To: Society

From: A Black Man

I Wrote This Naked. 

I want to start this off with saying I wrote this naked. Not in the literal sense but figuratively. I am vulnerable, I am admitting weakness, I am naked.

 I have grown up in a world where victims are blamed for being victims, hate is uniform and almost endearing, and ignorance is an excuse. A world where I cannot walk down the street without a woman shouldering her purse as I pass or a man staring at me without saying hello. 

There is nothing quite as misunderstood on this earth like a black man. The media portrays us as criminals, and TV portrays us as weak, cowardly womanizers. The bar is set predicatively low, where normal is praised as extraordinary; uncanny; and terrible and destitute is a shrug “well what do you expect” Well what do you expect when the war on drugs in the early eighties completely decimated a whole generation of black families. Black men have no past therefore they have no destiny, they look up at a starless sky. Racism is not dead, it is powerful, it is evolved; it is now a silent hate. No longer is racism an outward display, racism is now a festering wound that waits to erupt at the slightest provocation. Black men need to walk on egg shells while our white brothers pat themselves on the back commenting on how far we as a country have come. 

I walk in fear every day for there are no footsteps for me to follow in; no tracks in the snow; no path to guide me. My heart has grown steely and dank after all of the let downs, verbal and physical attacks, intentional and non-intentional that I have endured over my short life. I do not know what happiness feels like. I am depressed; not for the presence of overwhelming sadness, but for the lack of all-encompassing happiness. The world I live in has taught me that I don’t deserve to be happy. 

I’m sure other marginalized groups have had similar feelings. The women, other people of color, the LBGTQIA, the non-Christian you all must have felt this at one time or another. 

I want it to be known that America is changing. The baby boomers in all their treachery cannot stop the march of time. They will pass and it is our responsibility as their children and their children’s’ children to let the ideas of hate, overarching self-reliance, “no taxes”, and silent hate pass with them. Let us no longer be divided by arbitrary stands on personal issues such abortion and gay marriage and the like. These are the things that should be decided by the people involved and should no longer be used as a tool for distention and a vehicle for hate. Humanity we are great; not because of all we have and will accomplish, but for a large propensity for change, we can change, we will change, we must change.

 The world is not yours, or theirs, it’s ours. The world is ours.