Being black in America has always been a unique balancing act of epic proportions; but in recent years the level of the task has gone from highest-video game-difficulty-setting hard to requiring divine intervention. In light of recent events here are some (but not all, because the list is constantly changing) of the things you can do while being black in America: scoring touchdowns/baskets etc., rapping about violence, objectification of women and the like, be a cocky and arrogant mofo, supporting a blatantly racist unintelligent bigot (there are more adjectives but I would be writing until Obama was sworn in for his third consecutive term) and you can be silent. On the flip side the list of things you cannot do, and forgive me I can't name the entire list for you would be reading for an extensive amount of time because it is in a constant state of flux: being the President, failing to use a turn signal, SILENTLY protesting a song that has an uncommonly-known 3rd verse with appalling language and application, asking for help, exercising the 2nd amendment right to bear arms, selling cigarettes/CDs, being large in stature just to name a few. It is freighting what actions, or "misactions" in the eyes of certain individuals can have your life unnecessarily ended at a moment's notice for no valid reason.
A common counter argument that comes up when discussing these matters have included: "But he/she has a criminal record," "the officer(s) feared for their lives," (after the incident has occurred) "the individual has a checkered past" blah blah blah. Despite personal feelings on the matter, criminals don't deserve immediate execution. This country is built on a system of checks and balances and the system remembers that there are checks and balances as long as he melanin levels in the "criminal" are low.
Another popular pair of arguments is that people are blowing things out of proportion and the media is twisting the portrayal of the incidents to rile up black folk. I believe that's pure hokum and an attempt to get out of the real discussion: there are people, typically Caucasian, who are in positions of power and fear black people for no valid reason. How can we get to this conclusion, he asked rhetorically; there are several incidents were the criminal committed a less or more heinous act: consider the last traffic stop that resulted in the death of a white man/woman...*crickets*, shooting up a movie theater, shooting up a church, setting off two bombs exchanging gun fire with the police; and said individual was arrested peacefully or the were shot to be disarmed/disabled and taken in to police custody.
It's a sad fact to say but racism is still alive today. Now you and your family and your particular sect of friends might not be racist but that doesn't dispute its existence. Another disparaging fact is it is difficult to be black in America right now. I don't have the solution to fix it, I'll be honest; the reason being that the solution needs to overcome hundreds of years of Slavery, 100 or so years of overt racism, and on-going covert racism (some of which people don't even know they display) practically overnight and that my readers is about as difficult as predicting if the next leap is the leap home.
