There are just some days. Today is one of those days. I feel like standing on my front lawn and screaming. In 1968 I was in high school. In April of that year MLK was assassinated. Two months later Robert Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles. The 60’s had been full of promise for a different America.
In 1964 against all odds the Civil Rights act was passed. The next year in 1965 the voting rights act was passed. America appeared to be ready for real change. Then just three short years later the dream began to Crack. The first signs came with the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Demonstrations turned into riots. There was a backlash from law enforcement and the conservative right.
Richard Nixon would use every dirty trick in the book and make up some new ones to beat the Democratic nominee. He would usher in a new era of politics that would ultimately open the floodgates for identity politics. During his second term Nixon would be forced to resign but by then the damage was done. Politics became the game of the rich versus the non rich. We know who had the advantage in that battle.
Meanwhile all across the nation something else was happening in major urban cities. In 1957 Washington DC had become the first major metropolitan city to see its population become majority black. It was famously dubbed chocolate city. During the day it was dominated by the beltway bandits at night it became chocolate city. Over the next twenty years other cities followed. Chicago, Detroit, Atlanta just to name a few.
Those cities saw federal dollars for community based programs become more scarce year over year. Schools and housing were dramatically impacted.
Recently I watched a documentary called “17 Blocks: The Final Cut” that delt with the life experience of a single black mother and her three kids in Washington DC. The story covered a twenty year time span that showed you the tragedy of this black family living 17 blocks from the Capitol. I was enraged. It brought to mind Marvin Gayes phenomenal hit recording Inner City Blues. Since the end of the 60’s until now too many black families have been living the inner city blues because someone else was always pulling the strings.
We have a country with limitless possibilities that watches people suffering because it does not believe in opportunity for everyone. We don’t have a Democracy we have an oligarchy. It gets worse by the day.
The only way things will change is for people to take charge of their own destiny. Right now we are allowing our communities to be poisoned. The poison is the drugs that are channeled into our neighborhoods. The music that eats away at our young peoples minds. The willingness to put our fate into people’s hands that don’t give a damn about you. I’m talking to you DETROIT.
It makes me want to holler, throw up both my hands.
Think!!
Eyes Wide 👀 👁 Open!!!
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