Sunday, July 21, 2013

Unlike Trayvon Martin, Where is The Outrage for Amin Sumter?




























He died, alone, on the corner of Harmon Street and Crescent Avenue in Jersey City just before midnight Thursday, July 18th. His family, friends and neighbors mourn his murder and demand justice, just as those in the over 100 cities that are now demanding justice for Trayvon Martin. His name was Amin Sumpter and he didn’t live past his 23rd birthday.

Amin Sumter did not die at the hands of a white “security” agent for a apartment complex. More than likely, he died at the hands of what basically was, another young black male. “He knew who did it, but when (the police) tried to ask him, that’s when his eyes rolled back into his head and his mouth started trembling and he couldn’t say,” one of the neighbors said. That’s when he died from being shot down in the street. He knew who shot him, but before he could tell the cops, his eyes rolled back in his head and he expired.

So where are the plans for mobilizing for his justice? Where are the people whose outrage are demanding justice today for Trayvon Martin? Why aren’t they demanding the same justice for the capture of Amin’s killer and for the end of the epidemic of our young Black and Latino men murdering each other on the streets of our cities like they were in the teaming jungles of Vietnam or Iwo Jima?

It’s been said that many people in America are episodic and only react when they see countless others reacting and then only for a short while. Then they go back to sleep until the next “outrage of the moment”, then repeat the same short-sided steps over again. But where is the mass, sustained outrage for the young males who are gunned down on the streets by people who look just like them?

I have an idea, how about erecting a wall in Washington D.C., similar to the one dedicated to the fallen soldiers from Vietnam and have the names of the thousands and thousands of children and young men and women who have been killed by their so-called peers. Maybe we could call it the Fallen Murdered Youth Wall.

Maybe the shame, agony and heartbreak this powerful structure would bring to the many who see it might just move some more people into action.

Monday, July 15, 2013

This is NOT a movie or a video game--This Is Real!



This recent, horrific scene, from broad daylight gunplay in Trenton, N.J., is played out in just about every hood across America. Is it any wonder that innocent children and toddlers are caught in the crossfire. These punk thugs don't care about anything else but themselves. 

Is it any wonder that our teens are terrified to walk the streets, or go to a party, or have an argument these days. Is it any wonder that "good kids", who want to do the right thing and live peacefully, have to go and get a gun just to protect themselves?

In my opinion, until we as black and brown people show that we respect our lives and love who we are and will not tolerate us killing us, then other races will begin to respect our life also. Did George Zimmerman respect the life of Trayvon Martin when he shot him? It could possibly be that he was just following the "black lives don't mean anything' script that has been playing for many, many years by people who do not value our lives. Remember Latasha Harlins?

I argue that until this epidemic of black-to-black murder and self hatred stops; until we prove that we, as a people, value our human lives, then no other communities will put a value on our lives either.