Land of the Free?

(Photo by John Moore/Getty Images for Washington Post)

I used to try really hard not to be one of those killjoy activists.  You know, the ones who show up to the cookout on the 4th of July while everybody is just trying to get their grub on and chill, like “WTF Y’ALL CELEBRATING FOR?  WE AIN’T FREE!”  Despite the constant reminders that here in the year 2016, in the United States of America, this is the case.  The Emancipation Proclamation might have been signed over 150 years ago, but Black Americans in this country are still a far cry from being free.

This morning we woke up to another one of those reminders.  

Alton Sterling.

Dead.  

Shot by the police.

Queue the all too familiar chain of emotional reaction that ultimately ends in feeling impotent, hopeless, and anything but free.

This on the heels of Jesse William’s deeply stirring and powerful speech that touched on this same subject.   The same speech that has many people crying out for blood, making threats against this man, his family and his career all because he dared to use his platform shed light on the reality of how the other half is living.  Because, you know... freedom.

Frankly, there’s not a whole lot I can say that he didn’t cover up on that BET stage.

"There has been no war that we have not fought and died on the front lines of. There has been no job we haven’t done. There is no tax they haven’t leveed against us – and we’ve paid all of them. But freedom is somehow always conditional here. “You’re free,” they keep telling us. But she would have been alive if she hadn’t acted so… free."

However, Alton Sterling’s death this morning serves as yet another reminder that our freedom in this country always comes with terms and conditions.  If it comes at all.  That certain constitutional rights and claims such as "all men are create equal" or that no American citizen shall be "deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law" don't quite apply to certain members of this society. 

And so as we collectively digest this bitter reminder, I survey the responses of my peers noticing a common theme.  So many of us are tired.  So many of us are weary.  So many of us are sinking into despair.  Because we’ve voted and we’ve marched.  We’ve been conscious, involved, engaged, law abiding citizens and we’ve raised our children to the best of our ability to be the same.  We’ve given all we have to give of our blood, sweat, time, money, energy, voices and our tears. 

But to what effect?  When not 6 weeks ago it was decided that no one would be found guilty for the murder of Freddie Gray.  Or when that decision came as a surprise to exactly no one, since it followed the pattern we've seen played out more times than we can count.  No justice for Sandra Bland.  Not for Tamir Rice or John Crawford.  Not for Rekia Boyd.  Not for Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown or so many others that I literally cannot name them all. 

 Yeah, funny how that works... 

if by funny you mean utterly disgusting, heartbreaking and not at all humorous.

Time after time we've seen that there is no liberty and justice for all.  To the point that if you even dare raise your voice against the injustices around you, you risk making yourself a target.  Not just to those committing these heinous acts, but by the vast majority of people who are insulted that you would dare disturb their blissful ignorance with your intrusive truth narrative that is an assault on the comfortable, privileged bubble in which they exist.  You also risk making yourself a target for attacks by those very same people you are struggling to free.  Those who feel you don't look like the hero they imagined, and therefore will seek to reject your support or invalidate your experiences.  


So why bother, right?

Times like these almost make you wonder what’s the point in taking a stand for equality at all.  When it seems like every day there is one more occurrence of senseless violence, violations of freedom and instances of prejudice which suggest that we're merely fighting a losing battle.  And yet, despite all of this, we have to continue to speak out.  We must continue to have these difficult conversations.  To step out of our own comfort zones, and force others out of theirs.  We cannot allow ourselves to become jaded.  To get used to, or to accept the brutality and grow silent.  If we do, we're no better than those who perpetrate these acts themselves.  And this will never be the land of the free.