Amadou Diallo

"Lift every voice and sing…. By any means necessary… I had a dream … and Still I Rise…"

Do these words mean anything to you? Well, maybe not to everyone, but to some African Americans they do. Black History month was last month, a month of significance to a given group's Collective Cultural Consciousness, yes Collective Cultural Consciousness. But it was not an actual month to celebrate. Where were our African American leaders when an African male, Amadou Diallo, was gunned down by the police, in February 1999? Diallo was shot at forty-one times. He was hit with nineteen of those bullets, and the police were acquitted? That's right, he was killed, and they were acquitted during Black History Month. Only a few African Americans stood up and spoke out against the xenophobic, stereotype, discriminatory actions of the New York Police Officers involved.

Even the judge put a twist on how the jury was to look at this case--through the eyes of the police! What about through the eyes of the victim, reaching for his wallet? I heard a juror say, "Why did he run?" That's like asking, "Why do poor people live in the ghettoes?" Amadou Diallo was a stranger, who may have been the victim of cultural clash--more than once in his life.

In 1878, William Williams, a young African American male, was born in Tennessee. One day he was going into the field, taking his grandfather his lunch. Young Williams cut across a white person's yard; this was against the law. And for that offense, 12 year old Williams was hang. I found this searching through my family tree. So I should not be surprised at the verdict in the Diallo case.

And speaking of twelve year olds, an African American child was found guilty of murder, during Black History Month. This sadden me, because it means that laws are ready to send children to the penitentiary to get the message to society. Did I forget to mention Proposition 21? Will you rise?

Where are our wealthy African American athletes, making Nike commercials? Where are our wealthy African American comedians, musicians, pop kings and soul queens, actors, and politicians during crises like these? Where are our well-to-do African American, middle-class?

I've heard Reverend Al Sharpton speak out against this injustice. Regardless, if you agree with his views or not, at least he stood up. Where are the rest of you famous, African Americans, still divided by the out-groups and in-groups? If you have nothing to die for, what do you have to live for?

Oh! I know, you forgot what it is like living in ghettoes. You made yours through Affirmative Actions, scholarships, a song and a dance. You now have people calling you Sir and Ms., riding high on your ego. Since Diallo is not happening to you or your family, it's not your problem. Well, wake up!

I've heard Oprah on national television complaining about her family asking her for money. Why waste our time? You are so caught up in your own dialog that you've forgotten where you came from, and who loved you first? Just like 0.J. Simpson, when the chips were down, he was back to San Francisco and to African American churches, campaigning for the African Americans to believe him, yet he is the one with an identity crisis. What is there to be celebrated when we have African Americans blessed with power and fame and they are scared to use it? Will You Rise?

As a people, yes, my people that I love so much, who don't even know me. Wake up, your funerals have been planned for centuries. Change needs to come. Most of our so-called leaders are afraid to lead. They build churches and preach old histories, and they haven't got a clue. Get out of your comfort zones, our people are dying in front of our eyes, have you forgotten how to March?

Harriet Tubman said, "I helped freed thousands of slaves, and I could of freed thousands more, had they known they were slaves." A man was shot at forty-one times. What was the real fear, xenophobia? The system sentences a child to life in prison, at twelve years old! Is this to say that African Americans are not worth saving, and that this child, who was made an example of has the mentality of an adult? Wake Up!

Collective Culture Consciousness is all this happening just to become a memory? If so stay a sleep. What is going to happen next Black History Month, next year? Will you rise? I know that old Negro Spiritual: "Free at last," just as I know that old Negro conditioning that has been applied, with the result of some people remaining deaf, dumb and blind.

We have Africans on the continent dying in floods, but here in the United States of America, we have African Americans dying from false ego's, and a learned lifestyle of complacency. Listen to your children these days; do you listen to rap? These children are speaking in a different tone about the things some of you once stood for and have forgotten.

Look at most of those children's lyrics. They do not have a leader or leadership to look up to. They put their pain in their music, and you are wondering why. Why they disrespect females in their lyrics--they haven't seen an Angela Davis in their era. Why they disrespect their fathers in their lyrics--because the fathers' voices are not heard. Why they disrespect the police in their lyrics--because they know what it is like to be Black, living in the ghetto and harassed by the police, merely because of the color of their skin.

Some people who have money, power, fame, and position are dead, when they have the power to make a stand for what is right. Some people are dead, lost in the illusions that have overcome us. You don't listen to your children voices. You don't acknowledge the signs of the times. Some of you don't even vote, but you are quick to celebrate Black History Month with your, "I remember when..." We are not only being slaughtered and made examples of during Black History Months, but throughout the year.

The mind isn't the only thing that is terrible to waste, so is the voice. Will you rise?

 [Frank Williams is a young Black male who is a college student and a Certified Counselor. He works full time and he goes to college.]