*Since the beginning of time there have been public disagreements between two or more groups of people that have grown from small encounters in a particular neighborhood-community into mass events that have spiraled out of control into national hysteria. Sadly, most such encounters – particularly those throughout the United States – have occurred as the result of what has continued to be the biggest (unsolved) problem across the nation: racism.
While that single factor is usually the root cause behind what initiated such encounters, the typical decision(s) to force law enforcement figures (local/state police, the National Guard, etc.) into the picture often becomes the triggering flame or flammable liquid hazardous to a volatile situation that is already on fire or on the verge of exploding. Besides, for many oppressed people, it is difficult to continue doing good towards another group of people (who always paint themselves as “superior” to you and everyone else) when all you seem to get in return is bad.
If more white people were genuinely as compassionate as they claim to be, it would do them well to recognize that everyday life for most black and brown people has been, and continues to be, an overwhelming “unnecessary struggle,” unlike anything most whites have ever had to fathom let alone encounter. For most blacks, it’s a struggle simply to provide for oneself and/or their family. A struggle to obtain and maintain a decent-paying job. A struggle to overcome health challenges brought on by what should be avoidable stress and/or some other malady, but continually be denied a chance to live and breathe freely if only for a while without feeling like someone white always has their foot on your neck. It’s even a struggle to be a black man or woman who owns or operates a nice vehicle in most cities without being stopped for an alleged violation which involves nothing more than being the result of DWB (driving while black).
Then, add to that the struggle to endure and overcome a lifetime of other forms of inhumane mistreatment from other people whose only clear (yet trivial) differences are the color of their skin vs. yours, advancement opportunities that have been extended to them vs. you, and economic privileges that are almost customary for whites over non-whites.
So, there are certainly some elements to the black experience that those from white America have never understood or even cared to help improve. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke eloquently of this scenario decades ago when he expressed that “many pent-up resentments and latent frustrations are boiling inside black people, and he must release them. It is not a threat but a fact of history that if an oppressed people’s pent-up emotions are not nonviolently released, they will be violently released.”
Yet, there are those in political positions who dare wonder why an agitated group(s) of people would become increasingly enraged whenever law enforcement figures show up on the scene?
For the same reason(s) common sense should tell someone never to place a vulnerable and defenseless dog, cat, deer or human being into a pit filled with hungry and vicious lions, alligators or crocodiles, forcing a police presence upon an angry crowd of people is often merely enough to take most situations from 0 to 100 in a matter of moments. Especially when it involves a “police presence” of mostly white, arrogant, overzealous officers who seem to almost be looking for any cause or reason (whether fabricated or not) to justify manhandling one or more people who tend to be black or of another minority ethnic group. On top of that, factor in since 1964, practically every riot in America has started as the result of police violence against citizens. Therefore, if elected officials sincerely wanted to help “calm a storm,” they certainly would not be mandating the presence of a small army of law enforcement officials as a watered-down insinuation of “public crowd control.”
There is an urgent need for every upstanding law enforcement officer to begin challenging any/all fellow members of their department onsite who may divert from proper protocols when dealing with an alleged suspect or ordinary citizen. After all, their job is to protect and serve, not be instigative and power-thirsty.
To break it down, the overwhelming majority of black and brown people in the U.S. (which includes Hispanics/Latinos who have also endured some of the same or similar inhumane experiences as black people – only not as long), must come to understand that violent protests, looting, marches, grandiose speeches and riots do nothing whatsoever to move the Chess pieces of progress for black America forward. And, petty name-calling, burning buildings/vehicles and becoming violent towards law enforcement and the white establishment accomplishes nothing except further destruction for urban communities.
Instead, the one strategy that has proven successful over every other in acquiring and maintaining the full attention of every level of white America, and a strategy that has not been used for decades by African Americans is the decision to refrain from patronizing white and non-black-owned businesses/companies, products and services. Simply “cut the money off!”
Most white people place little or nothing more important above their wealth or ability to earn it. That is a historical fact. Why do you think abolishing slavery did not bode well with slave owners who resisted it in 1865? Most of them knew the benefits of indentured servitude and the consequences of giving it up.
Coincidentally, when you refuse to spend money at any/all businesses owned by them, such as restaurants, grocery stores, clothing stores, big-box stores like Walmart, Target and others, Amazon, car dealerships, gas stations and salons, watch conditions for black Americans improve! Rapper-Entertainer Clifford “T.I.” Harris proved this on a small scale when he publicly encouraged people of color to boycott a well-known restaurant in the Atlanta area in 2017. Once growing numbers of blacks began to follow suit, the restaurant was forced to close down permanently. THAT got the attention of other restaurant owners throughout Georgia who made sure not to risk becoming a casualty of the same behavior.
The scholar Dr. Jawanza Kunjufu once asked the question, “WHY is the black community in its present condition with our roughly $1.3 trillion dollars in (annual) collective economic spending potential, five million-plus college graduates, 9,000-plus elected officials, and 85,000 churches nationwide?” On top of that, most minorities fail to realize that – together – all minorities in the U.S. combined have an estimated $3.9 TRILLION dollar (annual) buying power. Doubt it? (https://www.newswise.com/articles/minority-markets-have-3-9-trillion-buying-power)
With access to those type of resources, the answer to improving the living conditions for black and brown people across this country should not continue to be merely a dream, but instead a feasible reality. It starts with being disciplined in refusing to spend your money on products and services at white-owned businesses whose owners or staff members do not value black and brown people, and instead searching for or creating black or brown-owned businesses who can provide the same or similar desires.
*Santura Pegram is a freelance writer and socially-conscious business professional. A former protégé-aide to the “Political Matriarch of the State of Florida” – the Honorable M. Athalie Range – Santura often writes on topics ranging from socially relevant issues to international business to politics. He can be reached at: [email protected].
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