Tag: NRA

A friend in Nigeria was surprised that African Americans are not out in the streets rioting and causing all kinds of havoc and mayhem in the aftermath of the George Zimmerman not guilty verdict. I told him the thought never crossed my mind as I witnessed the growth of the African American community in one generation

Sitting in a Starbucks writing this article I just so happen to be listening in on a conversation between two caucasian gentlemen about the Trayvon Martin case and another surprise at how the verdict did not result in a race riot. “I mean where are the riots” one asked the other to which he answered ” They have just been peaceful protests” he went on to correct his friend that Al Sharpton did not call for riots in the streets as his friend had implied.

I have also been offered the opinion that Chicago averages over 21 gun murders monthly and that there is some kind of political gain for President Barack Obama because Al Sharpton is not out in the streets of Chicago everyday protesting the murder rate. Seems to me this gentleman is trying to pick what battles Al Sharpton should fight.

The killing of young African Americans is not a new dimension in their playbook. The practice is as old as the slave trade. In the last 2 decades there have been one too many Trayvon Martin, Christopher Wallace and Tupac Shakur.

You ask why the bounty on the blood of young African Americans? Simple, the last form of control they have is the gun. Religion, drugs, prison, police, disease, colonization all failed. So to keep guns you need to have gun laws validated with the blood of the one you fear. The keepers of these laws is the NRA. You make laws against those you feel threatened by and you kill those you fear.

Back to why I did not expect violence from the African American community. It is in the African tradition not to fight violence with violence The Rodney King Beat down by LAPD already proved to the world that African Americans are not the aggressors but victims of this system.

The African American community grew stronger and wiser from the Rodney King experience by raising a generation of thinkers totally contradicting the image projected of the young violent black man. Yet they continue to inflict unjust violence on them.

Ogbeni Ayotunde