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Two things and then I’m out. I will not tolerate the challenging of @DanielCameronAG’s blackness. I’ve been on the receiving end of that attack & regardless of politics & a differing world view, we are both black men in America.
And to the nice folk DM’ing me about how I’m sewing seeds of hate, stoking the fires of division, and fear mongering, let me be clear. I’ve got no beef with law enforcement. I love good police officers, first responders, and our Armed Forces.
And I love good law enforcement enough to be exhausted by the continued excusing of the bad. I love my Commonwealth enough to know we must be better than the false binary choice of supporting law enforcement or supporting black lives.
I’ve said before, I wake up every morning and for a few minutes don’t have to think about the fact that I’m black. After that, I have to figure out how to enter the world in a way that allows me to come back home safely at night.
Yet now, even coming home safely at night does not necessarily mean I will be safe there. The clearest statement made by the AG is that the Castle doctrine does not apply to people of color with guns because we are seen as a threat while our white gun owning neighbors are not.
If you believe that is not exhausting... try it. Try wondering if you get pulled over if it’ll go side ways not because you are a threat but perceived as one. Try figuring out how you’ll look in the world so you’re not ever assumed to “match the description”.
Try going to store knowing you have to have your receipt just incase you are accused of not purchasing what you’ve purchased. Or being followed around in a nice store because you are believed to not be able to afford to shop there.
These are all things that happened to me when I sat mere steps from the Governor of Kentucky as a Senior Advisor. These are things that happen regardless of who I am or what office I might hold one day. These are things happening to my children who are 10, 9, & 2.
So this is not an exercise in social media battles or even political battles. This is an exhausted black man saying what more do you want from me to prove I am worthy to live in in dignity, in safety, in peace in this nation? In this state?
This is a scared Daddy asking what do you need of me so that my children can see adulthood and old age? Tell me the price, I’ll pay it. Because I’m their daddy and I refuse to have to bury them because they were seen as something other than what and who they are.
My father was born in the 1930’s Alabama. He committed suicide in 1985, in part because of his exhaustion & despair over having worked hard and still not been seen as equal. This mentality killed one Colmon Elridge. It will not kill this Colmon, or the Colmon I tuck in at night.
Justice for Ms. Taylor means more than justice for one person or family. It would’ve been proof that we are seen and valued. Instead, there was more justice for the drywall in another apartment, than for our Sister.
Justice for her boyfriend would mean not blaming the victim who by all accounts had every right to fear for his own safety and that of the woman he loved.
Justice. That’s all we’ve ever wanted. For America to be true to its promise. Instead, like so many other times, it is the abused and disenfranchised that must pick up the mantle and perfect the union. And it is soul crushing to to love a nation that refuses to love us back.
