By Rodney Beard
Ferguson, Missouri has had enough and they are the epitome of what happens sometimes when enough is enough. I don’t agree with the level of violence and confrontation on either side, but I how it came to be. What happened to Michael Brown, Omar Abregno, and Ezell Ford, and _________(fill in the blank with other names you may know), was just plain wrong.
It happened and will continue to happen because so many of us have become complacent, unconcerned if these type events don’t affect us personally, and think that someone else will step up to the plate, to speak and act for us. That is no longer good enough.
Increasingly, it has become an imperative that every citizen, Christian, Black, White, Brown, male and female be fully actively engaged with a consistent voice for social justice. Come on people! What we see happening, as it relates to race, socialization, religion, politics, culture, and the current narrative of various forms of hate sweeping this nation by a minority, must be stopped, right now!
Now before you start to feel guilty, I must admit that I have been so for a while. Guilty, that is.
I grew up in the 60’s and 70’s during the height of the Civil Rights Movement. Protests were the strongest tool we had to bring about change, and it was the solidarity that we shared which really made the difference. After we got what we all thought we wanted, we began to slip a little here and there, thinking that we had arrived in American society.
When Black folks in my hometown growing up, Shreveport, La., were able to walk right into the front door of Penney’s, Sears, Woolworth, etc… (we always had to use the “Colored entrance” in the alley) and buy what we wanted, we stopped buying from each other in our community. When we started to get jobs at Western Electric, the Telephone Company, the railroad, steel mills, and manufacturing plants (places we could never work before), we abandoned the skills and trades that had brought us so far. We left behind the crafts that we had done for so long, like laying concrete, laying bricks, roofing, painting, and plumbing, while others quickly filled those gaps. We left behind some vital skills needed to become entrepreneurs, like we used to be before integration, in our own Black communities.
When we could go to White schools, we left our own to struggle as our best and brightest joined up with them, which began the process of the breakdown of our unique culture, and assimilation to theirs. Sadly, this has led to us abandoning our dream as we have helped to build their dream, handily – one you know we aren’t and never will be a part of, at the end of the day.
We even moved out of our neighborhoods and helped establish the suburbs. Now, they are moving back downtown into our old neighborhoods, paying bargain basement prices, building what we did not see the value in, making investments that we should have made for our future generations.
I’m not going to even talk about how we have built so many “other ethnic group” churches, paid tithes (that we wouldn’t in a Black church), and become blind to the fact that to them, we are merely tokens that finance the Tea Party, Conservatives, and Republicans in the Name of a Just God.
Lastly, I am so guilty of this one. I remember after I had been working on a job that the Movement brought about, living in the house that the Movement helped me to get, and sending my kids to the best schools that the Movement afforded me access to, all while watching with a near disdain for those who kept the Movement alive, only because they knew the struggle had just began…it wasn’t over.
I used to ridicule those who thought they had to march and protest so much to “keep hope alive,” because I thought it was over the top aggrandizement and I wanted to keep all my White friends happy to know that I wasn’t prejudiced in the least.
I let my NAACP interest and membership lapse, talked about but did not support Rev. Al, and basked in the comfort and security of my predominately White neighborhood in Brentwood, while others undertook the work I should have done to completion and did not.
What about you? Do we really understand what is and has been at stake for our people and society in general? Are we ok with murder in the streets, militarization of our police forces, disrespect for our President, disrespect for each of us, and open, blatant, racism, sexism, and misogyny? I’m not ok with any of it. And I want God to bless me to have a voice that matters.
Join us, won’t you? We really need everybody! So, join something that is positive, peaceful, progressive and powerful. Become active regardless to what it is, and let your voice and presence be real.
Join the National Action Network with us.
Rodney Beard
pastorbeard@comcast.net