Wake up!

Owens, Dexter

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Transcript

Wake Up! People of today feel we have turned a racial corner as of November 4, 2008. Get real, with millions of Blacks and Latinos enslaved in chains. Plus, with the senseless murders of Oscar Grant, Tray Von Martin, and Jordan Russell Davis. All due to racial profiling and no value toward the significance of black life. Wake up! Are you too blind to open up your eyes and see what's really the problem and what's really going on in your communities and neighborhoods. Whoever black feel like we live in a post racial society, just because we have an affluent Black President in office and a appointed Black Attorney General. Don't let the wool be pulled over your eyes so easily or misled. We (Blacks and Latinos) as an entire race-a race of color people have much work to do. It's an honor to have some flavor in the White House. But with all flavoring as opposed to mouth watering gourmet meals, it loses it's flavor in bad weather, harsh conditions, and when sampled by too many people. Too many chefs stirring the pot leaves the flavor were it's throwed off from the original recipe. I once heard over a radio broadcast about a college educated man washing an old woman's dishes. While listening intently to the broadcast, I thought to myself, "This brother has class. This brother is really in touch with the poor people. Almost like the last great Black Hope. Can you take us to the promised land?" Message: "Never lose touch with your constituents, who put you in office and the people of color, whom society has deemed as unsavory, uncouth, and unworthy of cretins. "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not on your own understanding." The Industrial Complex where I am housed and governed at, it's like a bedlam for corruption, which features components such as...military type of get quick rich schemes, long term financial support, and a monopoly of unfair business practice that targets prisoners, and leave their families financially broke from supporting these criminalistic activities going on in Nevada. (The seeds of corruption has reached their full bloom in Nevada. Coffers are being filled, in an effort for the next generation to pick up where they last left off. Corruption is now down to a science. What the public don't know won't hurt is the mantra of our oppressors.) We as a people of color must strive to make changes in the criminal justice system. We must merge with each other, and press our public officials to fix the criminal justice system that systematically targets Blacks and Latinos. Public pressure is the only course of action that works. We must unite on issues concerning our justice being denied and exploited through the criminal justice system. Time caps on these lengthy sentences our race has been handed out. When Blacks and Latinos but their guns it's a 20 to life, 25 to life, or life. Whatever your gender is...and you feel we deserve everything the criminal justice system throws at us. I want you to ponder this question and think logically and philosophically. Do you think it's alright for a young innocent African American to be gunned down by a White man simply because he looks suspicious and has on a hoodie? Do you think it's right for his killer to be free, where if you examined many convicted killers in the United States you'll find there was a threat of bodily harm and acts of violence, which premeditated each of those killings. Is that what you call justice? We all know the system is broke. It's time to fix it. Let's not wait for another tragedy to occur, and then become concerned. When it comes to Blacks and Latinos we are shafted, bamboozled, and tricked when it comes to receiving our fair share of legal protection and legal justice. In most cases concerning Blacks and Latinos. We are painted as the villain before any words has ever been exchanged or any type of investigation has took place. By the way our young Blacks and young Latinos dress. We are like a person with a bulls eye painted on our backs and the hunt is on! One of the greatest commandments in the Bible is to "show" love as well as "love thy neighbor." A righteous person leads by example. If the example we teach our kids is...if you mess up in society you're nothing to no one, not even your own blood kin. A travesty of that nature sends out the wrong message. Why? Because the same young Blacks and Latinos that's locked up is predominately someone's father, brother, uncle, or cousin. If it's in our hearts to hate, how do our kids interpret the misplaced hate or the seeds of bitterness we are planting inside their young minds unknowingly. What is fair nowadays? Is it fair for a college student to have to pay back a loan of $120,000 and once college is complete there's no work in their field of training? And while swallowing their pride the job search becomes looking for a lesser paying job in which a college educated person is deemed as overqualified. Is it fair for Blacks and Latinos to be warehoused? Is it fair for the prisons to receive any kind of money from the government (for our support), when 90% of the money ends up in the highest of the food chain, who runs the prisons with an iron fist? What is up with all the noise I hear about post racial promises. Let me make this perfectly clear to the downtrodden, and to whom society don't give a "F" about. There is a war going on and it pertains to the poor and the have nots. If you find yourself in either of these categories you'll see how quick you are swept up in this vacuum of hate and bigotry. When it's politically correct to address certain key issues pertaining to our race. We make nice and smile for the cameras, grab a few headlines, and kiss a few babies. Then, it's back to business as usual. The problems are later forgotten and the movement becomes dead. With the various prisons throughout the United States of America collecting a lifetime of interest from big banks, and the government sponsoring these type of criminal enterprises because they are well hidden from the public's eyes. The spotlight is shined on the criminal who is turned into a media sensation. (More like a circus freak, if you ask me, or perhaps like a slave put on the auction block to be sold to the highest bidder." Which kind of reminds me of when I was a little boy back in East Texas and I observed a cow auction. (What you may find intriguing is...the announcer at the cow action is talking real fast and real slick. Almost like there is something to hide or something being not quite right.) If you listen closely and pay close attention to what's being said you can learn valuable information and witness what these so called politicians are doing to our country. Things of the nature of...destroying the entire Black and Latino race, creating hate and havoc where there should be love and peace. Big businesses are outsourcing jobs to foreign countries like Japan and China. Where slave labor runs rampantly in extravagance. The fuel that feeds the fire is...what goes on behind closed doors stays behind closed doors. Until free Blacks and Latinos realize they must make a serious effort to save their youngest sons, father, brother, uncle, or cousin in which is locked up. Why? Because if every adult male is locked up (ages: between the ages of 18-65) then, there's no more male role models or male leadership in which a kid can look up to. As the song by Brian McKnight sings passionately to an ex girlfriend, "Do I ever cross your mind?" Well, in total opposite to the song I would like to ask you a personal question. Does it ever cross your mind when plantation owners was kidnapping Africans from their very own soil in Africa in the 1800's? What stopped these atrocious acts from continuing? It was luminaries in the likes of Frederick Douglas, who spoke up for equality and change of certain laws. Frederick Douglas was a brave abolitionist when bravery at the time had it's reward of hanging by a noose tied around your neck while your body is left on display with a cardboard that states: Nigger. The movement to abolish slavery as well as the civil rights movement was strong and vital for our people. Why? Because it not only affected one but it affected the whole entire Black race. When one hurts, we all hurt. The 1963 March on Washington was such a splendid event where it demonstrated we can stand strong for something and let our voices be heard across the world. As everyone witnessed this major event take place, history in the making. The gathering for the Civil Rights Movement generated 300,000 people who marched on the Mall in Washington. The key issues discussed were advocacy in support of jobs and freedom. Which eventually led to the Civil Rights Acts in 1964 being passed, as well as the Voting Rights Act in 1965. A wise man once said, "It is impossible to understand the present or prepare for the future unless we have some knowledge of the past." Malcolm X When an entire race is being affected by atrocious acts being waged upon our people we're drawn closer because we suffer from the same life line. I have a serious question to the college educated and the intellectual types. How many more people have to be lock up in chains before mass incarceration is abolished? 1 million, 5 million, 10 million, 15 million, 20 million, or 50 million? I know you've heard countless times where people have said, closed mouths don't get fed. Well...if mass incarceration is not being addressed and voices not being heard in our State Senate and The White House. Consider, the entire Black and Latino race extinct in the next 50 years. Please don't feed into the propaganda being produced by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. If every male from the Black and Latino race is locked up, no babies are being produced. The numbers for vital statistic decreases and the population for the entire race decreases. (Don't abortion your womb!) The question at hand is...do you want your entire race extinct in the next 50 years, wiped off the face of the earth by greedy capitalist who view you as collateral damage and pawns in the larger scheme of things? Wise up before it's too late. Our race is targeted for extinction. Enslaving Blacks and Latinos have become like a game or hunting endangered species to the powers that be. We must recognize what is going on, and stop being so judgmental. Judge not and you will not be judged. Forgive others and you will be forgiven of your sins. Do unto others as you would like them to do to you. On each issue, we must stand up and fight! We must let our voices be heard, until it can shake the grounds of Washington like a San Francisco earthquake! We must unite on key issues that affect both of our races! Our young Blacks between the ages of 17-26. The police target our young blacks for harassment. Why? Because without them the mass incarceration machine wouldn't be able to function, continue thriving, or turn over any profit for that matter. Without innocent bodies and victims who are misguided and uninformed there would be job lay offs, benefits will be taken away and pensions will be downsized. There's a genocide war going on. The cold fact is...a lot of people of color are too blind to see what's going on, or practically just don't give a "F" or just plain ignorant and too selfish to the needs of others. Or either they know and simply point blank don't care. With mass incarceration sweeping the nation like a huge tidal wave, while carefully aimed at the Black and Latino race. Capitalist have deliberately and systematically targeted both racial groups for the total annihilation and complete destruction. The most barbaric thing about these evil atrocious acts being waged upon both ethnic groups is...it's all done under the guise of big business. (Your hard earned tax dollars put to good use. Yeah, right. Get real.) To enslave your own race as opposed to providing a higher education to your young daughters who could one day become a Campus Queen or Florida A & M University while majoring in Health Care Management. Or, quite possibly make the necessary arrangement so that your kids will have new books and new computers to learn from. As I end this essay I would like to leave you with a quote from a critically acclaimed actor who was one of the stars in the hit movie "School Daze." Produced, written, and directed by: Spike Lee. Also, I would like to leave you with a quote from a Civil Rights Leader who may be gone but is never forgotten. You're spirit and message lives on through our youths. Wake up! "It meant that we're all the same. We need to stand together," says Esposito. "I still don't know how to this day if people get it or really see the depth of what "Wake up!" means. It means love each other...put away age old problems like the closer your skin is to white, the better off you are or the more elite you are." - Actor Giancarlo Esposito Wake up! "The greatest mistake of the movement, has been trying to organize a sleeping people around specific goals. You have to wake the people up first, then you get action. "People must be woken up to their humanity, to their own worth, and to their heritage." - Malcolm X

Author: Owens, Dexter

Author Location: Nevada

Date: October 9, 2013

Genre: Essay

Extent: 7 pages

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