After taking the day to digest the tragic and crystal-clear murder of Mr. George Floyd yesterday in Minneapolis, MN at the hands, excuse me, the knee of Law Enforcement I’m left in a feeling of whatever feeling is lower than numb. His murder, coupled with a woman in Florida who last week murdered her 9-year-old Autistic son and tried to cover her disgusting crime by stating two Black men kidnapped the child, along with a woman in New York who nefariously phoned 911 and lied that a Black man in Central Park was threatening her because she didn’t want to follow the rules of having her pet on a leash, is a lot to take in. Add in the Georgia Youth Pastor who falsely stated two Black men kidnapped him instead of the honest truth that he was meeting a male prostitute, and this mornings discovery of a white man in Minneapolis – a few hours after the murder of George Floyd – opted to phone the police on several Black entrepreneurs because he felt they didn’t “look” like they belonged in the gym … as well as the video footage of the murder of a 25-year-old Black man (Ahmaud Arbery) we all recently watched, it is a tremendous amount to digest.
All of these feelings and emotions that Black Americans consistently have to carry and deal with is traumatic. Can you imagine what it’s like to be us? I mean truly fathom what it must be like to be a Black man, woman, or child in America and you’re regularly able to turn on the news or get on social media and see yet ANOTHER story of someone who looks like you or your loved ones being murdered, attacked, falsely accused, or dealing with blatant and outright racism? I can’t help but to ask the lingering and silently thought question so many Black Americans think or have thought:
White America, why do you hate us???
That is a real question. Why do you hate us? Please explain to me what you could possibly hate about us. Millions of Africans died during the transatlantic slave trade via what is known as the middle passage. Meaning millions of Africans never made it here and subsequently died on the ships carrying them. However, it is estimated that approximately 10 Million more Africans made it to these shores and suffered through 400 years of captivity! America stole our language, our names, our ways of worship, traditions, and families! It is our ancestors who quite literally built the America we have today. Yet in still, throughout all the violence, murder, rape, and inhumanity of slavery, Black Americans then went on to deal with indentured servitude, lynchings, mass incarnation, Jim Crow, redlining and every other form of racial inequality this land has to offer; but despite all of that endured pain and trauma, YOU hate us? Why?!
How can a group of people that have displayed so much venom and committed the atrocities that you have, someone find the gall and audacity to hate the very same people you’ve shown nothing but cruelty? If anything, we should hate you. We should look at you as nothing more than monsters. We should view you as if you are the devil in the flesh because you have displayed and brought nothing but hell to us! Yet, we do not. You would be hard-pressed to find another group of people as forgiving and loving as us. But still, you hate us?
Can you take a minute and answer that question? I’m asking that you genuinely delve into your own psyche and try to answer because I cannot fathom a reason why. You embrace us when we are caring for your homes and raising your children. You cheer us when we are engaging in sports and winning your favorite teams’ championships. You laugh hysterically when we are telling you jokes. You enjoy us playing music and entertaining you. But outside of those things, outside of the things that directly benefit you in some way or form, you hate us. You hate our sun-kissed skin. You hate our naturally coiled hair. You hate the shapes of our women. You hate the strength of our men. Our sheer presence seems to bother you.
Yet our sheer presence is “pop culture” and continues to be. The women you put on pedestals are mere emulations. The exercises, the hair extensions, the tanning, the lip injections, butt injections, and makeup are all done by your women to resemble Black women. The cool and hip verbiage you utilize in board rooms, bars, and news outlets are words we created. The clothing trends you rush out to purchase to look your very best came from our creativity. Hell, even the way we would customize vehicles with aftermarket wheels and chrome accessories are now the way of the norm.
A wise man once told me that jealous one’s envy … is that it? Does your hate come from envy? Are you so unhappy with yourself and who you are that you automatically hate your polar opposite? Could it be fear? You had a 400 plus year head start on us in this country. Are you worried that if we come into our own or have equal footing that we would have the power that you so recklessly yield and treat you how you’ve treated us? Again, these are real questions.
When we were segregated, you hated us. When segregation ended, you hated us. When we marched, organized peaceful protests, or created self-sufficient organizations to help ourselves, you hated us. You have done everything in your power short of mass generational genocide to make our lives seemingly unbearable. From slavery to Jim Crow, to COINTELPRO to mass incarceration you have been on our necks. This is what is so heartbreaking regarding the murder of George Floyd. It was a clear and present view of what you have been doing to us for centuries. No love. No compassion. No regard for human life.
Sadly, in this so-called land of the free, Black Americans can do nothing more to be accepted by you. We’ve assimilated in every fiber that is America. It is now time for the whites in America who do not identify with the hate of America to step up because sometimes, people only hear words that come from loved ones. So, if you’re white in America, YOU must speak up and act on injustice. YOU must scream that Black lives matter. YOU must correct your family members and raise your children differently. YOU must stop Law Enforcement from going overboard. YOU must utilize your white privilege for the benefit of others. If not, you’re no better than the rest, and the murder of George Floyd and the countless other deaths and injustices of Black Americans paint you too in a light of hate.
If that happens, maybe then we will really see progress in this country. Maybe then I won’t wonder or need to ask the question so many Black Americans think… White America, why do you hate us?
REST IN PEACE to every Black life senselessly taken here in America.
Peace & Love,
Baseem S. Gregg