{"id":1554,"date":"2016-07-10T01:15:50","date_gmt":"2016-07-10T01:15:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/areasontosmile\/?p=1554"},"modified":"2016-07-10T05:24:55","modified_gmt":"2016-07-10T05:24:55","slug":"dear-america-black-guy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/areasontosmile\/2016\/07\/dear-america-black-guy.html","title":{"rendered":"Dear America, from a black guy"},"content":{"rendered":"

On July 7, fresh of watching videos of the murders of Alton Sterling and Philando Castille, I wrote the following post on Facebook<\/a> (note, if you are offended by those incidents being referred to as murder, then keep reading because this \"13619945_1306892279339591_6909013594495857444_n\"<\/a>article\u00a0is for YOU):<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, normally I’m all hugs and light with the things I post. And I do that on purpose; life is hard enough as it is, so I try to post things that will make your day a little brighter and the way a little easier.<\/p>\n

But this time, there is no silver lining. This time, as a black male who’s spent his entire life with the knowledge that here in the greatest nation on Earth, the country I love more than anything else, my life is essentially expendable, I have to say something:<\/p>\n

Hey All Lives Matter people, wasn’t Alton Sterling a life? Philando Castile?
\nWhere are the protests? Where’s the outrage? Where’s the ANYTHING even remotely constructive?
\nThat’s right. Nowhere. Hypocrites.<\/p>\n

Dylan Roof shot up a church and was taken alive.
\nRobert Louis Deer shot up Planned Parenthood and was taken alive.
\nJames Holmes shot up a theater and was taken alive.
\nBrock Turner raped a woman, and jail was deemed too harsh a punishment for such a ‘promising athlete.’<\/p>\n

Someone like Alton Turner gets executed by two cops ON CAMERA and people can’t bend over backward fast enough to publish his criminal record.<\/p>\n

You know what? None of the things he did were death sentences. Those cops didn’t try to cuff him, tase him, pepper spray him, or even club him; two grown men sat on his chest and murdered him.<\/p>\n

Good cops should be leading the charge of outrage, but they’re silent. “All Lives Matters” people should be lining the streets, but they are silent.<\/p>\n

We live in a country where a black child with a toy gun is shot on the spot, and a confirmed mass murderer gets a trip to Burger King. None of this is new; only the cameras are new.<\/p>\n

Pay very close attention to the people who are trying *a little too hard* to justify why these men deserved to die.<\/p>\n

“The glaring injustice is there for all who are not blinded by prejudice to see.” -Bram Fischer.\u201d”<\/p>\n

In the days since, I\u2019ve received several comments and engaged in several conversations about these events, and the horrific events in Dallas, which compel me to say more about these events, and the things we are facing as a society.<\/p>\n

The murders of Alton Sterling and Philando Castille
\n<\/strong>It would seem there was no more to say, since the testimony of your eyes should be sufficient; but considering how many people are still struggling to justify their executions, a few words.<\/p>\n

Yes Alton Sterling was a criminal. What exactly on his record constituted a death sentence?
\n“We don\u2019t know what was in his right hand.\u201d\u00a0 Unless it was a hand grenade, his murder was unjustified.\u00a0 Also, I am going on record now to say there was no gun. Why? Because they\u2019d be repeating it constantly as the Officer\u2019s justification.\u00a0 Philando Castille had a gun he wasn\u2019t reaching for, and they can\u2019t stop talking about it; therefore Alton Sterling was unarmed.<\/p>\n

And a side note: The latest bit of propaganda was that Philando Castille was stopped for a bolo that he matched the description of an armed robbery suspect.\u00a0 Again, no he wasn\u2019t, or that would have been the story from the beginning before the Governor held his press conference.\u00a0 And second, why would being a suspect be a death sentence<\/em>?\u00a0 The law in this country is supposed to be founded on a presumption of INNOCENCE, remember?<\/p>\n

As written above, pay very close attention to the people who are arguing a little too hard as to why these men deserved to die. \u00a0And one other thing, this man was killed for having a lawful weapon on his person; where\u2019s the outrage from the Second Amendment advocates?\u00a0 The NRA?\u00a0 That\u2019s right: Nowhere, and it\u2019s *not* due to \u2018not wanting to comment on an ongoing investigation\u2019 since that hasn\u2019t been the benchmark of their communications up until now, has it?<\/p>\n

Black Lives Matter vs All Lives Matter
\n<\/strong>Imagine if the ASPCA was going to break up a dog fighting ring, but a group of counter protesters showed up saying \"32b\"<\/a>\u201cwhoa, whoa, whoa, ALL animals matter.\u00a0 Why are you singling out people killing dogs?\u00a0 Cats get run over every day.\u00a0 And I love<\/em> dogs; I own a dog!\u00a0 Stop discriminating against non-dogs!\u201d<\/p>\n

Or, a group of people were chaining themselves to a 5,000 year old redwood tree to prevent it from being cut down, and a group of protesters showed up saying \u201cbut wait, the polar ice caps are melting, which is going to flood thousands of miles of coastline, killing all kinds<\/em> of plants!\u00a0 We can\u2019t save this tree until we prevent global warming!\u201d<\/p>\n

Or, a man was being arrested for beating his wife, and the conversation immediately shifted to “what did she do to get punched in the face?\u00a0 I never burned *my* roast.\u00a0 What kind of person doesn\u2019t have the house clean before her husband gets home? I was raised to know my place.\u00a0 And he didn\u2019t beat the children, only her; so he can\u2019t be THAT bad.”<\/p>\n

Of course these examples are laughable.\u00a0 And if anyone started trying to justify why she deserved to be beaten, you\u2019d assume they were at best heartless, and at worst complicit.<\/p>\n

The supreme hypocrisy of the All Lives Matter movement is that it should never be used as a counter<\/a>.\u00a0 Anyone who truly believe in the sanctity of all lives should be equally outraged by injustice towards blacks as towards anyone else.\u00a0 But notice how many All Lives Matters rallies there have been in the wake of these recent tragedies, or after the tragedy in Orlando.\u00a0 That\u2019s right, zero, because it was never about the sanctity of human life, but the justification of the patently unjust.<\/p>\n

There are ultimately two types of people who are offended by the Black Lives Matter sentiment.\u00a0 1. Racists.\u00a0 If I say \u2018all child molesters deserve to be beaten and left on an island covered in broken glass and hot sauce,’ do you know who that offends? Child molesters.\u00a0 Only people who are overtly or indirectly involved in atrocities defend atrocities. There is a reason why misogynists are so staunchly opposed to women\u2019s rights, because they are terrified of someone treating them like they\u2019ve treated others.<\/p>\n

2. People who are inserting an imaginary \u2018Only\u2019 in front of Black Lives Matter, or an imaginary \u2018More\u2019 at the end of it.\u00a0 In this Law Professor\u2019s excellent defense of Black Lives Matters <\/a>they wrote \u201cthere are<\/em> some implicit words that precede \u201cBlack Lives Matter,\u201d and they go something like this:<\/p>\n

Because of the brutalizing and killing of black people at the hands of the police and the indifference of society in general and the criminal justice system in particular, it is important that we say that BLACK LIVES MATTER.\u201d<\/p>\n

Let it be stated outright: All white people are not racist; not even most.\u00a0 But if you find yourself put off by the Black Lives Matter sentiment, ask yourself which of those two camps you fall into, because there is no third option.\u00a0 And if you still feel compelled to argue that neither of these things applies to you, read this<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The murder of police in Dallas
\n\"13567428_10207751425318182_8296433793538780007_n\"<\/a><\/strong>This was horrible, wrong, completely unjust, and had nothing to do with Black Lives Matter<\/a>. Any and everyone involved in this attack deserves to be caught and punished to the fullest extent of the law.\u00a0 Violence never has and never will solve anything; an eye for an eye truly does make the whole world blind.<\/p>\n

To be clear and state outright: All, or even most police are not bad. They have a very difficult, often thankless job where split second decisions can mean life or death.\u00a0 But that doesn\u2019t\u00a0 give them a free pass to shoot first and ask questions later, nor does it excuse them from the consequences of their actions. \u00a0Those officers almost certainly didn\u2019t set out to murder Alton Sterling or Philando Castille, but that doesn\u2019t make them any less dead.<\/p>\n

But, anyone who feels compelled to blame all or most of the black community for this attack, is also on the hook to blame all or most of the white community for the actions of Dylan Roof, Robert Deer, James Holmes, and Brock Turner.\u00a0 And if those realities seem contradictory, it\u2019s time to take a long hard look in the mirror.<\/p>\n

As a black male, and a proud American, this feels awful.
\n<\/strong>It can be easy for white Americans to feel somehow offended by the (often imagined) implication that they are racist. \u00a0For the rest of us, we have to worry about getting killed because of it<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I am from Little Rock, Arkansas.\u00a0 I learned early to relate to the police as someone would relate to a tamed tiger in the circus.\u00a0 It probably<\/em> won\u2019t eat you, but still move slowly and don\u2019t bother trying to pet it.\u00a0 I have raised my children to believe the police are their friends, and the first person they should go to if they are feeling scared or lost.<\/p>\n

I also live in a nice suburb of Los Angeles,\u00a0 but for the first time in my adult life, I was scared to go outside.\u00a0 I was scared of ending up like Philando Castille, who did everything right, and ended up dead.\u00a0 If we run, we die. If we stand still, we die. If we put our hands up, we die. If we put our hands down, we die.\u00a0 The next time I am stopped by the police, I literally have no idea what to do<\/em>.\u00a0 And statistically speaking, I will be stopped\u2014and sooner than later.<\/p>\n

If that feeling has not been a part of your common life\u2019s experience, understand that that is a privilege.\u00a0 Even Newt Gingrich recently commented<\/a> on how little the average white person understands about the average black person\u2019s life experience.\u00a0 Just like the average man doesn\u2019t understand a woman\u2019s average life experience, or a rich person understand a poor person\u2019s.\u00a0 The undeniable fact is that by an accident of birth, some of us have more problems than others.<\/p>\n

And, anyone who says “but I have problems, too!\u201d that is absolutely true.\u00a0 White America has its own struggles, difficulties and injustices.\u00a0 The thing is, it very rarely includes the ever present reality of getting murdered for nothing and then having the media and the internet bend over backwards to justify why you had it coming.<\/p>\n

I love this country, and I wouldn\u2019t want to live anywhere else, or at any other time in history.\u00a0 But we have got a real problem with our obsession with guns, and our willingness to easily accept discrimination as long as we didn\u2019t personally<\/em> do it.\u00a0 I\u2019m upset about Alton Sterling and Philando Castille because they were ME.<\/p>\n

Black Lives Matter protesters are upset because every new dead person is US; our fathers, brothers, mothers, children, aunts and uncles.\u00a0 This is not an \u2018anti police\u2019 position, because it\u2019s possible to be against the murder of citizens and the murder of police, and there\u2019s such a thing as black police. <\/em><\/p>\n

Deep down inside, we all know if Alton had been a blonde guy named Todd, or Philando Castille was an Irish guy driving a Benz, they\u2019d both still be alive.\u00a0 And if you know that, you see the problem. But guess what? We already know how to fix it<\/a>, all we have to do is do it.<\/p>\n

I love you, America.<\/p>\n

And if you love me back, click ‘share’ up at the top!<\/p>\n

B. Dave Walters Writer, Life Coach, and Talk Radio Host<\/p>\n

Find out more about me:\u00a0http:\/\/about.me\/BDaveWalters<\/a><\/p>\n

Ask me anything:\u00a0http:\/\/formspring.me\/BDaveWalters<\/a><\/p>\n

Become a supporter of my work:\u00a0http:\/\/www.patreon.com\/bdavewalters<\/a><\/p>\n

Pages I support:
\nJesus and Buddha<\/a>\u00a0— Interfaith dialog<\/p>\n

Gnostic Theism<\/a>\u00a0— Religion and Spirituality for the 21st Century (Join the Movement!)<\/p>\n

Love One Another<\/a>\u00a0— A group for the coolest Spiritual people on the Internet!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\u00a0\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On July 7, fresh of watching videos of the murders of Alton Sterling and Philando Castille, I wrote the following post on Facebook (note, if you are offended by those incidents being referred to as murder, then keep reading because this article\u00a0is for YOU): \u201cYou know, normally I’m all hugs and light with the things…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":450,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[108,37,47,55,80,39,35,81,38,31,46,28,78],"tags":[121,122,120,34,13,12,115,82,70,36,14,22,23,26,25,42,50,56],"class_list":["post-1554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-108","category-change-2","category-communication","category-emotions-2","category-family","category-fear","category-getting-over-it","category-healing","category-hope-inspiration","category-love-2","category-love-yourself","category-peace","category-worry","tag-blm","tag-all-lives-matter","tag-black-lives-matter","tag-breakthroughs","tag-change","tag-emotions","tag-family","tag-grief","tag-guilt","tag-hope","tag-life-coach","tag-los-angeles","tag-love","tag-peacelovemoney-com","tag-psychology","tag-self-talk","tag-spiritual-but-not-religious","tag-stress"],"yoast_head":"\nDear America, from a black guy - A Reason to Smile<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dear America, from a black guy - A Reason to Smile\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On July 7, fresh of watching videos of the murders of Alton Sterling and Philando Castille, I wrote the following post on Facebook (note, if you are offended by those incidents being referred to as murder, then keep reading because this article\u00a0is for YOU): \u201cYou know, normally I’m all hugs and light with the things…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/areasontosmile\/2016\/07\/dear-america-black-guy.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"A Reason to Smile\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-07-10T01:15:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-07-10T05:24:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/areasontosmile\/files\/2016\/07\/13619945_1306892279339591_6909013594495857444_n-290x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"B. 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He is the author of one book, \"49 Lost Secrets of Peace, Love, and Money\". For years, friends and relatives looked to him for guidance and support during difficult times, and he realized at an early age that his purpose in life was to serve and inspire. While touring as a personal coach with a prominent rock band, he was discovered by one of the top trainers of the Anthony Robbins companies, which lead to him settling down to open and operate a Marketing, Business Services and Coaching firm in Los Angeles. Armed with an insatiable thirst for knowledge, he brings the same discipline and determination that helped him earn Black Belt rankings in Shaolin Kung Fu and Tai Chi to all areas of study and focus. In addition to earning a degree in English from Morehouse College, he has mastered the science of NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) and other communication, healing, counseling and spiritual systems from all over the world. 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