“The Killing of Whiteness and the Preservation of Black Lives in America”

There’s something terribly wrong with this country’s Justice system if we have to celebrate the arrest of an individual who has committed horrific acts of evil or violence against Black and African people.

If black citizens in this country have to demand for justice every time a crime is committed against a black person, there’s something awful and tragic about our democracy, our collective moral conscience, and our regard for human life and dignity.

We need to stop singing “God bless America” until we reconstitute this nation and our selves (on both levels: individual and collective), restructure its Justice system, humanize the black experience, and renew the American mind toward equal and pure justice, moral decency, and a high value of black lives & the most vulnerable in society.

The fundamental reason black people keep shouting that #BlackLivesMatters is simply because the structure of our Justice system and public policies denies the reality that black people’s lives do in fact matter. It is also because white supremacy denies the practical existence and visibility of Black people in society. It is also because our laws and democracy never fully deracinated the hegemonic omnipresence of white power in society and never resolved the overwhelming impact of white privilege in culture.

Black lives and the life of the most vulnerable will matter only if the citizens of this nation, in their diversity and various expressions, deliberately continue to challenge the unjust structures embedded in the nation’s Justice system and public policies, reassess the country’s moral standing, annihilate white dominion, and eradicate the special status of whiteness in society.

Moreover, it may appear the American nation is democratically independent and sovereign, and has enjoyed unrelenting years of political freedom, power, and liberty. Yet since the birth of this nation, our collective soul has been restless to experience genuine internal peace and true freedom among the citizens.

The democracy we have constructed has never been fully tried in every segment of the American life.  America’s lofty Enlightenment ideals have never been extended to radically transform the experience and life of every American citizen. A central reason of this attitude and reaction lies in our personal (ideological) beliefs and collective refusal to confront our internal fears and reevaluate the dark moments of our history and the inhumane side of our laws.

The American freedom we have sustained in the past four hundred years and even championed at world’s stage has never crossed the boundary of race relations and human solidarity, never tested the limits of white supremacy and human hospitality, and it has never transgressed the purity of racial ideas and the politics of racial prejudice that mark the nation’s nascent human relations and social dynamics.

Consequently, we must question our emotional insensitivity toward death and black death, in particular, and interrogate our lack of empathy toward human suffering, especially the tragedy of black pain and suffering in America. It is of vital importance to incorporate in our everyday practices an ethics of responsibility and accountability toward life, black life in specific and that of the most vulnerable groups in our society, also. A true democracy must uphold the value and worth of human life and destroy every deliberate and unjust attempt to eradicate human life and existence.

Toward this goal, it would require that the citizens of this nation and its elected officials to undo the negative aspects of our democratic structure and Judicial system and foster a democratic life in America that is built upon different sets of human and moral values and an alternative category of human nature, such as a democratic experience that is predicated upon a rigorous anti-racist foundation and grounded on the ethics of hospitality, social justirespect for human life, interconnectedness, and mutual reciprocity and accountability.

No matter the cost this nation will pay and should render, the people of this country must kill whiteness for the preservation of black lives and the safety of the most vulnerable in the American society. This is the commitment  we together must undertake to experience genuine internal peace and interracial harmony for the sake of human dignity and the future generation. This choice is mine; it is  yours also, and it is available to every American citizen today toward the path of humility and grace.

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Every Black father knows #AhmaudArbery is also his son.

Every Black mother knows #AhmaudArbery is also her son.

As a Black father of two Black sons, I know #AhmaudArbery is also my son.

This matter is about the dignity & sanctity of black life that is always being questioned and dehumanized and always at stake, at risk, and in danger in this country.

We mourn about the destruction of #blacklives.

We lament about the end of #blacklives.

We are outraged about the vulnerability and insecurity of #blacklives.

We lose words when #blacklives are gone.

This is not about politics. It’s a question about the moral value and worth, and the preservation and safety of #blacklives. Is #AhmaudArbery your son? Can you see him as your boy? Who is worthy to be called your son?