A Change Must Come
We are all aware of the problems that exist between black people and the police in America but lately I have been seeing a new black energy in our communities. This new energy is coming from the youth in places like Ferguson Chicago and Milwaukee. Young people are moving the struggle forward and they are starting to respond properly to what is going on in this nation. Meanwhile, old heads seem to want to keep the young people in their little we shall overcome kumbaya box that may have been effective in the past but doesn’t seem to work nowadays. Young blacks have been unafraid of death for some time, the thing is they have been willing to die for all the wrong reasons until now.
Now young blacks are ready to lay down their lives for the liberation of their people. Who can blame them for what they are feeling in these times, where a young unarmed black person is killed by the police every 28 hours. I do fault them for their outrage I blame the elders who have let our young people down. We are either too afraid ourselves of the police or we are simply unwilling to protect them. Imagine how the young feel when they look to us for safety and protection but just like the system we are praying death upon our young people. Then with a straight face, we expect them to respect us.
Instead of us calling for the young people to rein in their anger we should be teaching them how to shape that anger into a proper movement for the people. We tend to think young black people are failing us when the truth is they are leading us in the right direction. Without any help from the older generation, they are standing up and taking up the slack for us and for that we should be forever ashamed of ourselves. We are allowing children to fight the fight of men. Have we sunk so low as a people that we are willing to let children fight our fight?
If the old heads don’t join the young in this struggle we don’t deserve any part of the liberation that will come to our people as a direct result of the bravery of our children who are taking a stand against American injustice. Bob Marley has a line in one of his songs that say: If it were not for the youth we would be all gone astray. The track is called “400 Years” and it is sad that Marley’s word still echo truth even today. The song sparked another question for me. The question, how long before my people see? The youth is need of support from us and I sure hope we jump in before the powers that beat down the spirits of our young people and they become like us; a broken people with no direction.
Young people don’t give up because we need your young and energy to make it through this storm. You are moving in the right direction and because of you, I have a new faith that our people will be saved. I leave you with this video clip of your brother and I hope it inspires you like it did me. Bless up all the youth them and God protect them and keep them strong.
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