INIO Show Special Edition: Ahmaud Arbery: “This.”

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© 2020 Ifeanyi C. Oshun

What’s on my mind?  “This.”

The diseased state of our country and the world.

In late February 2020, two, white man-children gunned down #AhmaudArbery for one thing: “being a Black man running on their street.”

Are you fucking kidding me?

Soooo, still in 2020, yet another Black person is brutally hunted and murdered—this time for jogging—by white guys whose very race occupies whatever corner of Africa they please while they:

• Infest our governments with their handpicked dictators they know will make excellent task masters and betray their fellow Africans daily.
• Rape our African countries for our plentiful, natural resources they greedily keep for themselves while depriving Africans of those benefits—oh, China, we see you!

• Purposely poison our men, women and children and use our bodies for “science” to enhance their longevity while cutting ours down.

• Spitefully exploit our intellectual, spiritual, artistic, creative and athletic talents to make themselves richer while taking all the glory, credit and financial lionshare.

• Adopt our children as if they’re the latest fashion accessory, but hardly speak up against violence done to Black children and Black people as a whole.

• Sexually fetishize us—open your mouth and legs for Black pussy and Black cock because its popular and you’re so “colorblind,” but you won’t open your mouth or wallet for Black life—even when you birthed it yourself!—and you use interracial relationships not for real love, but as an insidious trend because your withering fertility rates prove that you need African genes to strengthen your weak, recessive ones.

Ohhh yah—it’s ugly, yes?  It stings, right?  Truth can and often does.

Truth:  most of the world mourned Kobe’s tragic death just ONE month before this man was killed for being what your beloved Kobe was too: a Black man.

But Arbery’s story isn’t unique.

And that’s the point.

Truth:  This BS happens all the time to us—and yet society wants to pick and choose which Black life is more valuable, if it decides today that a Black life is valuable at all.

I’m not going to squabble over Black lives vs. human lives matter because it’s absurd semantics.

#BlackLivesMatter because we have NOT been treated as even human—that’s why.

We people of African descent—which, ironically and technically, includes ALL people—are not “other.”

We are human, too.  The Original human, actually, and while ALL life does and should matter, saying “Black Lives Matter,” is calling out the ugly truth that Black people have been historically treated inhumanely, as if we DON’T matter—understand?

Every day, the message loud and clear to us is:  we DON’T matter unless we’re throwing a ball, rapping a song, spending our dollars in your stores on your brands, we’re the “black vote” that’ll help you win or provide the latest antibodies for your benefit and profit.

Apparently, some human lives matter more and that is the problem we must apologize for and fix.

The other message we receive is that Black people are not allowed to:

Jog. Relax. Talk on cellphones in our homes. Ask for emergency help. Play music. Leave a party. Sleep. Sell CDs. Walk home from a corner store. Play games in a park. Go to church. Walk home with Skittles. Party on New Year’ Eve.  Get a normal traffic ticket. Lawfully carry a weapon. Shop at Walmart. Decorate for a party. Ask a cop a question. Cash a check. Read a book in our own car.  Be 10 years old and walk home with our granddad.

We’re not allowed to breathe.  We’re not allowed to live.

If you’re a non-Black person reading this, doubting the truth of this and how close you are to this, ask!

Yes—go ask one of your non-imaginary Black friends about this list and be prepared because someone is going to walk out of that conversation different.

Don’t know any Black people?  Well…that’s a problem right there, but I’ll be your token for now and let you know a little something…

My late brother—awesome, brilliant and law abiding—was put in an illegal choke hold that almost killed him while in school in San Diego after coming home from a university party;  years later, he was harassed, beaten and jailed because he dared walk his dog at night.

Not good enough? Ok…how about me?

Yah, little ol’ me.

I worked to help juveniles caught in the system—worked to get them out of gang violence, onto college and showed them how to choose better lives for themselves and their families and while I did this work, I was also illegally stopped, harassed, arrested, illegally stripped searched and jailed because I dared drive home while Black.

And neither my late brother or me have a criminal record, so you can squash any excuses because there are none.

This isn’t a figment of my imagination—or anyone’s imagination!

In fact, one of the few blessings that came out of my brother’s early transition is that he doesn’t have to be locked down in this sick matrix that constantly seeks to destroy him and others like him mind, body and spirit.

And you’re kidding yourself if you don’t understand this is *systematic.*

You’re a fool if you don’t recognize privilege mad-dogging your face.

Yet jogging, sleeping, walking, breathing and just living shouldn’t be a damn privilege for anyone—they. are. rights.

Yours and mine.

You know, I raised thousands of dollars for global refugees while working for #AmnestyInternational and we also assisted Latinos being persecuted through ICE.

Am I Latina?  No, I’m Igbo-American: Nigerian.

So, why did I do it?

Because ALL life matters, but when people are being maliciously targeted, you STEP the fuck up—not turn your head, cover your ears and close your eyes.

 I don’t need to be #Latina to speak up against their persecution. Nor do I need to be #Armenian to get their genocide. Or #Rwandan. Or #Jewish. Or #Muslim. Or #Gay. Or #Chinese.  Or #Tibetan.   Or…or…or…whatever.

And likewise, YOU don’t need to be Black to speak up against hate crimes done against Black people.

You just have to have a soul.

Compassion. Empathy. Humanity.

Or wtf are you…really?

One people’s genocide isn’t more important and relevant than another—we are ALL part of the same, connected family and when we destroy one part, we destroy the whole and are worse for it.

That’s what “being One” is about.

And what really angers me is the palpable silence of all these White celebrity parents with their adopted Black children they tote like little accessories when the cameras roll, but, they won’t even speak up in times like this.

They know their influence and power could make a difference, yet they’ll silently watch as Black people are murdered by people who look like them—but they “love our children so much.”

Riiiiiight.

My question to these celebrities (and we all know who they are): who exactly do you think you’re raising?

Your wealth and privilege does NOT and will NOT insulate your Black children from this despicable, ugly reality…they’re still Black after all.

Yaaaaah, even your “mixed” ones. They still count—sorry! (gasp!)

But their “Blackness”—wherever on the spectrum—isn’t the problem.

It’s your silence—along with everyone else’s—that IS.

But you’re worse because you have more power than most and you parent a Black child to gain recognition, but by your inaction, you couldn’t care less and so really, deep down, you’re no better than a person with a bed sheet over their face, are you?

You just have more Grammys and Emmys than your average hatemonger.

And the same goes for all of you with your fake, crocodile tears over Kobe, Bob Marley, Prince, Whitney, Coltrane, Angelou, Davis, Billie, Ali, MJ, Singleton, Tupac, Aaliyah, Biggie and on and on and on…there’s too many to name.

Yah you—crying so hard over them dying because

Oh, you’re their “biggest fan,” are you?

Oh to you, they were “the best,” were they?

“Changed your life,” You say?

Bullshit.

The minute a non-Kobe or a non-Tupac is murdered, you’ll flip the switch, scroll past or ignore a post like this while you toss out the word “nigga” with your friends—the idiot Black & non-Black ones alike—AS IF you know what that word really means,

AS IF you or one of your loved ones dangled from a tree, choking or burning to death  while hearing that disgusting word as their last in life,

AS IF you have the right when even Black youngsters don’t even have the right to give a hateful word more life by their ignorant repetition—

NO!—you give it life with your foolish, malicious tongues because you secretly love the hate behind the word and your “love” for our Black icons is as fake as your orange tan and plastic ass, but isn’t as deep as your racist privilege and the life you’ve built on it, PERIOD.

Truth:  if you *really* gave a damn about any of your Black Sheroes and Heroes, you’d care about ALL Black people, too.

Yeeeees. Let that marinate. Read it again slowly and out loud.

Just like your life—regardless of station, matters—so do ours.

Truth:  We don’t have to be a Tupac, Kobe or Prince to “matter.”

All lives—especially Black lives matter (because OF HOW we ARE TARGETED)—because we’re human and precious.

Like me.

Like you.

Like us.

Knock off the nonsense of pretending racism and hate doesn’t exist.

America, sincerely apologize to us for ONCE—as you’ve done for our Japanese and Jewish siblings—for all the past and current inhumanity done to all Black people of African descent and make real laws to punish those who undermine our goal of creating a society built on real love, real justice and real truth for EVERYONE.

And let’s not get it twisted: now more than ever, we chit chat about peace, building a new world and being spiritual—being “spiritual” or “religious” doesn’t mean living a small life of hippy dippy, airy-fairy, dogmatic cowardice and tolerating bullying and injustice.

I don’t care what label you don—your true spirituality comes from calling out the ugly in this world and doing something about it with whatever gifted medium you’re blessed with.

Personally, I couldn’t let this day go by without saying—emphatically—that I don’t want to read stories like Ahmaud Arbery about my people—which includes YOU, melanin rich or melanin challenged—YOU ARE ALL MY PEOPLE.

And I’m tired of feeling like my non-Black friends don’t value my life as they do their other friends or themselves.

Cause guess what, family?

If #coronavirus has given ANY real lesson here, it’s that Life and Death are EQUALIZERS.

Black, white, grey, pink…we are ALL the same.

So, how do we stand out?

It’s the dash in the middle those dates on our graves, that’s how.

Right now: you and I are making #Herstory/History on so many levels and you must choose what side of that Herstory/#History you’re on…

No one can opt out…because your role is yours alone.

Soooo…are you on the side of hatred, bigotry, cowardice, malice, ignorance, spite and greed?

OR

Are you for REAL love? Justice?  Beauty? Art? Community? Vision?  Happiness, health and peace for all?

For ALL.

From now on, you can’t pretend you’re not aware…you read this for a reason and you can’t un-SEE or un-READ it…it’s in your flesh and blood.

You now know and can’t deny how there are people really being killed because their tan is natural.  People who want the same things you want in life—hunted and murdered for existing.

E X I S T I N G.

And most importantly, you NOW KNOW THIS:

You’re either a SOLUTION and a BLESSING…or a PROBLEMATIC CURSE.

In. every. Aspect.

That’s it, that’s all.

There’s no grey area here—gender, race, religion, orientation  DON’T matter. They never did.

What matters is your DASH—so I ask you again:

Are you a Blessed Solution…or a cursed problem for us on Earth? #ownit

Truth:  History and Herstory are here NOW—like it or not—and these are your only real choices for life on this planet.

#ChooseWisely.

#Thankyou for reading.

Special thanks to: @_youareawakening_ on IG!

And deepest thanks from me for such dynamic love & support from: Rev. Dr. Michael Bernard Beckwith, Rev. Dr. Cheryl Ward, Guillermo Torres, Arnie Potash, Judika Illes, Rachel Hannah, Grandma Ye, Leo Perry, Daryl Mooney, Ronald Clark, Patti Lebsack, Lady Kristina, Tiffany Soulbird, Milah Trotter and ALL of my soultribe worldwide, from Twitter to FB and IG–I LOVE YOU and thank you! xoxo

 

And in loving memory of:

#AhmaudArbery #BothamJean #AtatianaJefferson #JonathanFerrell #RenishaMcBride #StephonClark #JordanEdwards #AltonSterling #AiyanaJones #MikeBrown #TamirRice #Charleston9 #TrayvonMartin #SeanBell #OscarGrant #SandraBland #MichaelDean #PhilandoCastile #CoreyJones #JohnCrawford #TerrenceCrutcher #KeithScott #CliffordGlover #ClaudeReese #RandyEvans #YvonneSmallwood #AmadouDiallo #WalterScott #EricGarner #FreddieGray #EmekaChijindu

And for all those who DIDN’T make the news because we have too many stories of abuse and hate—We love you and your deaths & sufferings are NOT in VAIN.

I don’t care about negativity—I only care about using my gifts to do what I came to do on this planet and whatever that is and wherever that leads me, whoever’s with me—WILL STAY with me…because they’re supposed to and if this essay inspires and/or changes one soul, one human heart, one stubborn mind— then I’m happy.

Blessed Be and thank you, soultribe, old and new!

 

~Ifeanyi C. Oshun

#TheFutureIsFemale
#InioShow #IandISoultribe
#Imaginate1111

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© 2020 Ifeanyi C. Oshun. Music and Content. All Rights Reserved.

 

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