No Celebration, Until Liberation

By: Brooke Taylor

Written May 2021

I am a forever mourning black mother. As black people in America, prepared to see a white man be held accountable for the murder of a black man, we are stabbed in the heart by the fatal shooting of a 16-year-old black girl named Ma’Khia Bryant. It appears that in the moments we think we will see victory, we are reminded that this country was designed to destroy black lives. While we are struck by this tragedy, we must remember the baby boy who was shot and killed by police just a week or so prior. A young 13-year-old named Adam Toledo. As the mother of both a boy and three girls, I am enraged and at a complete loss. I feel empty. Explain to me how we celebrate what they call justice while we continue to lose our children.

Three weeks into the trial of George Floyd’s murder, Daunte Wright is taken from his family by the hands of people who we pay to protect and serve. At what point do we all reach our limit? When will we say, enough is enough?

I know and overstand the significance of Derek Chauvin being convicted of George Floyd’s murder, but I am not impressed with this legal win. I applaud and admire the attorneys and activists who fought for this win, but I demand repetition and consistency from the American Judicial system. I do not see this as a time for celebration. The system merely allowed what is supposed to happen, to happen. For once they did not disrupt the legal process with their control and racism. Good lawyers were able to do their jobs.

We are still fighting daily injustice. Black men and women are still affected by police brutality and mass incarceration on an unrealistic scale. The prison-industrial complex still exists. Prisons are still able to fine the state if their prisons are not at full capacity. There is still a structural operating system that is dominated and controlled by people who have no desire in seeing us prosper.

We have a lot more work to do. We are far behind where we need to be when the murderer of Breonna Taylor has yet to be charged with a crime.

But I understand that progress takes time and I believe in the ability of my people to remove their own chains. It’s important that we invest in ourselves and our political contributions. We are not going to see change solely in protests and marches. We have to implement real change by asserting ourselves inside as well as outside the system.

Here in the United States of America gang violence has plagued black communities for centuries. Over time the nature of gang violence has shifted, but it has always resulted in the loss of black life.

A gang is a group of organized criminals. The definition indicates that we have been the victims of gangs since the inception of this country. Starting in the late 1800s and still very much alive and well in 2020, the Ku Klux Klan have been blatant in its criminal enterprise and unfiltered terror of black people. Many are under the impression that times have changed and the KKK has dissolved. That is furthest from the truth. The Dominant society in this country has become the masters of disguise and has merely changed their capes into uniforms, tailored suits, and gowns.

We should be aware that the people who lynched our ancestors, spit in their faces, beat them in the street, and their children are doctors, lawyers, judges, and police officers. People in those positions use their power to commit a crime and get away with it. In mass numbers.

Police departments are nothing more than gangs in uniform. Gangs with a license to kill.

The gangs taking over our streets today go deeper than what they do to us. But what we do to each other. As we stand and fight against police brutality and mass incarceration, it's imperative that we fight against violence toward each other.

The term black-on-black crime is ridiculous and just a phrase created to undermine the effects of poverty on a community and ignores statistics that show how crime is committed in proximity and happens and relatively the same rate in all poor communities. With that being said, we cannot contradict ourselves and not address the pain we inflict on our own people.

In my hometown of Rochester, NY murder is at a record high. A mass shooting in September that killed 2 people and injured 14 still has the community speechless. The investigation is at a standstill with no suspects or arrests. The murder of Danial Prude by a Rochester officer still has the city in an uproar. Prude was brutally murdered while experiencing a mental health crisis.

Our people are suffering every single day as the community is consumed with violence, mental health issues, substance abuse, and neglect.

We need to acknowledge that we are ALL fighting the same fight and ban together to eliminate our pain and oppression. We must control our own schools, our own food production, our own safety, our own health, and our own lives. Once we have the resources and stability to do those things, then we can CELEBRATE.