I have been posting articles for a couple of weeks now. They have, and most of the future ones will have something to do with music, sneakers, and film because that’s my interest. All three of those topics I could go on and on dissecting every element. I am perfectly fine writing about this, however, I have platform and I feel that it would be irresponsible for me to have access to such a wide audience and not speak out on certain beliefs that I have. I have been “woke” since the first time I saw “Sarafina!” I was about 8 or 9. There are things I have noticed in my 30 years of living in this country that just don’t sit well with me. I may spend some time later on, and I will tell you exactly what I’m talking about. For now, let’s focus on the gigantic black elephant in the room.

For the past couple of years, we have seen an unpleasant rise in police shootings. These tend to be everyday routine traffic stops, or a person seemingly minding their own business that they have been killed by an officer of the law. What causes these situations to escalate is still unknown. You would think it is pretty simple. Bad guy does something bad, police is called or is on the scene to save the day and on to the next one. With these cases it’s not that simple, Oscar Grant was in an altercation and the police were called. They even had him in handcuffs on the ground and he was shot in the back. Tamir Rice was playing with a toy gun and was gunned down by the police. These two examples alone make it hard for me to understand the process in which these type of situations end up in death. Meanwhile, somewhere else in America there is a mass shooting at a church and later on the news we see the suspect being escorted by the police with a bulletproof vest on. There are numerous examples I could use but most of us have heard of these before. A few weeks ago, I thought I was going to be a hashtag driving home after working my two jobs and was pulled over about a mile away from my apartment. You have no idea how happy I am to be able to post this article today.

I really don’t want to write this type of article. I feel like this will fall on deaf ears. African Americans have been saying “stop killing us!” for over 400 years and the only thing I have seen different are the methods used. These questionable police shootings and scenarios around the Stand Your Ground Law are being viewed as something close to lynching, and that is not good. I am not thrilled about being on the remix of “Strange Fruit.” For years, we have been treated differently in the eyes of the law as well as society...so what will this article prove? Even in music this is being protested. I just want to my myself clear that I really truly do not want to write this article. I would rather go to my spot that happens to be in the middle of Las Vegas Boulevard, listen to my iPod, and people watch while strangers compliment my sneakers. I may still do this, however, I need a different playlist. This will be the #BLM playlist. What kind of songs would one put on this type of playlist? Well, here’s what I would add.

1. Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler) & What’s Goin' On by Marvin Gaye

This was released in 1971. There were a lot of things going on with the black community during this time. Even back then, Marvin was talking about “crime is increasing, trigger happy policing.” Yes, Marvin has two songs for this list but there is an artist on here that has more.

2.You Can’t Stop us Now by Nas, Eban Thomas, and the Last Poets

Any song featuring the Last Poets will instantly make a “revolutionary” playlist. This song was made list for a few reasons. First, Nas is my favorite so of course I would find a way to get him on this list. Luckily for me, he's a well-educated rapper who happens to be pretty “woke” so the process was easy. This song all together is dope, but it’s the simple chorus that got me. “No matter how hard you try, you can’t stop us now.” Just take a look at my people throughout history. We were sold and stolen from our country, forced to be slaves, and then finally after slavery was abolished, we have been held back in every way possible. Yet, these were chains that we grew to break link by link.

3. 99 Problems by Jay – Z

The main reason I have this song on here is for the part where he gets pulled over. Like I mentioned earlier I was stopped by the police for…well I still don’t know why. He just asked me a bunch of questions with his hand on his hip and I just was to get home and watch TV until I fell asleep. So I too have 99 problems and a “b-word” or a dude ain’t one.

4. Fight the Power by Public Enemy

The intro song of one of my favorite movies “Do the Right Thing,” it says exactly what we should do. “We gotta fight the power that be!” This single came from an album titled “Fear of a Black Planet” so you already know they were ready.

5. Bob Marley

I have a few songs from this Rasta, so I might as well just give him his own little segment. Robert Nesta Marley was known for his views. All this man wanted, literally, was for the world to live in harmony and he used his music to bring us all together. In my opinion he probably has the most diverse fane base. He was even shot before, because of a political conflict between two parties and they didn’t want him to perform at his peace concert. I most definitely could write a whole article on how much I admire this guy, but we will save that for later, but I am pressed for time so I will give a few songs and move on.

“400 Years”

Possibly one of the most powerful songs I have heard. It literally explains that 400 years of slavery and post slavery we still have the same mentality. This song was written well before I was born, and today, in 2016, I see the same thing. We even have a millennial version of field and house Negros. This is a completely separate article so I will just stop here.

“Johnny Was”

This is a story about how a young man was gunned down in the street and his mother was crying over his body. Only difference is that instead of him being killed by a stray bullet today he would have been killed by law enforcement while being questioned for j-walking, and the media will dig up that time he was arrested for burglary when he was in high school. The song went on to say “Johnny was a good man, never did a thing wrong.” I know it’s not always as clear cut, but perception is not always reality.

“Dem Belly Full”

“Dem belly fully but we hungry, a hungry mob is an angry mob.” This is another favorite; I interpret this as you don’t see they problem because you personally don’t have to deal with it. Whether people want to admit it or not, there is such thing as “white privilege,” and acknowledging this as a white person does not make you a bad person. There has never been anything wrong with noticing a problem, but once you do know and you stay silent, then it’s the beginning of a different problem. Our divide is deeper than these shootings. You can trace through other avenues as well like income, environment, and education. How can you say that we all have an equal chance when you can clearly see the difference in the quality of schooling in the suburbs and the inner city? Education to me is the foundation of a better life. The kid from my made up suburb has everything at his disposal. A class of 20 students, where everyone has their own book, up to date tech lab for computer skills, and healthy lunch in the cafeteria. While the kid from my made up inner city anywhere is in a class of 35 with 24 seats and 15 books to go around. These are broad examples to show how different this can be but things like this are a factor. These two kids will grow up to be whatever, but one has a foundation which gives them different opportunities. All I’m saying is that if you are hungry for food, education, income, and justice you will do some crazy things.

“Get up Stand Up”

This is on here for obvious reasons; this song requires you to stand up for you rights. If you have been following in the news or even just scrolling on Facebook you should see a popular athlete kneeling for his right to protest. All we want are the basic things that everyone else has. I honestly don’t feel wrong asking to be treated fairly. I shouldn’t be nervous getting pulled over even if I was speeding. The only thing I would be expecting is a speeding ticket and/or a court date to fight it. Nowadays, I’m just praying that the cop is in a good mood and not threatened by my skin color to the point where they need to open fire while I am strapped to my seat inside my car. Everyone just wants justice; it’s just hard fighting a system that was never built to protect you in the first place. Not too long ago we were viewed as property, we weren’t even looked at as a human being. Needless to say it will take a little more than screaming “Black Lives Matter” on the 10 o’clock news.

I could make this list longer but I would be typing forever and I have things to do, like trying to appear as non-threatening as possible to where nobody would want to inflict harm on me. Who am I kidding, the color of my skin is a lifelong target that I will proudly wear. I completely understand what Jesse Williams was saying about us being “magic.” Not too many people can handle what we deal with on a daily basis, then we wake up in the morning and do it all over again. Without people that look like me, this country would not be what it is today. If we were really that inferior, why try so hard to bring us down. Jokes on them, the more obstacles and restraints they give us, the stronger we get. I know we are admired and imitated by a lot. From music, to style, to almost everything else in this country — we give it flavor. Everyone wants full lips, fresh style, to be athletically gifted, and have a soulful singing voice, but no one wants to literally and figuratively wear a noose. It's ok, I understand. Trust me, we wouldn’t want to go through the things we went through in history either; it was brutal.

This article was not meant to be one sided, it’s just my rant and views. I have no desire to play the game of “my struggle is better than yours” because I have only been black in America, that’s all I know. It would be ignorant of me to go on a rant and say for example Native Americans don’t know how we feel because they never been slaves. Do you know how many side eyes I would get while somebody explain to me Trail of Tears? I couldn’t say “Well Jewish people don’t know what it’s like to be alienated from society like Blacks were.” Really dude, that’s just stupid, but these are the conversations I have also witnessed. Playing the “I struggled more” game is dumb. Truth is a lot of different races have their own issues but I just can’t speak on them because I have only been black, but I acknowledge the fact that things have happened to others as well as my own race.

I would like to leave you with this; I believe that all lives should matter. I think that the color of your skin, what you choose to wear, who you prefer as a partner, or your religion should not dictate your quality of life. I just have been noticing that for some odd reason, black lives are not worth much today. It’s sad when people go crazy over a golden retriever being hurt by some stupid person, but in the same breath, when they hear about a questionable police shooting they are either quiet or trying to justify it. All I am saying that that every situation should not have ended in death. Eric Garner was selling cigarettes outside of a convenience store. This actually seems illegal, ok, no problem, but there were numerous police on the scene. So are you telling me they couldn’t arrest him? There was more than enough support there was no reason for him to die in that manner. There are guys on Las Vegas Boulevard that illegally sell water to tourist. Metro rides up sometimes, never gets out the car, and yells “this is illegal pack up your stuff and leave or you will be arrested” if they come back those guys are arrested, and alive. I have yet to hear about one of those water selling guys being strangled for resisting arrest. Also, I would like to give T.I. a shout out. His album “Us or Else” is dope. I will have to listen to it separately. Ok I will step off the soapbox now and get back to my regular writing; some things just can’t be left unsaid.