Black Oppression: The Construction of a Terrorist

This week America witnessed another sad incident of mass murder committed by, not a foreign national but, an American citizen. There was a time in America when reports of a mass killing immediately brought images of the “lone white male”as the perpetrator.

Disillusioned and radicalized black people operated from a different playbook. Black people sat in. We marched. We held news conferences. We prayed. And then we went home.

Dallas just changed that.

The tragedy of the Dallas ambush signified a turning point. Suddenly America has a new terror injected into its consciousness: unorganized, disillusioned, radicalized attacks can be executed by black males, too.

The solo black male is a new threat to an America accustomed to group coordinated actions. America has learn to recognize us as blacks when we gather. That is why America still look for the “black count” in all things social: go to a restaurant owned by a black person — “it’s a black place”. Put a black lead in a movie — “it’s a black movie”.

America love us individually. We’re viewed as docile and affable — “I like Marcus, but he isn’t like the rest of them”. Dallas interjected a threat to those sub-conscious ideals. It interjected the fact that individual black males are actionable, despite how affable and docile they may appears (as the sniper was described by mostly everyone that knew him).

What makes this more unnerving is there is no “look” of black radicalization. And more unnerving is mostly all black people are susceptible to a “tipping point”.

Black America struggles with an emotional social historical narrative that is ALWAYS at play. Every black America can give you an example of an indignation that occurred to some degree to either them or their family. When I don’t get the job, when my food is service sucks, when I get passed over for promotion, when I get pulled over — there is a corresponding incident that happened to some (not one) member of my community that was contributed to “because I was black.” And it all feels 1950-ish again. And very real.

White america acts diametrically hell-bent not to acknowledging it — “yeah, Jim Crow laws were unfair, but move on. That was so long ago.” This failure to open dialog and just listen compounds the pain.

In the light of another emotional video of black injustice, America seems also unapologetic in their reply. The problem with this is America has set a pattern of repenting for her historic sins committed against every group of people…except black America.

And black America, black men as a subset, are starting to get it. Gone are the hopefulness of the 60's, the empowerment of the 70's, the confusion of the 80's, the realization of the 90's, and the apathy of the 2000's. Apathy has given way to anger. And anger when match with disenfranchisement leads to “I don’t give a f**k” attitude. That attitudes matched with a new social history leads to a homegrown subset that no longer “feel” the America ideals belong to them — so they become emboldened by the development of their own.

America is not too far along. There is room to prevent the radicalization of more within the black community.

First, America should follow the lead of the Governor of Minnesota. An acknowledgment goes a long, long way. Black americas are amazed that voices do not comes forward and contributed their voice acknowledgement of brutalization of a race.

Second, America needs to change her police culture. An elimination of over-empowerment officers need to come into the national conversation. The police seemingly protect good cops and bad cops, alike. Maybe starting with an acknowledgement from the actually police start the healing.

Finally, local governments need to sponsor employment in economically depressed areas (hotbeds for radicalism). Gentrification are devastating former black communities. But if black communities see Uncle Jason, who needed help, working on the construction site that just tore down Grammy’s house…well you get the point.

P.S. Social proof is the lifeblood of the modern age. If you disagree, leave a comment or connect with me on twitter at @net_management or #SMJ If you like this essay, you should recommend it ↓