Never Forget #SandraBland

With all the craziness going on it’s hard for us at the unfiltered grind not to speak on the current events without sounding like we have become an activist page. These days the martyrs that are being sacrificed on our way to equality are becoming more and more frequent, a sign that there is change upon the horizon that will not tolerant the discrimination on something so insignificant as skin. The latest martyr was a young African American woman from Illinois, Sandra Bland, who was just moving to Texas to start her new career at a new job. She was pulled over on July 10, 2015. The state trooper, Brian T. Encinia, claimed that she had changed lanes without using a turn signal . . . a minor traffic violation. So how does a minor traffic violation get so out of hand? How do these events lead up to the mysterious jail cell death of a young woman who was just beginning a new life?

Now I had kept my opinions for the most part to myself but after watching the dash camera footage, I admit I was furious. I couldn’t imagine being pulled over for something I should have just been given a ticket for and then being arrested for . . . what . . . then when I refused to be arrested for . . . “something” . . . being dragged out my car and assaulted in the grass while they cuff me so they can cart me off to jail. That’s what began the sequence of events which ultimately led to the death of Sandra Bland. She was unlawfully thrown into jail because she was pulled over for something minor and Encinia felt the need to flex his authority.

Now why would a woman, who was beginning a new life, kill herself after that sort of injustice? Sandra had made videos about the inequality and discrimination that happened in America and urged people to do better so we could overcome racism and prejudice. Supposedly no one knows exactly what happened over the weekend in that Texas jail cell but come the following Monday morning they found Sandra dead from what they claimed to be a suicide hanging by her own hands. The FBI has now stepped in to do an investigation of the incident. Let us hope that it is a THOROUGH and ACCURATE investigation.

What I think when I hear things like this is the Stanford experiment where they took 24 men and split them into two groups, one of prisoners and one of guards. Now if you are unfamiliar with this experiment you may want to look it up for more details. Anyways, for the first few days of the experiment the men were joking as they pretended to be their roles. As the time passed, the imaginary roles became real to them. Mentally they literally became prisoner and guard characters that they were pretending to be. The emotions began to escalate which eventually erupted into chaos and violence. That is the nature of what is happening. Some people have become drunk with their power and in the moment they believe they can get away with behaving in ways that just aren’t acceptable. Period. The police are supposed to enforce the laws we have as a society, not make them up or use excess force to assert their authority.

Dash cam video link!

Bottom line, racism is an obsolete man-made concept that has been passed down and taught, not instinctual. Children do not grow up with hatred, they are taught it. If you are rolling your eyes about how it all comes down to a “race issue” I challenge you to show me an example of a white woman getting pulled over for a minor traffic violation and dragged into a police car then mysteriously dying in jail. I will wait . . . Just a few months ago, in the same state of Texas, an officer tackled a 14 year old African American girl who attending a neighborhood pool party. Then of course there was the prominent affluent pastor/senator who was assassinated with 8 of his congregation in a historic black church by a young white man. Let’s not forget Trayvon Martin and countless others who have been guilty of being in black in the wrong place at the wrong time.

How can I sit here and hold my tongue when everyday there is another martyr/victim on the news? I have experienced racism and it is nothing nice. These incidences are not obsolete but they should be. No one should ever have to feel like that nor should they be treated like that. All I have to say about that is the truth always has a way of coming to the light. The good always finds a way to prevail against the evil. Justice will prevail whether it’s in life or death.