a SNAFU

I have to do this. The online publication, yourblackworld.net published an article of profound importance about the state of the soul of the United States titled: "Invading White Gentrifiers Call Cops On Black Residents For Walking Down Street, Knocking On Doors!" It is a short, well written and simply stated prose aimed directly at the core of what can only be described as soul sickness! The author, April V. Taylor, as my father would describe it 'tells it like t i is!"

With clarity she wrote these words:

"In an ironic display of white supremacy, Black residents in the historically African American East Oakland area are now being treated as menaces by white invading gentrifiers who are calling the cops on them for simply living life as they always have. A recent report by the East Bay Express reveals that the rate at which whites are calling police on innocent blacks is skyrocketing at an alarming rate.
Using data from the website Nextdoor.com, the publication was able to uncover cops being called for such harmless infractions as walking down the street and knocking on a door. Black salesman and postal workers who were simply doing their job have even faced harassment and been criminalized just for delivering items to residents.

As if existing Oakland police officers do not have a history of criminalizing and brutalizing Black residents enough, white residents have also taken to hiring private officers to patrol the neighborhood with even more tyranny. Oakland officers report that they are currently receiving more than 700 calls a month about suspicious vehicles and people, revealing that they are forced to respond to baseless, unwarranted calls from white residents who are racially profiling their neighbors.

As gentrification reverses white flight across the country, Black people are being subjected to racial profiling and white supremacy at the hands of invading white gentrifiers whose racial biases will continue unabated until there are some kind of legal repercussions for their harassment.  Black residents are being forced to relocate by rising property taxes and the shattered tranquility of homes that are no longer the vibrant cultural centers they once were, and city officials are doing little to address the problem.

Meanwhile, drummers who have a long tradition of playing music at Lake Merritt recently had police called on them by white residents, and Oakland police bowed to the man’s wishes, sending a large number of officers to handle a peaceful situation and pass out citations to a group of residents who were simply enjoying their neighborhood as they always had.

A local Oakland church even had police called on them for a noise complaint about loud singing. In an extreme display of arrogance, white invading gentrifiers do not even hold any respect for allowing Black residents to worship in their sacred spaces without being subjected to white supremacy. Long time Oakland resident and publisher of the Black newspaper the Oakland Post reveals even more about how bold white newcomers are in reporting that young white residents and realtors have even knocked on his door inquiring about buying his home and having the nerve to asked him when he is leaving, implying that he is in the way.

High school freshman James Fisher recently spoke with the East Bay Express about the suspicious and fearful stares he gets from white people, making him feel out of place and uncomfortable in the only place he has ever called home. As gentrification continues to spread across the country, Black residents everywhere, not just in Oakland, are left to wonder if they will every be able to call any place in America home without white people having the right to invade and pilfer their neighborhoods and communities." (April 18, 2015)


In my words I noticed the only thing not said is what to do about this problem. How does a nation heal that does not want to heal? How does a dominant predator's spirit submit to water and Earth? How does this condition get resolved? It can't fix itself. Hate will not end because people deem it so, and institute proper ways to say things, or couch truth with trite sayings! Violence against white people always a gut reaction is harnessed by some basic facts that halt the inclination.

 

This is a deep problem. This is a real SNAFU.

 

In bed with the deep fears white people carry as baggage solutions to their beliefs and assumptions run from every group whites demonize, discover reasons to 'take over' or make invisible "by any means necessary". What to do individually, as a neighbor and as a nation in that order is impossible without confronting the souls of white people! Forgiveness of white people on the part of Blacks, Iraqis, Central Americans, Vietnamese, Arabs, Africans in every African country and elsewhere is absurd. Its absurdity comes from its place of origin: white people. It is a catch-22! And we are all in it. In the depth of white people's being we all know across the globe asking for forgiveness is an impossibility for white people. The individuals who do are a minority and don't count.

 

Whites cannot comprehend what others feel about their power and the weight of their contempt. It is an incomprehensible state of being Jesus Christ cannot overcome. As Christ Walkers of the other hues attest this is one of the reasons for the hope of Jesus' second coming. Millions of Christians, and Muslims feel death, the promise of eternal life and the second coming of Christ are the only release. This fundamental understanding of the human condition of the greatest predator upon the planet is part of the spiritual and emotional make up of every group upon the Earth, our Mother, and the Earth herself suffers as we do from what the white people have visited upon the Earth over centuries in belief and practice, in judgment and policy, in business, acquisition and the concept of development and land as property.

 

How do we exit this puzzle with a plan, carefully and with skill heal if whites are non-contributors to the resolutions of the problems they have left us alone with? I and many others have the skill sets to do the work of reconciliation, but who can melt the ice in the heart of the white men and their women?

 

With great and deep sorrow, I don't know. I simply don't know. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 10/18/15



Saartjie Baartman