At the beginning of June, we entered a period of turbulence across the United States, many cities in the United States were gripped by violent outbursts that rained destruction upon businesses large and small alike. The reasons for the rampage seem to be a culmination of anger directed at the establishment, opportunistic greed, a sagging economy due to the COVID 19 pandemic, and cabin fever from the shelter in place order. Stores where totally ransacked and pillaged, some went as far as too burn them the ground. I was oblivious to the carnage because I was sitting with my elderly mother watching netflicks. When I went out the day after the initial destructive whirlwind to get some food and water I was shocked by the utter decimation I was seeing. All of the stores I visited were busted up and I could not get anything I needed that day. I was reminded of the response to the murder of Dr Martin Luther King when people took to the streets in many cities and busted, broke into and looted businesses. I recalled that Jeff Fort the leader of the Blackstone Rangers ordered the Blackstone Rangers to issue a stand-down order to the city residents on the south side of Chicago. Jeff Fort stated, " Do not destroy the resources you yourself will need ". I was confronted once more of how the riots deprived people of necessary resources when I went out a week later to get medical supplies for my paraplegic son. Walgreens stores all over the south side were closed because they had been ravaged. The Family Dollar stores were gone as well. I was dismayed and about to give up and go home. While I was standing at the bus stop I spotted a mom and pop Black-owned Pharmacy and medical supply store. It was like manna from heaven. In the wake of the riots community residents are left desolate and in despair. Mothers can not obtain diapers and formula, elders can not fill prescriptions families can not get food for the table. The store owners in many cases have insurance and I am sure many of the business owners cashed some pretty large checks from their insurance providers. Agitators from outside of the community who traveled hundreds of miles to provoke violence and looting should be lined up and shot. Their actions did nothing to further the push for social justice. They did nothing to honor or in anyway avenge the victims of modern-day lynching by the police. No ideological foundation subscribes to self-destruction as a means in which to affect change. Why didn't these angry people destroy a police station? If the police are the hands of white supremacy should they not be the object of the people's ire? There are still services yet to return to the Black community and its been almost a month since the riots. We the people have to find a better way to communicate our anger and speak truth to power. We must also not allow our struggle to be hijacked and turned into a weapon against us. People who are not Black, have never been targeted by the police because of the color of their skin using the Black Lives Matter movement to further causes that have nothing to do with empowering Black men and women. They seize upon an opportunity to carry out their own insane motives and agendas. Others are swept up by the mob mentality and lose the ability to make a decision for themselves. For all of these reasons, Black men and women must become and remain vigilant in protecting the means and methods used to pursue black liberation. The power is in the people and the politics they address and the manner in which they are addressed will determine the outcome and whether or not the efforts put forth are productive or destructive. It is said that irrational times bring forth irrational behavior. Let us not be swept away by the tide of unjust and oppressive scenes displayed on social media or else we will form a weapon against ourselves. We must Analyze, adapt, and overcome or else we will lose everything including our very own lives.
This woman captures the reality of how misguided rage and anger or opportunistic looting impacts the residents of a community https://youtu.be/MYbXlUx97NI
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