I was glancing up at a sign along Fond du Lac Avenue last week that boldly declared Black Lives Matter when a car cut into my lane, doing over 50 mph, narrowly avoiding other vehicles en route to hell. I hoped.
Two thoughts immediately came to mind:
First was the absence of any police car along the stretch from Hampton Avenue to Capitol Drive. That’s surprising given that Fond du Lac is the city’s most dangerous street for reckless driving.
I know the police department has received dozens—maybe hundreds—of complaints about dangerous thugs and thugettes exceeding speed and safety limits while driving down Fond du Lac Avenue. But I can’t remember seeing any police vehicles engaged, or at the very least, making themselves seen as a deterrent since Henry Maier was mayor.
Makes you wonder if Black Lives Matter to the Milwaukee Police Department. I recognize that Chief Jeff Norman is a brother and has repeatedly complained about being understaffed.
But we’re talking about one of the most dangerous routes in the city.
It has gotten so bad that many people drive around the city to get to the inner city (makes me wanna’ holla) locations.
Hundreds of otherwise good citizens drive the stretch armed with everything from a pen knife to a bazooka.
My second thought was linked directly to the bright red, black, and green sign: Was the Black Lives Matter statement—or question- intended to wake-up White folks or remind us?
Many Whites fired back with a rebuttal with the redundant statement that ‘all lives matter.’ That response apparently attempted to defuse or deflect a paradigm that has existed since our ancestors were brought here in chains in 1526 (not 1619 as they had us believe).
Obviously, all lives matter, unless you’re at war, chased by the KKK or Donald Trump (if you can’t outrun 45IQ, you deserve to be got), or those Confederate ‘patriots’ who tried to start a new civil war on January 6, 2020.
But the disregard for, mistreatment of, and assaults against us prompted the slogan and subsequent movement.
In fact, given the controversy over millions of dollars ‘awarded’ to several groups under that umbrella, I wonder if our lives really matter to those who said they were fighting for justice but instead were enriching themselves.
But, first things first:
Sometimes I wonder if Black Lives Matter to congress, including the Democrats, who think they can appease us by having its White leaders wear kente clothe at a press conference, with no intention of passing critical bills for African Americans.
I’m not alone in believing the Democrats care more for our votes than our welfare. But as it relates to the empowerment of our community, the education of our children, or closing the economic gap? Well, that’s an entirely different story.
We’re obviously on the bottom of the totem pole, behind unions, poverty pimps, and the souls of the Confederates led by the Democratic Party.
Likewise for the state party.
Despite claims and guarantees that they would never involve themselves in nonpartisan races, the state party injected itself into the mayoral campaign to ensure Marvin Pratt would not be the first elected Black chief executive.
The party has also worked to make sure its pawns control the machine. Most recently, the state Dems supported a hypocrite and Inexperienced pawn to head the Department of Public Instruction, guaranteeing the continuation of educational apartheid in Milwaukee.
Not only did the state Democrat Party put mega-bucks into the campaign of Jill Underly because of her endorsement by the teachers union over a candidate with a proven record of closing the racial achievement gap, but it also forced groups like Planned Parenthood to contribute as well.
What the hell does Planned Parenthood have to do with education?
I frequently wonder if ‘B.L.M.’ to most of our Black state lawmakers who have ignored Wisconsin’s nation-leading Black incarceration, poverty, and infant mortality rates in the nation.
Or why the African American Democratic Party lawmakers, with one exception, have not even opened their mouths about the tragedy facing Black students.
The state is responsible for education. So what are Black lawmakers doing to close the broadest academic achievement gap in America? Or to address Milwaukee’s status as hosting the lowest reading proficiency rates for Black fourth and eighth graders north of South America?
I know that the only Black Lives that Matter to the Milwaukee teachers union are teachers, not the children they supposedly serve.
If our children mattered, the teachers union would not have dictated school closures when the pandemic was downgraded and would not have blocked every major reform since Nat King Cole was named the first African American to host a variety show on television.
But let’s also look at the other side of the coin. Do Black Lives Matter to Black people?
Do the lives of victims of drive-byes, domestic arguments, and downtown shootouts matter? What about the dozens of innocent children who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time? Did their lives matter to the Neckbones who terrorize our community?
Last year we set a new record for Black homicides in Milwaukee. We’re on pace to far exceed that figure this year. And you would think we’re in a storm every night based on the sound of thunder we hear, which are actually gunshots.
It speaks volumes when you stop going to church for fear your car will be stolen while you pray.
Why are our elderly forced to literally lock themselves in their homes? Why are we forced to teach our children to hug the ground when they hear loud sounds that may or may not be thunder?
How does the fact that most people are ‘strapped’ impact your belief that Black Lives Matter?
Do Black (children’s) Lives Matter to those who turn their backs on the future of our tribe? That includes bureaucrats, educrats, Black professionals, and the middle class who make a distinction between them and us.
Do Black Lives Matter to the sperm donor, gangsta-wanna-be Neckbones who impregnate (almost) innocent Black girls but never accept responsibility for fathering the children they helped produce?
Or, for that ‘Matter,’ do the Black lives matter to the female Neckbones (not ladies) who use children to trap a sperm donor?
What about the women with four children by six different men? Do they understand what is necessary to raise a child, to see them reach their potential and prosper? Are they merely toys to be played with and cast aside?
Do the lives of Black children matter to the mothers who refer to their God gifts as ‘MFs,’ ‘punks,’ ‘hoes,’ ‘heifers’, and ‘niggers’ (excuse me, n-word)?
Do they understand the harm done to the psyche of innocent children who they mold into niggers (n-word)?
It’s bad enough that government school teachers don’t correct the poor grammar of the children they are supposed to educate, but what does it say when those children’s ‘parents (s) can’t teach them because they are illiterate?
Do Black Lives matter to the Black poverty pimps? How about the pulpit pimps (SOME preachers)?
Suppose we accept the reality that our community is considered an uncultured ghetto partly because of the disarray and filth that greets visitors and potential homebuyers. In that case, the question quickly emerges as to whether those who litter, stomp grass to death, and vandalize vacant properties think Black Lives Matter.
And if you take your service needs to White businesses over Black ones because you feel “white ice gets colder,” do you believe Black Lives Matter?
Think about this foregone conclusion: If a ‘black’ dollar touches three Black hands before exiting our community, we could cut unemployment, strengthen Black businesses and support our own economic development.
But that’s only a handful of us who try to do so.
I still have my savings in a Black-owned institution. A Black plumber just fixed my plumbing, and a brother just corrected another brother’s subpar painting. And the second brother charged less than one-third of what a White painter proposed and did a far superior job.
My life has reflected my commitment to our village and ensuring tribal members understand their role in community upliftment.
I have spent my entire adult life working for a Black business, fighting crusades, and ignoring opportunities to put my needs before those I seek to empower.
I even had an opportunity to marry a beautiful, wealthy, green-skinned Martian who looked like Nichelle Nichols, but instead sought out an equally beautiful Black queen to raise my family of African royalty.
Now, if that’s not a statement and commitment, I don’t know what is.
Unless you consider, I bought some black-encased bullets for those who don’t believe in Black Lives Matter and would threaten those who do.
Hotep.
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