CAPEHART / WASH. POST: "One of the burdens of being a black male is carrying the heavy weight of other people’s suspicions. One minute you’re going about your life, the next you could be pleading for it, if you’re lucky. And far too many aren’t. That’s why the the Feb. 27 killing of Trayvon Martin has black parents around the country clutching their sons a little closer. By all accounts, Trayvon was a good kid. He helped his father coach Little League. He had dreams of becoming a pilot. He was good at math. The Orlando Sentinel said that Trayvon’s English teacher described him 'as an A and B student who majored in cheerfulness.' And now he’s gone because, as Charles Blow wrote on Saturday, 'a man with a gun and an itchy finger' found Trayvon 'suspicious.'" »

randomberlinchick:

My brother’s story bears repeating: Cops once took him to jail for being in his own (predominately white) neighborhood when he walking home from his part-time job one summer. He told them that our parents were at home (just around the corner) and could verify that he lived there, but they took him to jail instead … where he was not allowed to make a phone call for hours. A neighbor, who had apparently not received the memo that black folks had moved in around the corner, had called the police because she saw a young, black man walking down the street.

And that is really all it takes to get your black ass killed in the “greatest country on earth”.

Okay, compared with Trayvon Martin, I suppose you could say my brother was “lucky”—he is, after all, still alive—but that’s setting the bar a bit too fucking low for my tastes.

This whole thing is so upsetting. It’s upsetting because we know it too well, just like the situation with your brother. Just the existence of blackness is enough to cause alarm. I’ll never forget the day my sister called to have their chandelier fixed. The repairman came to the house and started questioning my sister, asking if she lived there, demanding to see the owner of the house. The fucker couldn’t believe a black person lived in Bernardsville, NJ. I guess she broke in, and hung up pictures of herself and assorted black people all over the house. That’s what burglars do. Of course she told him off. The audacity of that man.

The more I think about it, the more my blood boils. This burden of suspicion. It’s a heavy burden to always carry. It’s always there, and you’re always deemed guilty first. I even get pissed at terminology like “unarmed black male” whenever the narratives of Trayvon Martin, Oscar Grant and the countless others who were murdered are told, as if the default black male is armed with deadly weapons. They were murdered.

(Source: inothernews)

March, 19 2012
205 notes
bb theme by Cory Hunlin


Share with Twitter / Like This

  1. theapparatusissublime reblogged this from abstrackafricana and added:
    How do we end this? How do we make this problem dissappeer? Its ingrained in certain parts of society. this fear. This...
  2. shesanightowl reblogged this from barryjenkins
  3. pickupyourlaces reblogged this from abstrackafricana and added:
    the truth is I cannot count how many times I’ve looked over my shoulder late at night and in my rear view mirror, hoping...
  4. lambermont-lambermont reblogged this from abstrackafricana
  5. abstrackafricana reblogged this from anindiscriminatecollection
  6. barryjenkins reblogged this from anindiscriminatecollection
  7. anindiscriminatecollection reblogged this from alivesoul
  8. colaptesauratus reblogged this from ryeisenberg
  9. ryeisenberg reblogged this from xx-rapunzel-xx
  10. silkdreamsandsatinthoughts reblogged this from inothernews
  11. tifethebawse reblogged this from specialkays88
  12. frankisbored reblogged this from atane
  13. xx-rapunzel-xx reblogged this from inothernews
  14. mybutbeautiful reblogged this from atane and added:
    Jonathan Capehart describes what living in black skin is like in America in 2012 in very straight forward and stark...
  15. gaulthique reblogged this from inothernews
  16. steefvaniersel reblogged this from inothernews
  17. tabilovescake reblogged this from timgutterson
  18. tijuanatoby reblogged this from inothernews
  19. foxxxynegrodamus reblogged this from thefoxxypoet
  20. kenziekinz09 reblogged this from inothernews
  21. hello-sweetea reblogged this from inothernews
  22. cuhristeena reblogged this from lady-jei
  23. lostmytardiskey reblogged this from star-driver
  24. nikariot reblogged this from fireblooms
  25. sara-huynh reblogged this from inothernews