{"id":3460,"date":"2021-09-08T19:54:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-08T19:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/?p=3460"},"modified":"2025-05-09T19:55:15","modified_gmt":"2025-05-09T19:55:15","slug":"if-black-lives-matter-why-are-we-killing-each-other","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/2021\/09\/08\/if-black-lives-matter-why-are-we-killing-each-other\/","title":{"rendered":"If \u2018Black Lives Matter\u2019, why are we killing each other?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Violence is a disease.&nbsp; You don\u2019t cure it by spreading the illness to more people.&nbsp;<\/em>&nbsp;Game of Thrones via Gecko Fly<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kujichagulia:&nbsp; Self-determination that life\u2019s unfortunate events or circumstances will not take control of one\u2019s life; of one\u2019s family, or child, or neighborhood.&nbsp; Dr. Bravada Garrett Akinsanya, founder and CEO of the African American Child Wellness Institute (AACWI) and co-host of \u201cConversations with Al McFarlane\u201d Friday Healing Circle would attest there are certain things within our control and power.&nbsp; Speaking that power into existence is the key.&nbsp; It\u2019s called social wellness.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe can choose to use our hands to hug, or we will decide to harm.&nbsp; Eventually, some will learn they cannot dehumanize someone without losing part of who they are and a portion of their Divine appointment as a human being. &nbsp;I just want those holding guns to stand in a mirror and keep telling themselves, \u2018I affirm my right to be.&nbsp; My life does matter,\u201d said Akinsanya.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lisa Clemons wore a police officer\u2019s badge for 13 years until she began the critical work of her non-profit organization, A Mother\u2019s Love.&nbsp; She emerged from the chaos of post George Floyd murder resulting in civil unrest around the country and around the world, as a prominent critic of a left-wing philosophy towards the police department.&nbsp; She heard shouts of \u201cdisband, defund,\u201d and she declared \u201creform!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cViolence experienced at the hands of law enforcement cannot be condoned, but all police don\u2019t have that brutality-type reputation.&nbsp; Cops are human, too, but they are and should be held to a higher standard,\u201d Clemons said. \u201cWe also recognize&nbsp; that 70% of African American households are headed by women and they needed support in holding their families together. We\u2019ve stayed the course with many mothers and their children over the years.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Spike Moss is often referred to as \u2018the General\u2019 and rightfully so.&nbsp; By the time the 40 plus year freedom fighter and civil and human rights activist had finished his truth discourse, I was temporarily stunned.&nbsp; The information was jarring and I sat there wanting people to hear him; to get the truth that was peeling off; and to want to do something about this deadly atrocity.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We deserve to be whole; we deserve to be free; and our children need to laugh and learn and feel love once more.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If the young people who formed Black Lives Matter had paid attention to what has been going on in the urban communities all over the country, they would have never used that catch phrase, Moss said.&nbsp; \u201cThey might have replaced it with the words \u2018co-conspirators of their own demise\u2019, as James Baldwin once wrote of black people.&nbsp; There\u2019s been few villages or visions in 20 years, and with the staggering statistics of gun violence, obviously Black lives haven\u2019t mattered in quite some time.&nbsp; I went to my first gang conference in 1968 in St. Louis.&nbsp; It was sponsored by the Vice Lords out of Chicago.&nbsp; Believe me when I say, things have not changed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Moss continued by validating his declaration with raw facts.&nbsp; \u201cThe Ku Klux Klan has been in business for 173 years.&nbsp; We have now killed more black people than the Klan has in 173 years.&nbsp; The Viet Nam War went on for 5 years and we were 7% of the front line.&nbsp; We have now killed and wounded more Blacks than in the Viet Nam War.&nbsp; To date, over 200 have been shot in the Twin Cities not including the ones who were murdered.&nbsp; At the end of last year, the total figure was approximately 1,000 victimized in Minneapolis and St. Paul combined, Moss said. &nbsp;\u201cDo Black Lives Really Matter?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On one of his frequent prison visits around the country, Moss found himself in New Jersey visiting four prisons a day for a week.&nbsp; In addressing young men mostly of color, he realized these boys might be 50 or 60 years old when they would have a chance for freedom.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI\u2019m not upset about how many of you are here; how many years you were sentenced for your crime; or how young you are.&nbsp; I\u2019m upset because you are here for doing something to someone who looks just like you,\u201d Moss said he told the imprisoned men. \u201cIt reflects self-hatred.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cBut there\u2019s no time for excuses, for them or for us.&nbsp; We have to teach and provide resources and places to heal,\u201d Moss said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Telling the story of how we arrived at a place where there are constant sounds of popping bullets and mothers\u2019 cries when learning thier babies\u2019 lives have been taken by stray bullets, Moss highlighted 1998 when then President Ronald Regan went on television and announced,&nbsp; \u2018If you can go to the rest room yourself and you can feed yourself, we shall no longer take care of you in mental institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They emptied facilities and many very ill people found themselves living under bridges and on the highways and byways.&nbsp; These individuals got even sicker, Moss said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAnother white man got on television and warned that in 30 years children would suffer from a new drug called \u2018crack cocaine\u2019.&nbsp; It would stifle learning, anger control, and create extreme anxiety.&nbsp; The children wouldn\u2019t be able to sit still.&nbsp; At the end of 2020, it was reported that 1 in every 5 Americans are mentally ill.&nbsp; If one looks at an African American study, it will probably show every two or three in five. Then we poison these mentally ill people with dangerous drugs while making sure they have a loaded weapon that empties in seconds at their disposal to end of someone else\u2019s life.&nbsp; And added to all that, let me sadly report that African Americans have the largest population of dysfunctional parents.&nbsp; They have the largest population of single mothers trying to figure out how to handle this life when they\u2019ve never been taught to be women or mothers.&nbsp; We only comprise 14% of the country\u2019s population.&nbsp; Who\u2019s taking care of the children?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Moss said \u201cIf there is a father figure in the home, there\u2019s a chance he could be dysfunctional, chemically dependent, or on alcohol.&nbsp; Often, there\u2019s no mother figure either.&nbsp; And if she\u2019s there, she\u2019s probably dysfunctional, too, living on chemical drug fixes every day, or on the street looking for a man.&nbsp; What kind of modeling are her children getting?&nbsp; They tell their five-year-olds not to get \u2018punked\u2019 when they go to school.&nbsp; To get the person back. Revenge. The child grows up getting revenge in the streets and walks away from school at 13.&nbsp; There\u2019s been no guidance. And most of those holding a gun they don\u2019t know how to use, haven\u2019t had a hug in years.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe were fortunate as young people to have had a man by the name of Mahmoud El-Kati,\u201d Moss boasts proudly and with admiration and respect.&nbsp; \u201cHe taught us the importance of being African American and being proud people; that we were not the N-word they told us and everyone else we were.&nbsp; We were not to disrespect our women, calling them \u2018bitches and hoes\u2019 or sing rap songs with degrading, demoralizing lyrics while our babies sit in the back seat.&nbsp; We were to call them Queens,\u201d Moss said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pensive, Moss said he was tired of being mad, and yes, sometimes it took courage.&nbsp; He said, \u201cWe need a legion of healers.&nbsp; It\u2019s what the famed educator Jaime Escalante did with a group of broken souls in East L.A. turning them around, making them believe in themselves, showing them they were loved.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cYou know, Dr. B.,\u201d Moss concluded.&nbsp; I hate to say it, but unless we re-evaluate our current crises with urgency, answers, and resources, the only way this will all end is that we will kill off each other.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Part 2 of the \u201cHealing Circle\u201d interview with Spike Moss, Tenanye Heard, Dr. Oliver Williams, Dr. B., Lillie Rankin, and Al McFarlane\u201d offer solution recommendations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Violence is a disease.&nbsp; You don\u2019t cure it by spreading the illness to more people.&nbsp;&nbsp;Game of Thrones via Gecko Fly Kujichagulia:&nbsp; Self-determination that life\u2019s unfortunate events or circumstances will not take control of one\u2019s life; of one\u2019s family, or child, or neighborhood.&nbsp; Dr. Bravada Garrett Akinsanya, founder and CEO of the African American Child Wellness [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1127,824,155],"class_list":["post-3460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-black-americans","tag-black-lives-matter","tag-george-floyd","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3460"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3460\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3461,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3460\/revisions\/3461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}