The media has been COVERING UP the racial divide in this country for years! The Civil War has never really ended; it has been alive and well in the hearts and deeds of evil men, ever since it was declared over and the slaves were officially freed. After the Civil Rights Act in ’641, and the end of segregation, most white people, especially in the North, went to sleep thinking the fight was over. Unfortunately, ask any black man, especially those in the south, how they still were not safe, let alone equal and free.
People are now becoming aware, waking up to this; not because of president Obama, or the media, but because of the rise of cell phone cameras and social media, showing the murder of thousands of innocent unarmed citizens at the hands of our police officers who have sworn to protect and serve. Six to ten people every day are murdered by the police 2. This is more than the soldiers whom are killed in the wars in the Middle East. Statistically, a young black man is safer going into the Army than living in the US. The largest cause of death of young black males? Killed by police officer. The worst part about it is that almost all of them are innocent and unarmed, making this totally unnecessary. Situations like these that are ESCALATED by police, like a traffic violation escalated to homicide. Even if they are guilty of some crime, they should not be killed; running away is NOT justification for murder unless we do not believe they have their right to due process. Police are not supposed to shoot to kill unless their life is in danger; the Supreme Court RULED this in TN vs. Garner in 1985 3. The bigger problem with this, other than that it is happening, is that the police officers are NOT being held accountable! If they are not held accountable, it will keep happening!
Our criminal justice system is broken. The private prison system has to end. It is modern day slavery. The school-to-prison pipeline is real. This system is targeted at minorities. We now have a president that is saying “stop and frisk, law and order.”
In addition to police killing people of color, we have terrorist attacks by hate groups against blacks — the churches being burned, the 9 black people killed in the church in SC last summer,4 and countless other hate crimes. We don’t even have good statistics because so many are not reported for fear of retaliation; however, a study done the DOJ estimates that there are more than 250,000 hate crimes per year 5.
No one is talking about the CAUSE of so many murders, and why they are going unpunished. Nobody is admitting to the real issue of why we as Americans tolerate racism in our country, The United States of America, where we are all supposed to be created equal under the law, regardless of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. This is the melting pot of the world, where we are supposed to value diversity, and celebrate our different cultures and traditions.
Well, I am going to talk about it today. There are terrorist organizations of White Supremacists in this country: the KKK, Nazis, Skinheads, Aryans, and countless others.
The Southern Poverty Law Center documented 892 active hate groups in the United States in 20156. They are responsible for killing hundreds of thousands of US Citizens in this country. They a much BIGGER threat than ISIS, yet they are not even recognized as terrorists. Our government spends trillions of dollars on fighting a war on radical Islamic terrorism that has only killed over 3000 American civilians total since 1995,7 including those killed on 9-11. In comparison, these white supremacist hate groups commit 200-300,000 hate crimes per year,8 and kill thousands of US civilians every year. Our government does not investigate these hate groups at all, and does not even identify them as terrorists. THIS travesty of justice in our nation is responsible for over 3000 deaths every year, pain and suffering of monumental proportion. Why is this injustice ignored by our so-called justice department? Because these white supremacists hold powerful positions IN the government. THEY ARE THE GOVERNMENT!!!! Let that sink in.
See the following quotes from politicians and leaders in our government:9
Georgia Senator Fran Miller: “I would prefer more educated voters rather than an increase of black voters.”
NC Republican Executive Committee Member Don Yelton: “If it hurts a bunch of lazy blacks that want the government to give them everything, so be it.”
Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp: “You know these stories about democrats…you know…registering all these minority voters”
SD Senator Phil Jensen: “Businesses should be allowed to refuse to serve gays or blacks.”
William Gheen, Founder of ALIPAC, Americans for Legal Immigration: “I’m not a racist, I just want to preserve America’s history of being governed by people of European descendancy.”
NH Police Commissioner Robert Copeland: “I did use the “N” word in reference to Obama. I do not apologize – he meets my criteria for such.”
And lastly, an admission of one of their own, Retired Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, Former Assistant to General Colin Powell under G.W. Bush: “Let me just be candid. My party is full of racists!”
Think about this. If you are not black, and you don’t know how this feels, how would you feel if you lived in Iran as a Christian, or a Jew? You would be living your life knowing that, under the law, you are supposed to be protected, but you never know when someone might go full jihad on your ass, because they know that they will probably not be punished. (I actually worked with a guy who is Jewish and from Iran, and I can tell you, he was traumatized! Thank God he made it here.)
How do these white supremacists get away with this?? How do they get away with inciting violence against groups of US citizens when we have so many laws to protect us? They use the argument that they have freedom of speech. Hate and racism is allowed in this country because it is considered some derangement of our First Amendment rights10. Since the end of WWII, most European countries enacted hate speech laws11 because of the Holocaust and the genocide that ensued. But hear this truth: allowing hate speech is a way of inciting violence. Children learn it from their parents. I am not saying we should ban freedom of speech or enact hate speech laws; however, when they implicitly incite violence, we can stop that. We should certainly not tolerate any racist speech from politicians. All other government employees and even contractors have strict rules about racism and sexism. they have to go to sensitivity training12, and they get reported to human resources for the most minor of these offenses. Why should politicians be any different? Even worse, by allowing these terrorist groups to have leaders who operate freely in high offices of our government, the USA is condoning genocide. 2000-3000 people killed? Every year? NO investigation into these hate groups? No punishment? And this is under a Democrat black president! What is going to happen now? With a president-elect who has been endorsed by the KKK (yea, they threw him a parade!) and he appointed Steve Bannon, a known white supremacist, to his cabinet13.
I know many of you are thinking I am trying to start a race war by writing this editorial, or trying to stir the pot. No — I am just giving you the numbers and the facts. Look them up yourself: the links are all there. What you decide to do with those facts? That’s up to you. You can keep your head buried in the sand or you can wake up to the fact that you live in a country where our government condemns genocide in other countries yet ignores it here in our own.
(video clip of Morgan Freeman in front of Independence Hall)14
“Picture this: A group of politicians from the 13 American Colonies come together in this building right here to plot what turns out to be a revolution.”
(video clip of JFK reading part of Declaration of Independence)15
We hold these truths to be self-evident:
That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.
Bibliography/Footnotes
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Civil Rights Act
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Killed By Police 2016
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Tennessee v. Garner 471 U.S. 1 (1985)
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Nine African-Americans Shot at Church in Charleston, South Carolina
http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/17/us/charleston-mass-shooting-anniversary/
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DOJ Study: More Than 250,000 Hate Crimes a Year, Most Unreported
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Southern Poverty Law Center: Hate Groups in the US
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American Terrorism Deaths (from Global Terrorism Database)
https://www.start.umd.edu/pubs/START_AmericanTerrorismDeaths_FactSheet_Oct2015.pdf
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FBI: Blacks Most Often Targeted in Hate Crimes
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/fbi-blacks-often-targeted-hate-crimes/
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Asshole of the Day
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Brandenburg V. Ohio
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European Hate Speech Laws
http://www.legal-project.org/issues/european-hate-speech-laws
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Federal Employee Required Sensitivity Training
https://www.opm.gov/wiki/training/Federally-Mandated-Training.ashx
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How America’s dying white supremacist movement is seizing on Donald Trump’s appeal
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A Reading of The Declaration of Independence
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John F. Kennedy – The Declaration of Independence