Black lives don’t matter in America… but they should

By James J. Devine

While we had a Black president and there are innumerable advances in civil rights of which we may be truly proud, it still sucks to be Black in the United States.

I have heard more than enough Black people complain about racism in America. It is time for White people to step up and complain about the horrible things that happened throughout this nation’s history that mock our values of equality.

If White Americans are not responsible for racism in the modern day then who is? How can anyone deny the endemic and pervasive sickness that has caused so much pain and suffering?

It must be coming from somewhere and it is not a self-inflicted injury that can be reasonably blamed on the Black community.

The fact is that slavery was America’s original sin. It was the reason for the Civil War and the toxic poison of racial strife should have ended with freedom from human bondage. Instead, the Reconstruction was aborted and Jim Crow laws kept the evil power of racism alive for another century.

The Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act were steps in the right direction but without reparations to address the centuries of wrong that slaves endured, many of their children and grandchildren and great grandchildren remain behind the curve and more than a few rungs lower on the economic ladder.

Today this poison rots away the core of our society.

White families have equity of $215,800, whereas Black and Hispanic households have net housing wealth of $94,400 and $129,800 respectively.

Law enforcement officer’s violence against Black Americans is 20 times more prevalent than police brutality against White Americans.

Quality education, health care, and devent housing are more available for White people in comparison with these public services and commodities afforded to our fellow citizens whose skin is darker.

We must stop inflicting such indignities upon people who have contributed to the strength of the greatest power of the world. We must stop cheating people who comprise one tenth of the population in the richest country on Earth.

I was a toddler when President John F. Kennedy declared that, “We are confronted primarily with a moral issue. It is as old as the scriptures and is as clear as the American Constitution.” Today, I am eligible to collect Social Security benefits but this ancient issue still disgraces the land of the free.

The fact that Black lives don’t matter is an American problem and it is time for White Americans to demand a change because the rights of every American are diminished when the rights of one American are threatened.

White lives should be dedicated to correcting the injuries and injustices that plague our Black neighbors because doing good matters.

All Americans should enthusiastically advocate the civil and economic rights essential to the human dignity of all men- as our primary goals and our first principles.

We are all in this together and we will all benefit when liberty and justice are truly distributed to all.

Another Black woman who called the police when she thought a burglar was attempting to break in was shot in the face by officers responding to her plea for help.

The 28-year-old victim followed police orders to remove a pot of boiling water from the stove and the officer killed her based on the unfounded fear that she was going to throw the hot water at him.

Atatiana Jefferson was fatally shot inside her home in Fort Worth, Texas, by a police officer who acted impetuously to an irrational fear. Such indefensible abuses happen often enough that it should be obvious that Black lives don’t matter in America… although they should.