it is July 6 2016 I am laying next to my
wife in bed and we are watching
something on Netflix and we’re chillin
but we’re not chilling but she does look
beautiful and radiant as she is carrying
our son who was due to exit her womb the
very next day though he would decide to
come a couple of days later it also
happens to be my 33rd birthday I’m in
that unique position of recognizing that
I am fortunate to experience another
year of life I’m experiencing the beauty
that is the expansion’s of one’s lungs
as I inhale and exhale knowing that my
baby boy is doing the exact same thing
in my wife’s stomach I am eating my
favorite pizza
we are watching one of our favorite
shows and it’s one of those moments
where it feels like nothing can go wrong
but on that day something does go wrong
something happens to someone that I
don’t know in a place I’ve never been in
Falcon Heights Minnesota Philander
Castile finds himself in a car with his
girlfriend and her four-year-old
daughter when they are stopped by police
Castile informs the officer that he has
a registered gun the officer in mere
seconds shoots Castile his girlfriend
diamond Reynolds has the presence of
mind to video record his now
blood-soaked
body that will soon go lifeless in
another mere matter of seconds or
moments her daughter is going to plead
with her for her to be mindful of what
is going to be said to the police
because she doesn’t want for her to
suffer the same fate and even though I
have seen the video several times I
can’t imagine the horror of experiencing
it in real time of being a little girl
wondering if your mother is next and
will it happen in front of you of being
a girlfriend who had a significant other
who was a part of the realm of
livelihood that all of a sudden finds
himself in the abyss of death Castile
was 32 years old on that day he would
never have an opportunity to experience
a 33rd birthday he would never know what
it’s like to lay next to his wife and
she’s about to give birth to a child
that belongs to them while he is eating
his favorite pizza watching something
that is one of his favorite shows on
Netflix he would never get that reality
because all of that was snatched on July
6 2016 and it serves as a really cold
reminder that being black can get you
killed not just by those at the hands of
those who are supposed to protect and
serve we’re reminded of this atrocity by
the heart disease and the cancers that
seem to claim us sooner by the disparity
and infant mortality by the bullets that
seems a claim our young men and young
woman in our communities was an
authority that suggests that the shell
casings had their name on it and now I
find myself the father of a beautiful
one-year-old black boy who I have hopes
and dreams for whose intelligence leaves
me astounded who smile is so radiant
that even the son must capitulate sir is
the brightness who when he says the word
daddy I promise you it feels like an
angel is serenading my heart my son is
adorable there are so many others who
believe the same thing but some of them
I know years from now are going to see
my son as a threat they’re gonna forget
how cute he was that is in spite of us
being a hundred and fifty-three years
removed from slavery in spite the fact
that we are one year short of the 400th
anniversary of when the first African
slaves were taken to the shores of
Virginia a colony named after a British
joint stock company and we find
ourselves here because in America we’ve
never truly invested in genuine and
authentic equality
it took bloodshed for slavery to end it
took bloodshed for Jim Crow and
segregation to in and if once humanity
can only be brought to light by ones
death then it really suggests that
humanity can never be properly valued
properly assessed properly cherished so
we find ourselves in a very interesting
predicament we’ve realized that we are
in an era where we are living in post
segregated America in name only but not
in actuality our schools and our
neighborhoods bear this fact out the
fact is that when we often see a host of
events there seems to be a polar
opposite perspective between the races
whether it be a football player kneeling
during the national anthem or an unarmed
black person being killed at the hands
of police it seems as though though we
are living in a country that is
geographically connected and United it
often feels that we are not living in a
united nation that we are living in an
area of two Americas a white one and a
black one that’s in spite slavery being
over because slavery did not eliminate
the real cancer Jim Crow did not
eliminate the real cancer and this is
the reason why we live in a segregated
America but we accept it we may complain
momentarily but we accept it we see it
we read about it and we move on and it
becomes normalized because we’ve never
really got rid of the real cancer which
is that there are people that believe
that black people are inherently
inferior to white it is something that
occupies the minds of both whites and
blacks as well and we as a nation and
continue to live this lie and we can
never be free and so we live in truth so
for whites who deny the powerful role
that history and policy has had on our
racial dynamics they are living in a
and for blacks who’ve had a history of
slavery and Jim Crow the 300 years
longer than a history without it who
find themselves currently in an era of
mass incarceration and gentrification it
is hard to not believe in the lie as
well so here we are in separate sections
but yet when it comes to being in a
mental prison being in the same place
and what makes all of this so disturbing
is that race is completely a social
construct it is something that was
created to benefit a particular group of
people over another group of people it
was created for economic gain what we
find is that race is a pseudoscience
it’s hogwash it really should not be
real at all and yet though that is the
case its consequences are not only real
but deadly impacting the lives of
millions upon millions of people were
bodies find themselves having their
blood stream in the street or
individuals find themselves incarcerated
or young children find themselves not
believing in their educational endeavors
because of pseudoscience so how do we
solve it I’m not going to suggest to you
that I have all of the answers but I
have a good sense of where maybe we
should start it’s in two children’s
books that I’ve often have read to my
son the first one is the rainbow fish
it’s a story about a fish with rainbow
colored scales who is one day approached
by a fish who requests if he could have
one of his scales the rainbow fish
bristles at the request and the fish
that made the request goals away
saddened and the other fish around the
scene see what just occurred and they to
decide to distance themselves from the
rainbow fish one day the rainbow fish
feeling lonely decides to go to his lone
friend the starfish to seek some advice
and
starfish instructs them to go seek the
octopus because the octopus was full of
wisdom and it is there that the octopus
tells them maybe you do want to just
give one of your scales so when the
opportunity again presented itself to
give away one of his scales this time
though reluctantly the rainbow fish
gives away his scale the fish that was
that now new recipient of a new rainbow
color scale is filled with gratitude and
embraces the rainbow fish and now the
rainbow fish finds himself having a new
spirit of generosity and he gives all of
his scales except for one so there all
of the fish can have at least one
rainbow scale at that moment the rainbow
fish experienced liberation
well the rainbow fish realized that his
identity was not tied into the color of
his scales or rather his ability to
connect with the community of the other
fish he became liberated and free when
he realized that it is better to give
than to withhold that there is something
powerful about having a connection and
being one with others the rainbow fish
was liberated and so here we have white
supremacist continuously being in a
mental prison and they would never be
liberated and so they realized that
their main identity is in their humanity
and not their whiteness they were always
to be in prison because there will
always be upset because there will
always being a new immigrant coming to
America there will always be an
interracial couple that seems to pop out
of nowhere there will always be a black
person who has a position of a higher
standard and they will continue to seek
their tiki torches find somewhere online
to air their grievances and they will
never be happy in order for America to
really become what it should be
we need more white Americans to get in
the game and destroying the myth that
blacks are naturally inferior to really
learn about our history to really stop
with the narrow
of who pass the pass but understand that
when something has been a part of a
nation for so long it has no choice but
to go deep within the marrows of the
bones of that society what we need are
four more rainbow fishes to come to the
conclusion that it is better to give the
other book is the carrot see it’s a
story about a boy who plants a carrot
seed and with joy he goes and tells his
mother about what he had just done his
mother cautions him and says well son
the carrot seed may not grow he tells
his father about what he had just done
and his father was even more pessimistic
and said son the carrot seed probably
will not grow when he goes to his older
brother
his older brother laughs at him and says
the carrot seed will not grow the boy
undeterred continued to do everything
that was necessary in order for that
carrot seed to grow until one day he
finds himself in the yard and realizes
that his faith has been rewarded and
that the carrot is now protruding out of
the ground for those of us who are part
of a community categorized as the black
community we must continue to plant
seeds we must believe that we have the
power to cause a revolution in our
educational system we must believe that
we have the power to create an economic
engine to bring us some moment in time
like black Wall Street we must believe
that we can be the politicians we’ve
always been looking for we must believe
that we can build the infrastructures
that we’ve been so desperate for we must
believe and we must continue to plant
seeds even in the midst of the dry
season and the miss of the most heinous
drought is a mist of the myriad of
doubting faces we must continue to plant
seeds in other words we must continue to
do what we’ve always done but just do it
even
but we should not do this alone all of
us in this room and in this nation must
get our hands dirty we must find
ourselves placing our hands and
empowering the soil and plant more seeds
we must do so even when it feels like
the water is not properly saturating the
soil we must work and so our t-shirts
have nothing but dirt stains on it so we
can finally be where we need to be as a
nation we must start really asking
ourselves how many how many more lives
have to die due to the pseudoscience how
many more people have to find themselves
in a prison cells simply because of how
their skin has been painted how many
children who have all kinds of
capacities and capabilities have to have
a substandard education because of lack
of belief how many how many times do we
have to see in the news about there
being a disconnect about someone losing
their lives about a girlfriend watching
her boyfriend being killed in front of
her about a daughter wondering whether
or not her mother is next how many times
do we have to live this way the answer
depends on how many of us would choose to become planters
wife in bed and we are watching
something on Netflix and we’re chillin
but we’re not chilling but she does look
beautiful and radiant as she is carrying
our son who was due to exit her womb the
very next day though he would decide to
come a couple of days later it also
happens to be my 33rd birthday I’m in
that unique position of recognizing that
I am fortunate to experience another
year of life I’m experiencing the beauty
that is the expansion’s of one’s lungs
as I inhale and exhale knowing that my
baby boy is doing the exact same thing
in my wife’s stomach I am eating my
favorite pizza
we are watching one of our favorite
shows and it’s one of those moments
where it feels like nothing can go wrong
but on that day something does go wrong
something happens to someone that I
don’t know in a place I’ve never been in
Falcon Heights Minnesota Philander
Castile finds himself in a car with his
girlfriend and her four-year-old
daughter when they are stopped by police
Castile informs the officer that he has
a registered gun the officer in mere
seconds shoots Castile his girlfriend
diamond Reynolds has the presence of
mind to video record his now
blood-soaked
body that will soon go lifeless in
another mere matter of seconds or
moments her daughter is going to plead
with her for her to be mindful of what
is going to be said to the police
because she doesn’t want for her to
suffer the same fate and even though I
have seen the video several times I
can’t imagine the horror of experiencing
it in real time of being a little girl
wondering if your mother is next and
will it happen in front of you of being
a girlfriend who had a significant other
who was a part of the realm of
livelihood that all of a sudden finds
himself in the abyss of death Castile
was 32 years old on that day he would
never have an opportunity to experience
a 33rd birthday he would never know what
it’s like to lay next to his wife and
she’s about to give birth to a child
that belongs to them while he is eating
his favorite pizza watching something
that is one of his favorite shows on
Netflix he would never get that reality
because all of that was snatched on July
6 2016 and it serves as a really cold
reminder that being black can get you
killed not just by those at the hands of
those who are supposed to protect and
serve we’re reminded of this atrocity by
the heart disease and the cancers that
seem to claim us sooner by the disparity
and infant mortality by the bullets that
seems a claim our young men and young
woman in our communities was an
authority that suggests that the shell
casings had their name on it and now I
find myself the father of a beautiful
one-year-old black boy who I have hopes
and dreams for whose intelligence leaves
me astounded who smile is so radiant
that even the son must capitulate sir is
the brightness who when he says the word
daddy I promise you it feels like an
angel is serenading my heart my son is
adorable there are so many others who
believe the same thing but some of them
I know years from now are going to see
my son as a threat they’re gonna forget
how cute he was that is in spite of us
being a hundred and fifty-three years
removed from slavery in spite the fact
that we are one year short of the 400th
anniversary of when the first African
slaves were taken to the shores of
Virginia a colony named after a British
joint stock company and we find
ourselves here because in America we’ve
never truly invested in genuine and
authentic equality
it took bloodshed for slavery to end it
took bloodshed for Jim Crow and
segregation to in and if once humanity
can only be brought to light by ones
death then it really suggests that
humanity can never be properly valued
properly assessed properly cherished so
we find ourselves in a very interesting
predicament we’ve realized that we are
in an era where we are living in post
segregated America in name only but not
in actuality our schools and our
neighborhoods bear this fact out the
fact is that when we often see a host of
events there seems to be a polar
opposite perspective between the races
whether it be a football player kneeling
during the national anthem or an unarmed
black person being killed at the hands
of police it seems as though though we
are living in a country that is
geographically connected and United it
often feels that we are not living in a
united nation that we are living in an
area of two Americas a white one and a
black one that’s in spite slavery being
over because slavery did not eliminate
the real cancer Jim Crow did not
eliminate the real cancer and this is
the reason why we live in a segregated
America but we accept it we may complain
momentarily but we accept it we see it
we read about it and we move on and it
becomes normalized because we’ve never
really got rid of the real cancer which
is that there are people that believe
that black people are inherently
inferior to white it is something that
occupies the minds of both whites and
blacks as well and we as a nation and
continue to live this lie and we can
never be free and so we live in truth so
for whites who deny the powerful role
that history and policy has had on our
racial dynamics they are living in a
and for blacks who’ve had a history of
slavery and Jim Crow the 300 years
longer than a history without it who
find themselves currently in an era of
mass incarceration and gentrification it
is hard to not believe in the lie as
well so here we are in separate sections
but yet when it comes to being in a
mental prison being in the same place
and what makes all of this so disturbing
is that race is completely a social
construct it is something that was
created to benefit a particular group of
people over another group of people it
was created for economic gain what we
find is that race is a pseudoscience
it’s hogwash it really should not be
real at all and yet though that is the
case its consequences are not only real
but deadly impacting the lives of
millions upon millions of people were
bodies find themselves having their
blood stream in the street or
individuals find themselves incarcerated
or young children find themselves not
believing in their educational endeavors
because of pseudoscience so how do we
solve it I’m not going to suggest to you
that I have all of the answers but I
have a good sense of where maybe we
should start it’s in two children’s
books that I’ve often have read to my
son the first one is the rainbow fish
it’s a story about a fish with rainbow
colored scales who is one day approached
by a fish who requests if he could have
one of his scales the rainbow fish
bristles at the request and the fish
that made the request goals away
saddened and the other fish around the
scene see what just occurred and they to
decide to distance themselves from the
rainbow fish one day the rainbow fish
feeling lonely decides to go to his lone
friend the starfish to seek some advice
and
starfish instructs them to go seek the
octopus because the octopus was full of
wisdom and it is there that the octopus
tells them maybe you do want to just
give one of your scales so when the
opportunity again presented itself to
give away one of his scales this time
though reluctantly the rainbow fish
gives away his scale the fish that was
that now new recipient of a new rainbow
color scale is filled with gratitude and
embraces the rainbow fish and now the
rainbow fish finds himself having a new
spirit of generosity and he gives all of
his scales except for one so there all
of the fish can have at least one
rainbow scale at that moment the rainbow
fish experienced liberation
well the rainbow fish realized that his
identity was not tied into the color of
his scales or rather his ability to
connect with the community of the other
fish he became liberated and free when
he realized that it is better to give
than to withhold that there is something
powerful about having a connection and
being one with others the rainbow fish
was liberated and so here we have white
supremacist continuously being in a
mental prison and they would never be
liberated and so they realized that
their main identity is in their humanity
and not their whiteness they were always
to be in prison because there will
always be upset because there will
always being a new immigrant coming to
America there will always be an
interracial couple that seems to pop out
of nowhere there will always be a black
person who has a position of a higher
standard and they will continue to seek
their tiki torches find somewhere online
to air their grievances and they will
never be happy in order for America to
really become what it should be
we need more white Americans to get in
the game and destroying the myth that
blacks are naturally inferior to really
learn about our history to really stop
with the narrow
of who pass the pass but understand that
when something has been a part of a
nation for so long it has no choice but
to go deep within the marrows of the
bones of that society what we need are
four more rainbow fishes to come to the
conclusion that it is better to give the
other book is the carrot see it’s a
story about a boy who plants a carrot
seed and with joy he goes and tells his
mother about what he had just done his
mother cautions him and says well son
the carrot seed may not grow he tells
his father about what he had just done
and his father was even more pessimistic
and said son the carrot seed probably
will not grow when he goes to his older
brother
his older brother laughs at him and says
the carrot seed will not grow the boy
undeterred continued to do everything
that was necessary in order for that
carrot seed to grow until one day he
finds himself in the yard and realizes
that his faith has been rewarded and
that the carrot is now protruding out of
the ground for those of us who are part
of a community categorized as the black
community we must continue to plant
seeds we must believe that we have the
power to cause a revolution in our
educational system we must believe that
we have the power to create an economic
engine to bring us some moment in time
like black Wall Street we must believe
that we can be the politicians we’ve
always been looking for we must believe
that we can build the infrastructures
that we’ve been so desperate for we must
believe and we must continue to plant
seeds even in the midst of the dry
season and the miss of the most heinous
drought is a mist of the myriad of
doubting faces we must continue to plant
seeds in other words we must continue to
do what we’ve always done but just do it
even
but we should not do this alone all of
us in this room and in this nation must
get our hands dirty we must find
ourselves placing our hands and
empowering the soil and plant more seeds
we must do so even when it feels like
the water is not properly saturating the
soil we must work and so our t-shirts
have nothing but dirt stains on it so we
can finally be where we need to be as a
nation we must start really asking
ourselves how many how many more lives
have to die due to the pseudoscience how
many more people have to find themselves
in a prison cells simply because of how
their skin has been painted how many
children who have all kinds of
capacities and capabilities have to have
a substandard education because of lack
of belief how many how many times do we
have to see in the news about there
being a disconnect about someone losing
their lives about a girlfriend watching
her boyfriend being killed in front of
her about a daughter wondering whether
or not her mother is next how many times
do we have to live this way the answer
depends on how many of us would choose to become planters
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