Do We Care Anymore?

As an offspring of the crack epidemic and Reganomics my generation as whole has become accustomed to things that normally would spark public outrage within our community back when we had leaders at the forefront. We had leaders who made it a number one concern to fight for the elimination of social justices in America. Where’s the next Malcolm X, Martin, Huey, or Bobby at?

Of course we have the Dyson’s, West’s, Hills, Michaëlle Jean’s, Cathy Hughe’s, Ayanna Pressley’s & many more, but whose really listening outside of the academic world to these people? More of today’s youth are on Twitter following people (ideas) that critiquing “faggot” tendencies on whether you eat off paper plates or not. It seems that we are living in the “I don’t care as long I can’t see it directly affecting me” generation. Maybe it’s due to this new generation of youth not having memories of segregated schools, crosses burnings, and Jim Crow Laws.

It feels as though a different Rodney King is broadcast on World Star and then we forget about him the next day and draw our attention to bus drivers performing Mortal Kombat finishing moves on passengers. Why do issues of police brutality in this day and age get dismissed, but violence amongst us goes on for weeks and used as comedic relief? Have we become so numb to this type of violence from high authority figures that we ignore it, or do we simply not care? Maybe we (as a collective whole) don’t know enough to be angry, because we live in the “it’s not me” generation. I’m not saying lets repeat the L.A. riots, but where is that passive aggression when needed, like Pac stated back on his first album, “When I get my check they taking tax out, so, we paying for these pigs to knock the blacks out. Ain't that a bitch?”

Even when we get those cases like the Trayvon Martin incident we put on our biggest MLK costume for about a week, put those hoodies on, eat skittles then we forget about it once George Zimmerman is placed in jail. On June 10th we will be back to caring again. We will have our Arizona Ice teas, skittles, and our favorite hoodie ready. We will fight the power for a couple weeks out the year to get a few *likes*, *retweets*, and comments, but we’ll be back to not caring and having a blind eye to all the injustices that go on in our communities on the daily. It was a time where these young thugs wouldn’t dare sell drugs to the youth, rape, and beat on women because the old heads that are currently strung out on drugs or incarcerated would have been on their necks. We will turn our backs to the black genocide that goes on in our own yards and justify it by a Jay-Z line, “I was born in a city where the skinny niggas die.” We have gotten to the point where people with the epistemological ideologies that George Zimmerman possesses are assuming that African American equals criminal. We have gotten to the point where people associate black to bad, evil, sinister, and menacing. I feel as though white supremacy still exists within factions of the United States, but the new alarming epidemic that is being taught is fear. Fear can be very dangerous especially when it is embedded in people who have power over the victims that one has fear over. I ask again, “Do we not care how we are perceived?” They see us on the news daily murdering each other, so they in turn feel justified for killing us out of the fear. Trayvon Martin is not here, but justice can still be served, but what about Justin Sipp, Kendrec Mcdade, Tendai Nhekairo, Rekia Boyd, and many more? Do we not care, or are they just the forgotten?

Have you we’ve been raised in a generation where issues like this are looked as taboo for us to get involved in? Is fighting from for freedom from these issues played out? Are blacks being expected to just get degrees, married, and move away and turn a blind eye? It seems as though unity has left us and we refuse to get involved in causes that aren’t ours directly. Are we too concerned about not upsetting other groups of people for fighting equality? The type of equality where we are not judged for wearing hoodies, jeans, and Jay’s in public. So can this be looked at catering to white privilege, but what do we do when that black guilt kicks in? Oh yea, since we don’t care the guilt doesn’t exist. We just pop a molly, take patron shots, and disregard the ignorance as our people continue to lag behind and die, buts since it’s not us we aren’t supposed to care, right?