Surviving Being Black in America

There is something wrong in America!  I was actually born a flag waving patriotic baby!  I love the United States of America.  I was taught from birth to love and revere the country I was born in.  This was taught to me by my parents.  I literally spent 1/7th of my first two years at Sawtelle Veterans Hospital in the Westwood section of Los Angeles.    Every Sunday was spent there visiting my Uncle, Eddie DeQuir, a veteran of WW1.  Uncle Eddie was a French speaking Louisianan, who had been gassed in the trenches of France where he served as an infantryman and interpreter.  This service to his country had left him broken as well as leaving his body riddled with rheumatism.  He never fully recovered.  We went to see him every Sunday of the first two years of my life and continued to do so on a regular basis until he died in 1965.  Our family thought of Uncle Eddie as a war hero.  But I forget, he was black, so that can't be!

I spent three decades as an educator teaching students and even other educators the importance of believing that the American Dream lives on and must be inherent in every child's life and mind so that we could encourage them to do their best to try to achieve at their highest level.  But I forget, some of those children were black, so that can't really be.  There is something wrong in America.  

We have a president who is half African-American, and that mere fact has caused a an elected body of legislators to literally stop governing and instead concentrate all their efforts to put up resistance to any and everything this president proposes or even suggests.  Overt racism and discrimination has taken the cover of the new Jim Crow symbolized by the actions of groups like Alec, sponsored the Koch brothers, and the Republican secretaries of state who have brought back voter discrimination laws in their many not so well disguised laws.  It is back in the words of the Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts who said in his ruling that America has changed.  It indeed has, but why.  Because there were laws written to ensure that this discrimination could be identified and prosecuted.  But I forgot, the victims of the discrimination are black or Hispanic, so that can't really count can it?

A seventeen year old boy in Florida is shot while walking in his Dad's neighborhood.  He is unarmed and doing nothing wrong.  He is walking in the rain, going home.  He looks suspicious because he is African-American and wearing a dark colored hoodie.  Somehow, this makes him look like a suspect to a man who sees him as he is driving by.  Unfortunately for the seventeen year old, this man is head of the neighborhood watch program and he is armed with a 9mm gun, fully loaded and has one in the chamber.   His skin is black and he certainly has no right to be there in the Retreat at Twin Lakes.  Right?  The man has a driving desire to protect his community.  Even though he  has called the police to alert them and he has been told not to follow the 'suspect',  he and his gun get out of his car and at some point confronts the seventeen year old.  By his own admission the man never identifies himself as a member of neighborhood watch.  Subsequently, the man shoots and kills the seventeen year old boy.   This all happened 17 months ago in Seminole County Florida.  The case came to national attention when four months had passed before the shooter was actually taken into custody and charged with anything.  President Barack Obama commented publicly that if he had a son, he would look like the seventeen year old boy.  The whole country has been watching to see what the outcome would be.  Again, the observers are mostly separated along racial lines.  The seventeen year old boy and his reputation has been demonized and depicted as a criminal thug by the defense.  The last person who was speaking with the seventeen year old boy just before he died, has been demeaned and depicted as dumb by one of the defense attorneys both in the court room and on twitter along with his two daughters.  There is something wrong in America!

The case has been adjudicated and six women (all white) found enough reasonable doubt that allowed them to to find the man not guilty.  Not innocent, but not guilty.  I don't believe the criminal justice system failed the seventeen year old boy and his family.  I think it did it's best under the circumstances.

The circumstances were brought home to me vividly when I received the following e-mail from someone I consider a friend.  We are totally different in our political orientation (he is ultra conservative, and I am God-fearing liberal, almost sometimes to the point of being radical).  We like and respect each other and have a love of photography in common.  I want you to see the email (see below) and tell me what you think.  Tell me what I should think.  With this kind of thinking from people I had considered rationale, how do you Survive being Black in America.  I welcome your comments!!!
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Unfortunnately, I had to remove the e-mail and photo because it had been desecrated!!!!!
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