"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." ― Martin Luther King Jr.
It's hard for me not to think about the lack of social justice for African-American men in the U.S. these days. There have been far too many news reports of police brutality, racism, and a justice system that seems keen only to pump out workers for the prison industrial complex - or what I think of as the 21st century plantation system. I wonder is what it takes for everyone to really care, to see these ones. We have made them invisible even as we have visibly castigated them, then denied them their humanity. Are we so jaded, so overwhelmed with survival, so content in our insular worlds, so oppressed by the barrage of negative news that streams nonstop on our TVs and media systems, and in our newspapers, that we cannot bear not another ounce of information, cannot bear to feel another thing?
"Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are." ― Benjamin Franklin
African-American men are scapegoats for what ails this society. Like a big dysfunctional family, America points the finger at the most downtrodden, neglected, abused, chastised, despised elements of its family and then heaps scorn, ridicule, and then blames them for their own predicaments. The scapegoat, however, is just a symptom of a larger problem. While it is true that racial prejudice and social injustice have been bed mates for hundreds of years, what is clear is that we are suffering from a lack of compassion and empathy. We are so caught up in making money - as much as we can for as long as we can, that we are staunchly every-man-for-himself, and I-got-mine-now-you-get yours. This steady climb up the ladder of pure self-interest has kept us divided from those still on the ground. It isn't a matter of just talking "...about race again." It's a higher matter. Race is just one effect - one important effect - but nevertheless, one effect of a world that has bet on the wrong horse. We played 'money and power' to win but that has put us "in the trick bag," as my Daddy would've said. These false gods are not the be all-end all of everything, but somehow we have come to believe that they are the bottom line. Complete absorption in acquiring them has dulled our moral senses, our compassion, our real sense of right and of justice.
"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice." ― Martin Luther King Jr.
I have an African-American son and I worry that he will be a casualty of a system that has turned a deaf ear toward justice for some of her children. America is the mother who loves one child but disparages the other. Even still, spiritual justice is inevitable. As the world ticks on and we evolve, it is taking prisoners. We are heading to the breaking point. But since we live in a physical dimension that embraces binary opposites - good/bad, light/dark, love/hate, and mathematical principles I know that what goes around comes around. We are spiraling towards a break in the hegemonic paradigm as we evolve to a new world, a higher consciousness. The universe is programmed ultimately for good, for love. It is bound for justice. On the surface it may look like chaos to us. There may be many more casualties. It may appear that the world is falling to pieces. To birth the eventual new physical world means a birth in consciousness. There are certainly going to be many more labor pains getting there.
But ...we are going to get there.
