The Hateful Hooded Faces Surrounding Black America

Black people, do not doubt for a moment; these people want you dead or subdued. There should be no question that, if given the opportunity (and guarantee of immunity) they would end your life, or take your freedom. 

The fact that they emerge from the shadows of cyberspace, shrouded by anonymous usernames, serving as their virtual hood and robe, should come as no surprise to you. You should also conclude that they walk among you in the light of the real world: taking coffee orders, writing citations, entering verdicts, grading papers, coaching little league, interviewing applicants, preparing food, putting out fires, deciding creditworthiness, or addressing the nation from the Oval Office. 

The memes of today, so widely circulated among bigots and xenophobes are a precursor to the violence they intend to, or wish they could, inflict upon you and I. 

The anonymity of yesterdays domestic terrorist, secured by that hood and robe, has not been done away with; in fact, it has merely taken on a new expression reflective of today's always connected, always on, social media reality, and it's just as capable of instilling terror and suspicion into those caught in its trap. 

Across the continents of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat these homegrown terrorist find opportunities to express their hatred for Black people. They do so in their own virtual gatherings and on the public post they happen across, there they erect digital equivalents of burning crosses and watch as the fire frightens and angers the unsuspecting folk who've caught their attention. 

Historically, cross burnings have foretold the deadly acts of violence against African Americans, committed by America's worst citizens. They were a grim signpost that said you were on the road to midnight abductions, tortures, castrations, burnings, and lynchings. 

Whether posting a photo-shopped picture of former first lady, Michelle Obama's head cropped onto a gorilla's body, or showing video of a pediatric nurse manipulating a newborn African american baby like a marionette as gangsta rap plays in the background, or video of a white police officer sitting atop the chest of an African American grandmother, raining punches down on her face, these all transmit the disdain and hatred held for African Americans. 

No matter what their expression of hate for you is, take it seriously. African American’s must take the threat these people represent seriously, and take every opportunity to unmask them, to pull off their robes and hoods. Remember, their hoods went on when our chains came off. 

The transition from centuries of being the possessions upon which the prosperity of white America was built to being free and able to join in the quest for liberty and prosperity was not a smooth one. In 2017, our United States of America still has not come to grips with its shameful treatment of its African American population: from chattel slavery, to freedom, to being terrorized for being free. There has been no remuneration for the millions of descendants of the millions of enslaved persons of African descent whose portion in life was taken from them and added to the coffers of others. 

Today, a pattern of state sanctioned violence against African American people persists. Across the United States unarmed Black men continue to be gunned down by Police, and each time the result is the same, Not Guilty; the effects of these continued miscarriages of justice are frustration and anger; these are two powerful potential catalyst for transformation, and that possible transformation, that leveling of the playing field is terrifying to America's homegrown terrorist. 

So, it should come as no surprise that the system is being employed against you and I; we now learn the FBI has stated that Black Identity Extremist are the new U.S. Terrorist threat. Really? This, after the largest mass murder committed on U.S. soil, perpetrated by a white man, Stephen Paddock? This, even in light of the fact that the majority of domestic terrorism in the United States is committed by White males--who by the way, have no connection to Islam? These realities are not lost on me, nor do I believe they are lost on you. 

So, whether violence is delivered via agents of the state, or by its private citizens, who somehow continue to escape scrutiny, the goal is the clear. Assume the worst, because they have given you no reason to believe otherwise. 

Image credit
Brady Street Protest by Robert W.
https://flic.kr/p/fLrM2f