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Editorials/Columns
FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN
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A Difference Between Protesting And Rioting
y now, everyone knows
about what’s happening in Baltimore, Maryland. A young man died while he was in the custody of some white policemen. The reason for his death remains a mystery to most of us and all the Blacks in Baltimore. They waited pa- tiently for an answer. They had the funeral for the deceased, Fred Gray, but city and state officials were totally unaware of what was in store for the city that night.
That night an approxi- mately 2,500 people showed up in the Baltimore streets. Some people came to protest the unexplained death of a young Black man that remains unresolved. Another group was in the streets to riot. There are differences between the goals of the two parties.
The protesters are the hard working, law abiding citizens of the city. They are in the streets to peacefully find out the facts associated with Gray’s death. They want to demonstrate that conditions exist in the city and in their community that they are dis- pleased with.
They are peacefully saying it all with their marches, their songs, their signs and their messages. Communities need people like these.
The rioters are in the streets to make trouble. They are unaware why all the people are in the streets. All they want to know is that the protestors provided the climate they needed to do their business. Their business is to set fires, do damage to property, break into businesses; loot, cause bodily
injury and seriously cripple their own neighborhoods.
When the rioters finish de- stroying a community, Blacks find themselves out of work be- cause their jobs were destroyed by the rioters. The rioters closed community stores, de- stroyed houses and had a ball stealing.
The rioters are not both- ered by the destruction. The ri- oters don’t own anything and they won’t work. This is what you saw in Baltimore on one night.
The violence was one night, but the effects will last for years. It is unfortunate that the good of the protesters is deeply overshadowed by the criminal behavior of the rioters.
The protesters reclaimed some of the spotlight the next morning. Many of the decent people of the city took their own equipment and went and started cleaning up the mess done to their neighborhood by the rioters. Cities be aware, you have both the protesters and ri- oters. Pray that there will never come a time you have to deal with the rioters. Freddie Gray got lost in the violence.
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Ruby Bridges And America, All Grown Up
nd who is Ruby Bridges? “Who was Norman Rock-
well, and who was the little girl whose portrait he painted during those painfully dangerous days when young children bore the brunt of a segregated cross?”
Ruby Bridges is the little girl who, in the spring of 1960, while bordered by four U. S. Marshals whose long legs looked like tall trees and who was jeered by nameless white parents in the name of equally ignorant white chil- dren walked into history by being the only Black child to integrate a formerly all-white New Orleans elementary school.
Somehow, graphic artist Norman Rockwell got hold of Ruby’s photograph and it inspired him to paint The Problem We All Live With. The portrait of a white-rib- boned, spindly-legged little Black girl wearing a snow- white dress, white anklets and white shoes as she carried a school book, which no one expected her ever to read.
Ruby Bridges, 55 years later and all grown up, spoke before a capacity crowd at the Tampa Museum of Art. She shared her story as her audience listened with one col- lective ear.
From her days as an innocent first-grader who had no idea what the word “integrate” meant.
Then quietly, unassumingly, she told us what we must do to survive, as Baltimore, Maryland burned, 1,000 miles to the north. Said Ruby, “We’ve got to come to- gether.” Little girl now a woman, who went through hell for America’s sake: the other day, you washed us in your experience. Thank you for our deliverance.
Up In Smoke
oday my plan was to
write a light hearted col- umn. With the biggest boxing match of, arguably, the last 15 years going down tomorrow night between Floyd May- weather, Jr., and Manny Pacquiao, my intention was to breakdown why I believed Pacquiao was going to pull off one of the biggest upsets in the history of sports.
But then something terrible happened. The city of Balti- more caught fire.
The scene broadcast from the Maryland metropolis Mon- day night was disheartening to say the least. It was chaos in full effect as stores were looted and destroyed while hundreds of cars sat burning in the streets. The enormity of the destruction was an all too common side effect that nor- mally accompanies frustra- tion's boiling point.
It was a display of the kind of raw emotion that this coun- try has witnessed, in different variations, since the 1960s. And, as in those prior in- stances, Baltimore's civil un- rest involved the same incendiary factors: poverty, gross police misconduct and the feeling of hopelessness
brought on by the belief that no one else gives a damn.
This time the spark was started by the mysterious cir- cumstances surrounding the death of Freddy Gray while in the custody of Baltimore po- lice officers. His demise stands as the latest example of how quickly the color black can be extinguished when it runs into the color blue.
I fully understand the rage that comes with seeing people in positions of power continu- ously abusing their authority without regard for repercus- sions. The continuity of it all is so upsetting that it makes you want to throw caution to the wind and destroy anything within arms’ reach. The end result of a moment when say- ing "F--- it" seems like a good idea.
The only problem I have with people acting out in situ- ations like this comes when I see them destroying their own environment. To me, that makes about as much sense as losing a fight to your neighbor and deciding to burn down your own home in an attempt to taste revenge.
Demolishing stores and pharmacies that benefit you
isn't how you get payback on individuals who only see your neighborhood as a place of work or as a stretch of real es- tate they have to pass to get to their destination. The only people who are ultimately af- fected are those who live in the area and whose miserable sit- uation is made worse.
The people whose attention is sought through these fits of outrage don't care about any- thing that doesn't disrupt their daily lives. At the end of the day, as long as Mayors, city councilmen, police chiefs and state attorneys can grab a latte from Starbucks on their way home, their world is still beau- tiful..
And that's the irony that al- ways presents itself when one of these events takes place. While Mr. Gray's neighbor- hood was going up in flames, the officers responsible for his death were probably sitting back watching everything transpire from the comfort of a suburban enclave.
And, unfortunately, until the day comes when rogue cops and those who enable them, can smell the smoke and feel the heat of flames outside of their own doors, I doubt anything will truly change that narrative.
Reality On Ice is © by the Florida Sentinel Bul- letin Publishing Com- pany. Anyone wishing to contact Clarence Barr can email him at: realityon- ice@yahoo.com.
Black-On-Black Murders: Only Our Village Can Stop It
rue enough, we are mystified and saddened as to
the growing number of police shootings of un- armed Black men throughout our nation. But our frus- tration with police-Black men killings is eclipsed by the unceasing epidemic of young Black men being shot down in our cities every day by other young Black men and boys.
Indeed, FBI crime data reveals “Black male teenagers are nine more times likelier to commit murder against each other than do their white counterparts.”
Why?
What is the reason for such genocide or is it suicide? What we do know is that our communities must stop
tolerating, ignoring, and excusing a growing culture of brazen youth violence. If not, before too long, our com- munities will be held hostage and controlled by the mis- guided children we’ve endeavored so feverishly to save. Can martial law, curfews, concentration camps, and plantations be far behind?
The fact that the number one cause of death of young Black men 15 to 34 was murder by another Black man in 2011 is torture in itself. Gun worship and the use of vio- lence to handle conflict must come to an end. We must
also stop allowing our young men to participate in unsupervised activities away from home.
Yes, marches and rallies will increase awareness, but will not solve the problem of Black-on-Black murder. Parents and guardians must take time and spend more time with their sons and grandsons.
We must all come together as one village and develop a citywide plan to address this issue before it is too late.
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