Off-Topic : Sean Bell Case

 

 

I really need to vent about the results of the Sean Bell case.  Things are HOT in the northeast today and tensions are really high.  When the verdict came out that the three police officers were found not guilty, I felt sick to my stomach.  It has been and continues to be "open season" on black men in this area.  The governer urged black people not to become violent.  How ironic!  I am truly sickened and tired by this drama.  So many people think that the north is "liberated", but the truth is that the racism here is institutionalized, and therefore, much harder to point out and combat than blatant, overt forms of racism.  While I personally feel afraid and defeated by this case, I am making it my mission to not become apathetic and helpless.  I encourage you all to do the same.  We, both as women of color, and women period (white, black or other), need to empower ourselves to NOT accept whatever society hands to us.  This could have just as easily been my husband (hell I know he went out and partied the night before our wedding), my brother, or my son (I cringe as I even typed that last one).  I don't think that others looking at this case understand how close it hits to home for so many of us. I live literally 15 minutes from NYC.  This stuff happens there and in Newark, NJ, East Orange, Irvington, and Orange all the time.  Aren't the police supposed to protect and serve?  I don't see anything in that phrase that says "unless you are black or hispanic".  I pay just as much in taxes to support their salaries as anyone else, so why should I have to be afraid that they will murder someone I love????

 

Anyway, thanks for listening and I will climb down off my soapbox.  I hope that people in my area and all over for that matter can find a productive way to handle the overburdening anger that we feel.  But it is also my hope, that this doesn't just get swept under the rug like so many of the other cases (Jena 6 and Amadu Diallo come to mind as I type this).  Now, I work in a middle school which is maybe 75% black and hispanic, yet out of almost 70 educators, I am the only black one .  Somebody needs to talk to these kids.  Is it inappopriate for me to offer a forum afterschool?

 

 

It is a constant struggle.  My nerves are shot today.  I was in Lohmann's buying a juicy coutoure shirt for my daughter and some Kenneth Cole stuff for my son and a woman in the fitting room asked me if I had anymore dressing rooms.  Now I usually get pissed about stuff like that cause afterall, I have my kids with me and a purse jack*ss what makes you think I work here, but today I actually yelled at her.  I snapped at her, "NO, I'm shopping here.....JUST LIKE YOU!"  She apologized but I just replied WHATEVER!!!!  I think it's disgusting that after being victimized, we need to be reprimanded by the governer about what MIGHT happen.  Sh*t, people have a right to be pissed.  His fiance has to raise THEIR kids without him.  Now, whose going to make that right for those little girls.  I look at my own daughter who thinks her my husband hung the moon.  There's nothing that I could say to console her if it were our family......

 

And on another note, lots of people that I work with insist that racism died out with jim crowe!!!! Like collectively, as a race, we are making it up.  When stuff like this happens, maybe they acknowledge it a little bit..... 

 

I have to think about how to discuss this with the kids.  I have an anger management group for boys....maybe I'll start with them....

 

Bigmomma,

 

Please be safe!! We are all so emotional, just try to stay out of harm's way.  I don't trust NYPD for nothing in the world.  Physically hold onto to all the men and boys in your life until this situation stabilizes.  You know they have permission to shoot first anyway.

 

 

 

I feel myself getting pissed off just reading your posts. It has ALWAYS amazed the hell out of me when white people presume to have the ability to gauge the degree of  racial oppresion ethnic minorities are experiencing - as though they can even feel it  The fact that you are the only Black teacher at a school that is 75% Black and Hispanic speaks volumes in and of itself. I gotta say though, I'm glad  you're there because the quickest and most effective way to change any large social system is from the INSIDE out. Trust me, I know how stressful it can be not having people in your workplace that can relate to your struggles as they pertain to race but hang in there because God has equipped you for the environment he has placed you in.