“The white man will try to satisfy us with symbolic victories rather than economic equity and justice” – Malcolm X.
This quote has in recent times proven to be true over and over again. We call for the reformation of the country and we are handed baseless “victories”, acts of virtually no meaning to distract us from the real issue at hand. Street names have been changed to honor the Black Lives Matter movement, it has been painted on streets and written on walls. People with power to make real change take a knee while sporting kente cloth. The Associated Press (AP) organization has chosen to capitalize the “B” in black. Old episodes of sitcoms are taken off the air due to black face and insensitivity. Prominent figures apologize for old videos, skits and comments. Everyday, a new “victory”, but what are we winning?
A mural of Breonna Taylor, a black woman for whom justice is yet to be served, is set to be painted in Annapolis, Maryland. The country had to burn for justice to be brought upon the killers of George Floyd. The killers of Miss Taylor walk free to this day, with only one of them losing his job just weeks ago. Miss Taylor had her life ripped away from her four months ago, and no real justice has been served. Instead, her killers vacation with their families and post pictures on Instagram without a care in the world. I ask again, what are we winning? We ask that the police be defunded, and statues that should have never been put up in the first place be taken down. We ask that justice be served for Breonna Taylor, and a law is passed in her name. We ask that companies be more inclusive and Aunt Jemima changes its name. Enough is enough.
We have been painted as crazy liberals time and time again. They choose to show only the violent and out of control. We’ve been branded as villains for seeking change. They will continually try to silence us. They will give us meaningless triumphs to appear good, try to pacify us with baseless acts. We will not stand down. Let us not be deceived into thinking we have won when we have only just begun.
(Originally published by blackboxvoice.com)