By Chike Nwoffiah (Class XXI)
Once again the obscene images of America’s ritual of hunting Black bodies has created another routine of social media fury till the next body falls and the next and the next…
Black Fathers and Mothers, cradling their sons and daughters, stare into the nothingness that has become their future. With eyes dry from tears unshed and voices lost from words unspoken, the silence of grief is deafening. Anger, rage and fear boils the blood but hopelessness defeats, envelopes and consumes it all. Because tomorrow it will happen again, and the next and the next…
And so we wait to bury our children in this land of the brave where all men are created equal?
This is reality in America!
Until the guilt induced knee jerk reaction of White America at every incident stops, this terror will continue.
Let’s step back for a minute and understand that this killer in uniform is actually somebody’s son, husband, father, friend, cousin, best buddy, neighbor, etc., If you are honest to yourselves, you will admit that you have them in your families, bedrooms, and neighborhoods and this, my friends, is where the war will be won.
If you can truly and honestly look in the mirror and commit to confronting all those you know personally that harbor these bigoted world views, we will win half the battle. The real question is, who has the real COURAGE to stand up for what is right, even at the risk of losing your family, friends, jobs, etc.?
For many, it is easy to run 2.3 miles, post on social media, wear a T-shirt, march in a crowd, and fight the abstract enemy, then go home to cuddle, text, dine and laugh with your “friends and family”.
The painful truth is that the next generation is possibly going to be worse, given the vitriol that Black and Brown children face daily at school and around the block. The question is “who is teaching and emboldening your children to hate so blatantly?”. Tomorrow, they will wear the uniform and the hunt continues.
I cradle my teenage son with eyes dry from tears unshed and voice lost from words unspoken, the silence of my grief is deafening. Anger, Rage and Fear boils my African blood!
Chike Nwoffiah is Founding Director at Silicon Valley African Film Festival (SVAFF) and an ALF Senior Fellow (Class XXI).
