Right now it seems as if we are living in a war zone. Not only are we fighting a pandemic, but many of us (people of color), are fighting for our lives. There are so many questions that plague my mind daily, when I see the brutality happening around the world, especially at the hands of racist police. People often criticize the African American community for its “black on black” crimes, as a way to defend the actions of the police officers who choose their personal discriminatory beliefs and preferences before the call of duty to protect and serve.
I really don’t want to get too much into this, because this blog would be entirely too long. What I do want to do however, is change the narrative. Instead of focusing on the hate, I want to focus on love and the power behind it. From the beginning to time there has been a constant battle been good vs. evil. Who or what always wins? Good, always wins, why? Because good can’t be defeated. We see this simply and practically, when you’re in a pitch black room and you turn on a flashlight. The darkness immediately goes away, even with that small beacon of light. If you are in a lighted room, there is no level of darkness that can over come the light. It’s really quite simple.
Now, where am I going with all of this light vs. dark stuff? I’m referencing that four letter word that so many people try to shy away from, and it has been the answer since the beginning, love. It is time that we get back to the basic concept of love. We are trying to fight hate with hate, and it only breeds more hate. Other cultures don’t see our value, because we don’t see our value. We are abandoning our children, beating our women, and killing our brothers, and other races are watching. I know that people hate to hear this, it’s the truth, change starts with us! We have been fighting a system for centuries that was created to tear us down. Nothing has worked. We’ve marched peacefully. We’ve rioted. We’ve boycotted. We’ve protested. We’ve kneeled. But have we tried love? Have we shown other cultures that we love our own?
In my opinion, people will know how to treat us, when we know how to treat us. There are so many hurt, broken and lost people of color because they have not been loved properly. There are so many fatherless children in the world, it’s not even funny. Think about it, if your own father does not think that you are valuable enough to stay and raise you and love you, why would someone else, who doesn’t even look like you think that you have value? What is happening with the police brutality is unacceptable and inexcusable, PERIODT! And something will be done about it. But as a people, we have to hold ourselves accountable for the image that we show to our counterparts. They are counting on us to fail. They are counting on us to react out of hate. They are counting on us to lose control so that they can further justify their actions, and create a false narrative that we deserve the brutality.
My people it is on us. The only way to fight the system is from the inside out. That means that it starts within ourselves. We have to heal ourselves before we can heal our nation. What happened to those morals and values that our grandparents and great grandparents instilled in us? There is no sense of family, so how can we as an entire race fight injustice? All men want to do is impregnate as many women as possible, and leave them with the responsibility of raising the children on her own. Where is the love in this? Who is benefiting from this way of living? Nobody! The children suffer because they have no dad, their mother is never home to raise them because she has to work several jobs, and the dad suffers because he knows deep inside that he is a failure as a man. This becomes a generational curse. An ongoing toxic cycle that only gets worse and worse with every generation. It has to stop.
When love is evident, it produces a different type of outcome. You can see it’s evidence in the children that come from wholesome, loving homes vs. the ones that don’t. The ones from wholesome homes tend to have less behavior problems, get better grades, and play well with the other children. The children that come from toxic homes, tend to act out more in school, don’t pay attention or don’t listen to the teacher, and their grades suffer. Because of this imbalance within the home, there is an increase of abuse (sexually, physically, and verbally), out of frustration, ignorance, lack of support, and most importantly, lack of love.
The power of love is undeniable. It is literally the foundation for success in every area of life. When we start loving ourselves, and become the kings and queens that we were created to be, we in turn raise the kings and queens that are needed to stop the hate against us. Remember, we show people how to treat us because our actions speak louder than our words. We have to do better for us, so that they can do better by us.
~Love, Peace, and Blessings~
