"Cowardice asks the question: is it safe? Expediency asks the question: is it political? Vanity asks the question: is it popular? But conscience asks the question: is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor political, nor popular - but one must take it simply because it is right." --Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Ok, so before we get into this one, it's important to listen to this:
The words you heard in the video above comes from Omali Yeshitela. It's an excerpt from a speech called "Resistance of African People, Crisis of Imperialism: Why We must Build the National People's Democratic Uhuru Movement". The actual piece or what you heard in its form is the intro on the political activist hip hop group Dead Prez's critically acclaimed album called Lets Get Free. That album and that segment from that speech is an all time favorite of mine. Why? Because in the context of the Black experience and condition today, it all makes sense.
So why am I talking about this? Well, in one of my recent blogs the discussion of Troy Davis came up. It was said by my man Constructive Feedback of the blog Politics, Policy, Pathology and Hope WITHIN The Black Community that Troy Davis is guilty and it's almost like the facts of the case are being ignored. No, I'm not talking about the facts as it pertains to witness recantation of testimony. I'm talking about a "fact" that he presented that ballistic evidence helped convict Troy Davis. According to him, Troy Davis shot a guy in the face at a party earlier that night before he shot the police officer for which he's now sitting on death row. According to him, the Left Wing INJUSTICE activists as he put it are fully aware of this, but for political expediency they are being disingenuous in not mentioning this "fact" to the public, although the prosecutor has [read it here]. If this is indeed true, how come it is not used as a regular point of contention when discussing the possibility of his case being re-opened?
In another recent conversation on the subject of guns and crazy people; it was suggested by one of my readers that I was wrong in suggesting the need for tougher gun laws. Instead, according to my dear reader, it's better to build more prisons in spite of the fact that they house a disproportionate number of Black men. Yes, he went on to assert that this fact is not a racial issue because those who are there (in prison) are there because they did something wrong. Do you see the all too common trend here? Yes, as usual, it's convenient to blame the Black guy. Or as Omali put it in the piece above people often blame the wolf and not the hunter who sticks the blade in the ice.
So what does this have to do with anything RiPPa?
Oh nothing, I'm just trying to encourage people to LETS GET FREE by being honest. Yes, lets free our minds from the shackles of mental slavery. Yes, both minorities and non-minorities included. We must all wakeup from this slumber induced by White Supremacist ideologies which are aided by the media and other agencies; yes, we must all become human again.
Of course I could be wrong. Yes, Troy Davis could very well be guilty, but I would much rather find that out with his case re-opened where all this "factual" evidence that nobody else has produced within the last six months is presented. Yes indeed I could be wrong, and maybe more prisons are what we need. I mean why stop now; don't we lead the world in incarcerations? Surely one day what we already do in this country will prove to be a deterrent to crime, no?
Pay attention:
QUESTION(S): Have you heard anything about Troy Davis being convicted of shooting another person in the face earlier that very same evening he "allegedly" shot and killed the police officer in question? Is building more prisons the way to bring about change as it relates to crime?
