 · 7 min read
Mister Peterson’s Neighborhood: Editorial: Blessings Despite & Throughout
…I’ve been sitting on writing this editorial for some days now. A couple of disclaimers:
Editorial sounds pretty cool huh? Solidification.
I’m sure I’ll be everywhere with it but I promise it’ll fall back.
In no way is this done for some credit. I don’t like having to say that but it make folks view it different…even though some will think less but…whatever.
Without of doubt, last week has been extremely rough. Yet…another police shooting: peace to Alton Sterling and Philando Castile along with their family, friends and communities…along with the African American culture…who experienced this loss. Also, peace to Dallas, Texas and their incident that occurred 24 hours AFTER Philando Castile was shot. While I’m at it, peace to whoever lost someone due to the act of police brutality. We hear about this occasionally going on but for it to happen within 24 hours is flat out scary, senseless, and confusing…times 10. Scary: because these young black males have deceased and its looking more like young black males (like myself…and my 18 year old son…and my brother…and my cousins…and my friends…and my neighbors…and my father…and my uncles…and my pastor…etc.) are a full target. Senseless: yall have seen the videos that CLEARLY show it and confusing: because I don’t know what to do and if I thought of doing something, would it even hold weight. Outside of just taking it easy, enjoying a weekend with my family (my family reunion was refreshing…I loved it) and praying, that’s why it took me some days to even type this.
Let me tell yall, I would really love for everyone to just love one another and cut the harassments and crime out…but it ain’t like that. It don’t ever look like it’s going to be like that. All I can do is just exercise loving folks. Folks: meaning all humans. I try my best at living the humanity lifestyle but I can’t ignore that I’m an African American…young…male. Do I walk around all the time thinking and saying ‘I’m black and I’m proud’…no I don’t…but I do respect, honor, love (at times), lift up my race. With that said, I’ve had small trouble with that recently. Quick story: I remember moving back home from college in 2000 and beginning a ‘corporate america’ job. That was my first time experiencing being called a ‘nigga’…from a Caucasian. My first thought was ‘why are you so mad sir?’ It didn’t affect me ‘like that’…but I knew from then on what my place was within that job and my future jobs…because I still, ’til this day, feel like upper management or even a coworker only sees my dark skin and that I’m a ‘black guy’ and because I’m a musician and ‘look good’, I exploit women and I have no purpose/business being on these folks jobs. Again…do I walk like that every day, no. Is it consciously in my head, of course. Either way, I still just want folks to love folks…PERIOD. It’s not hard at all…but others make it hard to. Two explanations.
People are ignorant…in all ways ignorance can be said or used. People are selfish. People have no self esteem for themselves and definitely not others. People don’t give respect…but quick to demand it. People are mean. Add ‘some’ in front of ‘people’ (I didn’t feel like going back and changing it).
Love isn’t shown to where folks would even get the lick of an idea to show it back. It starts off with simple greetings. I’m telling you…greetings changes attitudes. Then it goes to those simple rules we were taught growing up: do unto others as you would have them do unto you, love thy neighbor, honor thy father and thy mother…you know…what our grannys and mentors repeated every single day. Now remember it was said over and over…at some point, you got it right? Yeah…execute it with yourself and others.
So…when I’m looking at these videos and hearing folks cries and seeing these things blatantly acted out, how could one (or me) think that we’re protected and that these folks sworn into oath are a service to us? It’s challenging…and I see that clear as day now.
I’ve been living in this fear factor for a long time and lately, I’ve been trying to break from it all. I’ve been doing small things like enjoying myself without the worries of coming home thinking that my lights will be off…but I paid the bill before I enjoyed myself and I’ve been more verbal with my thoughts (hence this passage) but it sucks that I would rather be home at a certain time of night because I don’t wanna die from the hands of a cop that feels like I’m a threat (senseless)!! Like…seriously!! Yall should have saw me dipping home last night from my family reunion banquet. I was sipping too…yeah…BOTH hands on the wheel…and granted, this can happen in daylight but yall get my point. It sucks (scary). When/how does this end though…(confusing)?? Some of my thoughts on how it could end…or start some change:
These cops need to be held accountable yo. They need to come out in these streets and speak to media and us and ensure us that everything will be ok. It’s going to take A LOT of time to restore that positive feeling to us but shit…do something cops. My uncle, last night, stated a challenge to us saying that we need to friend a cop. Friend a cop Poppa…*laughs*…I respect them but there is no way they can walk around and don’t see the beauty in us young African American males…so in a sense, they need to be knocking on my door…for a good cause and letting me know I’m okay to live without fear of them and their kind ending my life because they’re cowards. I accept my uncle’s challenge but it’s stipulations on that…it has to go both ways because I have every right to feel like they’re a threat to me…and 2 folks thinking that they’re both threats to each other don’t end well.
We all need to respect each other and yes, that includes African Americans. My uncle, again, stated that we need to stop making less accountable folks heroes. I totally agree…I could have shouted when he said that because I won’t front, some of these situations are inflicted by ‘us’…but when you’re doing the numbers, a lot of these folks, at the time of the conflict, wasn’t performing a crime and were NOT armed…follow? So in that regards, that leaves the respect to the armed…aka the cops. They’re here to ‘protect and to serve’…not make this assumption that we’re going to disrespect them. Also, folks need to respect each other with this whole racism situation too now. Don’t act like some of yall be calling these folks ‘crackas’ and ‘niggas’ under your breath. Respect that person. People work hard and live these lives everyday…for you to call me a ‘nigga’ because you mad?? That don’t offend me by the way but yo…I am a citizen of America and of my life and I work hard for that. You might not know that but I know it well enough to respect people, even if they don’t respect me. That’s how things end up bad. I digress on this particular section.
