Dear Bill Cosby,
In the wake of the senseless deaths of African-American men at the hands of our police state, I would like to revisit your criticism of African-Americans, particularly ones in my demographic.
"Looking at the incarcerated, these are not political criminals. These are people going around stealing Coca Cola. People getting shot in the back of the head over a piece of pound cake! Then we all run out and are outraged, “The cops shouldn’t have shot him” What the hell was he doing with the pound cake in his hand?"
Mr. Cosby, who cares why he had pound cake in his hand, it does not give people the right to take away his life. Mr. Cosby, I don’t care if he was standing on the corner with his pants hanging down past his ankles, that does not give people the right to dehumanize him as an animal. This is proof that even a kid who was going to college like you asked him to, can be killed just like that kid who stole the pound cake.
The message here is that our lives don’t matter, no matter how much moral responsibility we place on our community. We are not being killed for stealing Coke and pound cake; the targets are on our back’s because we are black in America. No amount of proper grammar will change that fact. No amount of college education can save us from the over militarized police departments and “stand your ground” proponents that claim a black life every 28 hours. Jobs on our resume’s don’t provide padding for bullets and billy clubs.
The excessive moral standard and self hatred from people like you Mr. Cosby, ignores the history of lynchings, police dogs, water hoses and night sticks. It puts a cute bow on the real issue and that is the devaluation of black life. That is true for the high school dropout and it is true for that guy in DC occupying government housing; as long as their skin remains black.
We aren’t “[running] out and being outraged” because Michael Brown lived up to any number of the stereotypes you erroneously attributed to young black men. We are outraged because once again a mother and father in America will never hold their son in their arms.
The Truth: UnCut 