This is America too

Tomorrow, February 23rd will be the 2nd anniversary of the murder of Ahmaud Arbery.

Ahmaud Arbery May 8, 1994 - February 23, 2020

Today, a jury found his murderers guilty of a federal hate crime. A charge that carries a possible life sentence. For me, this is an indication that this country’s citizens are doing the work of the government in the way it was intended; for the people, by the people. This is the only way of moving this country's history in the right direction. As a race, we are beginning to understand Dr. King's sentiments that an injustice to one of us is an injustice to us all. For us to live in a just society, our jury pool must always be made up of people who fight for liberty and justice for all lives.

For too long though, our jury pools have been made up of the very citizens who have silently benefitted from the privilege of being deputized by our government, for the sole purpose of being able to lawfully terrorize and/or murder their fellow citizen, specifically those who are Black. These three white men, who were not even arrested until two months after committing the crimes of attempted kidnapping, willfully interfering with rights, and murder, represent those citizens. This white mob was acting from the belief that they were born into the patriotic right to freely uphold Chief Justice Roger Taney’s March 6, 1857, Supreme Court ruling on whether African Americans are citizens of the United States.

"{African Americans} have for centuries before been regarded as beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations; and so far inferior, that they had no rights which a white man was bound to respect; and that the negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit."

This ruling is one of the primary reasons Black citizens are unable to enjoy the "unalienable right" to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness that is our birthright. This ruling clarified, by legally excluding African Americans from, freedoms, and privileges that "the white man" was "endowed by the Creator". This ruling, 165 years ago, is what marked this country’s Supreme Court decision on whether Black lives matter. Without this American history, there would be little need for critical race theory.

Instead, we live in a world where we need to view video footage of crimes committed against citizens of color in order to be enraged enough to be outraged. We deserve to live in a world where there is no question as to whether a white man is "bound to respect" your rights. A world where murders of fellow citizens like Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice, Philado Castile, Breonna Taylor, Sandra Bland, George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Duane Wright, Botham Jean, and so on and so on and so on, don't need to be "high profile" for them to be deemed worthy of their rights and the pursuit of justice on their behalf. This country's original sin is regarding the lives of its African American citizens as "beings of an inferior order".

Today marks a shift in America's display of overstanding that Black lives matter.