From Police Brutality to a Better Reality
We, the people of Nashville, Tennessee, USA, deserve better. We are better. We must not continue with the ways of the past. Almost fifty years ago, the State of Tennessee began construction of Interstate Forty in North Nashville--Jubilee City, if you will. This decimated the community. This is the community that served as a model for other cities trying to grapple with the still-recent ruling of Brown v. The Board of Education, Topeka, Kansas. This U.S. Supreme Court ruling struck down their previous 1896 ruling of Plessy v. Ferguson, which held to the notion of "separate but equal." The first ruling justified segregation as constitutional. Hence, Jim Crow prevailed in its start and attempt to create a second class citizenry of peoples they only a short time ago freed from chattel and generational bondage.
Yet and still, we, the descendants of the ones who were placed into a bondage that took away all freedom, dignity, and humanity, are still not free.
We are not free, because America has not made amends with its criminally troubled past.
We are not free, because we are still not given the dignity of the same kind of equality those who benefited from slavery still take for granted.
We are not free, because are children still languish in the only institution the Constitution of the United States of America still legalizes slavery: prison.
We are not free, because we troubled by a system designed to oppress us, stifle our potentiality, keep us subservient, and demonize our very humanity.
This system, this prison that keeps us from prospering and living and thriving as we should is with us today, even in what is currently called the "It" City. It has robbed us of our jobs, families, and way of life. It was this American System--this Southern, Jim Crow, "you people shall never prosper and grow" system that took life. Many of us are already a suspect, even if we did nothing wrong.
This system, this racialized intuition has caused civil servants sworn to "serve and protect" us to "scorn and oppress us." When shall this demonization end? This is the type of belief that says, "If you are a young, black man, then you are up to no good." "Hide your kids, hide your wife." "He looks dangerous." "I feared for my life."
These and other stereotypes, perpetuated by the media (such as movies, news, TV, and books) and many long-held racial attitudes, have damaged a people. A people who grappled with the history of humanity and thought it fitting to allow not just a dignified few rule but many rule. A people who have expanded freedoms and tolerance and have become a beacon for freedom for many nations to model their own forms of government.
Yet, "We, the People of the United States of America, in order to form a more perfect Union..." are failing if we do not complete this task.
If we are to live up to the best of our ideas and values, then we will complete this task. We will complete it, because Nashville has come way too far to turn away from an improved freedom for all.
We will complete this task because the murder of Jocques Clemmons demands it. We shall overcome, because Nashville itself can once again become an example of a city moving towards a better reality. This day is ours, if we are willing to sacrifice, reason within ourselves, and find that which summons up a people to become the best version of itself.
So "let us march on, 'til [this] victory is won."
Yet and still, we, the descendants of the ones who were placed into a bondage that took away all freedom, dignity, and humanity, are still not free.
We are not free, because America has not made amends with its criminally troubled past.
We are not free, because we are still not given the dignity of the same kind of equality those who benefited from slavery still take for granted.
We are not free, because are children still languish in the only institution the Constitution of the United States of America still legalizes slavery: prison.
We are not free, because we troubled by a system designed to oppress us, stifle our potentiality, keep us subservient, and demonize our very humanity.
This system, this prison that keeps us from prospering and living and thriving as we should is with us today, even in what is currently called the "It" City. It has robbed us of our jobs, families, and way of life. It was this American System--this Southern, Jim Crow, "you people shall never prosper and grow" system that took life. Many of us are already a suspect, even if we did nothing wrong.
This system, this racialized intuition has caused civil servants sworn to "serve and protect" us to "scorn and oppress us." When shall this demonization end? This is the type of belief that says, "If you are a young, black man, then you are up to no good." "Hide your kids, hide your wife." "He looks dangerous." "I feared for my life."
These and other stereotypes, perpetuated by the media (such as movies, news, TV, and books) and many long-held racial attitudes, have damaged a people. A people who grappled with the history of humanity and thought it fitting to allow not just a dignified few rule but many rule. A people who have expanded freedoms and tolerance and have become a beacon for freedom for many nations to model their own forms of government.
Yet, "We, the People of the United States of America, in order to form a more perfect Union..." are failing if we do not complete this task.
If we are to live up to the best of our ideas and values, then we will complete this task. We will complete it, because Nashville has come way too far to turn away from an improved freedom for all.
We will complete this task because the murder of Jocques Clemmons demands it. We shall overcome, because Nashville itself can once again become an example of a city moving towards a better reality. This day is ours, if we are willing to sacrifice, reason within ourselves, and find that which summons up a people to become the best version of itself.
So "let us march on, 'til [this] victory is won."
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