As this week’s column is being written there is speculation that the White police officer that killed the Black youth in Ferguson, Mo. will not be indicted. As I listen to the news media there are ongoing reports that the city will erupt again.
There were reports of people living in other cities two to three hundred miles away who are going to Ferguson, Mo. to teach White folks a lesson.
There are those of us who lived doing the eruptions in major cities because Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated. We witnessed burnings, lootings, and beatings. I remember a Sunday when those from out of town were contemplating setting a building on fire because it belonged to a Jewish person and some of us spoke up and said, “Have you guys lost your minds, Black families live upstairs?”
It is understandable that anger exists in a number of cities, but is open violence the way to address it? It is a proven fact that we can not win an open war against the government, it will only result into too many of our women becoming widows and too many children becoming orphans and more Black men with a jail record.
In Detroit, Los Angeles, and Cleveland there were major conflicts with the authorities over 40 years ago and many buildings were burnt down and those lots are still vacant. I have spoken with a number of people who disagree with me and they constantly subscribe to Blacks becoming revolutionaries that would create discord in the cities across this country. But they refuse to be an active participant.
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