The Only Fight

August 20, 2014.Reading time 2 minutes.

The symbol to the left is normally used to denote support for cancer awareness. I’ve turned it upside down as a symbol of my commitment to end the cancer of racism. Upside down, its shape is also a reminder that the United States never passed a law against lynching…one of the most explicit and brutal acts of institutional racism in the history of this nation (although the government “apologized” in 2005.) One of my earliest memories is the day Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot. 46 years later, black men are still being gunned down out of racially motivated hatred. Where is my government? Where is my church? Where are my people?

I offer the following plea to all people during what sometimes feels like a perpetual night of horror that has lasted my entire life. If you agree, please share this image and these words:

**WE believe in a truly United States…**

We demand an immediate and more engaged national response to racism. We insist on aggressive action from our leadership (government, faith, social, etc.) and we encourage hands on action and vocal responses to injustice that demonstrate the power and will of THE PEOPLE to dismantle institutionalized racism in America once and for all.

Racism in the United States is a global embarrassment and demands our priority attention. The question of race is part of every cultural, ethical and spiritual aspect of life in this country. As a result, American racism is a sickness that lies at the root of economic inequity, environmental abuse, health disparity, immigration justice, gender, sexuality and gender identity marginalization, political and social disenfranchisement as well as countless other gross injustices, past and present.

We will no longer tolerate the specific issue of racism being sidelined. THE PEOPLE have the power to turn American racism into history. We demand change TODAY.

– A.D.

Too Little Too Late

July 18, 2013.Reading time 2 minutes.

I chose this morning’s word because I was reflecting on things that are unique in the American struggle with race. In that reflection I realized that part of what has registered for black Americans with the Zimmerman trial and verdict is a throwback to lynching. The US government sat on its hands for 100 years while thousands of blacks were murdered by groups of white vigilantes. Blacks were held on trumped up charges and then casually turned over by local enforcement officials to angry mobs who hung, burned, castrated and mutilated blacks as a public display and a threat to black communities. The current Federal law on ‘lynching’ is not explicit to the act and is fairly deeply buried in the Civil Rights Act (Housing Rights Act) of 1968. In 2005, the US Senate officially apologized for not enacting anti-lynching legislation when it was most necessary. But by this point, lynching and the mentality that allowed it, was already part of our cultural DNA.

There is no mistaking that shades of the inaction on lynching are evident in the public vindication of a vigilante who decided to tail a 17 year old without provocation…other than his appearance.

Strange Fruit

By Abel Meeropol (Recorded by Billie Holiday)

Southern trees bear a strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black bodies swinging in the Southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.

Pastoral scene of the gallant south
the bulging eyes and the twisted mouth
scent of magnolia
sweet and fresh
then the sudden smell of burning flesh

Here is a fruit
for the crows to pluck
for the rain to gather
for the wind to suck
for the sun to rot
for the tree to drop
Here is a strange
and bitter crop

http://www.americanlynching.com/photos-old.htm

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/245

You can now share your own “un-mugged” shots on my Tumblr page…http://adamdyersays.tumblr.com/

spirituwellness

Tag: government

The Only Fight

**WE believe in a truly United States…**

We will no longer tolerate the specific issue of racism being sidelined. THE PEOPLE have the power to turn American racism into history. We demand change TODAY.

Too Little Too Late