The Hard Truth…Time to grow up!

22nd July 2013   ·   0 Comments

By Min. Jo. Kojo Livingston
Contributing Writer

Had he shot a dog, he would have at least served a couple of years.

But George Zimmerman is not Michael Vick and Trayvon Martin was not a pit bull terrier. What Zimmerman killed was something far less valuable to this government, this society, this nation and its various systems. It was a young 17-year-old high school honor student who had a bright, promising future. It was a youth who was involved in community service projects. It was a kid who had his mom’s name tattooed on his wrist.

None of this mattered because that kid was Black. And last Saturday evening, the judicial system of the United States of America told Trayvon Martin’s mother, father and the world that his life was worth nothing, only because he was Black.

What it boils down to is that a Black kid, who was minding his own business, lost his life be­cause a white (part Peruvian) man twice his age and size decided to stalk him, against po­lice orders, because he was Black.

The most important verifiable fact of this case is this: If George Zimmerman had obeyed the police and stayed in his car he would not have had the confrontation that ended the life of Trayvon Martin. For that alone he should be serving prison time.

Zimmerman, the stalker, is not in jail today because he is white and because his father is a retired Florida judge. He was allowed to walk free, without even a slap on the wrist.

To get sucked into a discussion of legal technicalities is akin to theorizing why people lose more money at casinos than they win. Wake up! Both systems/institutions are designed to produce the results they generate; otherwise the people who control them would change or drop them. The legal system works for white people because it was designed to from the beginning.

For weeks we will hear people dance around the real issue, just as the President of the nation did Sunday. We will hear conservative/racists trivialize or misrepresent the issue.

The issue, the elephant on the table, is racism, which means white supremacy. It’s not just racial prejudice. It’s not mere bigotry. Those are bad things that should be cured, but systemic racism, which is our problem. When racial prejudice is backed with the power to make and enforce policy and law, then you have systemic racism. The legal, educational, health and other components of this nation are all tools against a people who are functionally powerless.

Separating the power from the prejudice and bigotry is the task that lay ahead for Black people and well-meaning people of other ethnic groups. The cure is using the tremendous dormant power that we have to build and support our own national infrastructure and protect ourselves from internal and external attacks.

The anger of our people cannot continue to have a two-week expiration date. The anger of our people cannot continue to manifest in the form of mass tantrums where we go out and burn down our own neighborhoods. That anger must now take on a mature, strategic form to be of any real use in changing and shaping our future.

The effective mature expression lets the world know that we can and we will reward our friends and punish our enemies, that everyone involved in any attack against us will be held accountable…with or without the help of the legal system. To do this effectively requires prior preparation and having those structures in place to generate the results we want.

This involves the long-term, day-to-day, work that the immature or opportunistic mind cannot handle.

What does a mature expression of outrage look like? It combines short-term tactics, such as protests, rallies, marches, pickets, etc., with longer term strategies, such as mass education, mass organizing, institution building and pursuing absolute self-sufficiency to address the root cause of our problem. It means that we get so angry that we withdraw every bit of our labor, wealth, time and consent from the economic and other structures of this government/nation and channel it toward our own.

The longer term strategies are guided by a clear vision and measurable, time-framed goals that take us beyond the moment. These activities include long term strategic boycotting, increasing our support for Black businesses and expanding the type and number of business ventures that we engage in. It means encouraging our children to go into business for themselves…and then supporting them. It means growing our own food, making our own clothes and doing other things that pull money from this system and increase our survival skills.

As for this moment in time and history, what should we do?

It begins with identifying the parties responsible for the offense. Everyone who had anything to do with the acquittal must be held accountable. This means Zimmer­man, everyone who funded him, the prosecutors that threw the case, the stacked jury, the judge etc. This requires research, some of which is on my Facebook page and Destiny1.org website. The rest, you should be mature enough, intelligent enough and outraged enough to research for yourself.

Since most of our enemies rely on our money and labor to operate, we should immediately start pulling funds from any entity, like Koch Industries, that actively invests in our degradation and demise. You can also let these companies know why you are withdrawing support.

As I said before, it’s time for us to grow up. As racism becomes more overt, the USA becomes a more dangerous place for all of us. In the face of injustice and oppression, you are either taking action or you are full of bull****…

…and That’s the Hard TRUTH!!!

This article originally published in the July 22, 2013 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.