“I pledge allegiance, to the flag, of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all” is a famous line that defines who we are as a nation. In 1776, slaves were brought from Africa to America to work in the tobacco under white males who were known as “Masters” or “Slaveholders.” On June 19, 1865, Lincoln declared all slaves were being set free, which is why the day is known today as Juneteenth. From that day on, slavery was abolished. In the 1900s, this tradition continued but took a new form – segregation. The only difference was that black people could live in their own homes, eat and cook their own food and work for their own money.
The Kyle Rittenhouse trial has been a hot topic in the United States as of late. He was acquitted of all charges. He fatally killed 2 people during a protest. He was allegedly dropped off in Kenosha, Wisconsin with an AR-15 and provoked the three people who were looting. I think he did this so he could say that he acted in self defense. This case has a clear connection with the 2nd Amendment “right to bear arms.” Rittenhouse was 17 when he killed two men and injured another. He is now 18. They deemed that the case was not race-based because the men were white. When Rittenhouse went before the judge and jury to testify, he staged what in my opinion was a fake cry. He also claimed that he acted in self-defense, and the jury believed him. The borderline is that he used his whiteness. I saw a picture of him leaving in the back of the car smiling. Eventually, karma will catch up with him, and he will have to live with the guilt of taking two lives. Rittenhouse’s case is similar to the many white men and white police officers who used race as a defense. It is really unfair that he can do something like this and get off without any consequences. People like Julius Jones, the Exonerated 5, the Scottsboro Boys, Ed Brown, Arthur Ellington, and Henry Shields get accused, convicted and sentenced to Death Row or life in prison for crimes they never even committed. I understand that not all black people are innocent. There are a small percentage who do commit crimes. The system wants to believe it’s protecting us, but in 1965 it did protect Emmett Till who was from Chicago up north and didn’t know any better. That did not matter to the men who beat and lynched him. The man who did that was acquitted of the charge. This has been going on for years. In 2020, Derek Chauvin was the first to be publicly sentenced to jail for killing an unarmed black man.
I also want to discuss black cops killing unarmed white women or men. We know there are black and Latinx people on the force. However, on January 6, an unarmed white woman was killed. Her name was Ashley Babbitt. In a news article, people seemed a little mad and peeved that this black cop tried to justify killing her. But the way I saw this was that he was doing the same thing white police officers do. They say it was self-defense and then the judge and jury fell for it. I do think the black cop was not put in jail. But I bring this up because white versus black is okay. And black versus white is not. The war against race is the oldest and longest war ever, dating back 4000 years. Why do people think that it is okay to assume all black people are highly dangerous? We could just be driving and they assume we have drugs or a gun. We could just be in a store browsing and they assume we’re going to shoplift. We could even be holding the brand new and very expensive iPhone or wearing expensive clothes and they assume we’re stealing.
Evidence is everything. You need clear evidence that we’re doing something and even then, don’t lie and say you confront or say you were defending yourself when videos tell a different story. For years, black people have been the subject of negative press. There has yet to be a video where black people have done something good. I know there are good African Americans out there. Being black is not a crime. It is just like any other race. It is natural.

“At this moment, then, the Negroes must begin to do the very thing which they have been taught that they cannot do.”
― Carter G. Woodson