Our History

"Please don't take this personal,
But you aint shit, you aint special
Until I made you." -Jhene Aiko

I love sitting at the kitchen table in the morning and sipping on a cup of bitter black coffee. It's a wonderful way to ease into the day. But lately the news just hasn't been the sipping coffee kind.

In the media, they have these wacky commentators always talking about "justice." What they always fail to mention is who wrote "justice" and who benefits from "justice" and whether said "justice" is fair. Certainly not for young men of color. And here in this country, we're at a standstill over that again. We put band-aids over it and it keeps re-emerging, like maggots, over hundreds of years. Every few months, there's another child on TV, whose life is cut too short, and who will see no justice. We talk about it for a few days. We forget. And a few months later, another one hits us like a bullet through these children.

I think one of the things that holds this country back is it's lack of acknowledgment to the people who made it what it is. This country became successful on the backs of slave labor. Industries bloomed, white families sent their children to colleges because of this. Black families were torn apart for this country. After slavery, Freedmen were essentially still property on white landowners. It wasn't that long ago. And the thanks that black families got for this is to be relegated into communities where the jobs are bad and the education is worse. Communities where they are underrepresented by public officials and overly policed.

That disenfrenchisement and the feeling of being left behind, by a country they and their ancestors built, and by the powerful people who gained wealth from it, is at least one of the roots to this problem. Where does passivity and obeying the man the way MLK did in the 60's get people of color in 2014? I think the Ferguson community is showing to this very defensive country the people it's leaving behind and the gaps in our justice.

Invest in people who invest in this country.
Stop talking and give people jobs.
Give people training.
Give people education.
Give people healthy grocery stores and good food.
Treat black and brown people like any other person.
Give people a better outlook for tomorrow.
Don't make youth feel like they can be the next Michael Brown because they are targeted or because they have no other options.

Opportunities are the only way stereotypes are erased and communication opens. We're doing a good job at  crushing dreams and shoddy job at providing opportunities for certain members of this nation.
It isn't right.