No matter the point made by any talking head the conversation must always come back to #BlackLivesMatter.
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“If you get a job making a million bucks and a cop shoots you in the head without consequence, what good is the employment?”
Mr. Asa Khalif’s voice took a dramatic turn in tone as we traveled down memory lane and stopped to gaze at a point in time when a police officer dehumanized a beloved family member as he sat by unable to intervene.
He was eight years-old when he watched his uncle Duke, a Vietnam Veteran, be called a “boy” by a police officer during a traffic stop. Mr. Khalif’s uncle Duke, who was from the South, had witnessed a loved one be humiliated by police as a child, too. It’s this “generational disrespect,” says Mr. Khalif, that’s the root cause for the uprising of black youth.
This “no nonsense” generation, he says, have witnessed their parents—particularly their strong black fathers—have to bow and humble themselves to police during traffic stops.
The strong black father loses their superhero image during those moments, he suggested.
My conversation with Mr. Khalif, who was arrested over the weekend in Baltimore for breaking the curfew and who also is awaiting trail for his participation in the physical confrontation between protesters and Philadelphia police officers at the recreational center in Lawncrest, started when I asked him to respond to Mr. Tavis Smiley’s assertion that poverty is the root cause for the uprising of black youth.
“Jobs, jobs, jobs,” said Mr. Smiley, referencing what he believes will be the neutralizer of the #BlackLivesMatter movement.
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Mr. Khalif quickly dismissed Mr. Smiley’s remarks.
“I don’t listen to anyone who isn’t in the street. When Tavis Smiley brings his f*cking a** to the protest then he can speak to what is upsetting the folks on the ground.”
Poverty and jobs are certainly a key factor, Mr. Khalif concedes, but it’s not the root.
“The root is the fact that these young black people know their white counterparts aren’t treated like this,” he said, “Their white friends can sit on their steps, drink beers and play without ever fearing physical harassment by police.”
No matter the point made by any talking head, for Mr. Khalif, the conversation will always come back to #BlackLivesMatter.
“If you get a job making a million bucks and a cop shoots you in the head without consequence, what good is the employment?”
The economic conditions of black people have a role in the conversation, he acknowledges, but it doesn’t take first priority.
“We have to deal with being alive first,” he said. “We have to first secure the life; validate the life – something America has never done – protect the life – the same way we do Whites – and then work on the economics and housing issues. It’s about #BlackLivesMatter and if anyone tells you differently they’re full of sh*t.”
To further drill the message of #BlackLivesMatters into the heads of Philadelphia’s most perceived privileged, Mr. Khalif is days away from initiating a massive “purge” at Rittenhouse Square.
Mr. Khalif says the purge isn’t in any way connected to resentment to wealth, but rather white silence.
Mr. Khalif said, “White people must purge, too, and atone for their silence and for turning their backs while people in their city are having their rights violated, instead of using their privilege to amplify the cause.”
Though he wouldn’t reveal the exact date, Mr. Khalif said it’s soon; the protesters should come hungry, and that rich people won’t be be able to hold their “diamonds up to their eyes to avoid seeing the pain of the poor.”
Thanks for reading. Until next time, I’m Flood the Drummer® & I’m Drumming for JUSTICE!™