Change is undeniably hard. Progress is not an exercise in expediency. But if you are committed, then you will understand that you have no choice but to keep going not to see if you will win, but until you win.
Is Ferguson the existential reality of America in 2014? The inconvenient truth is that many African Americans see the grand jury decision as further confirmation of their belief that nothing has changed since the Kerner Report of 1968, and that nothing will; a police officer who shoots and kills an unarmed black man will almost always be exonerated.
Slavery was America's original sin; it poisoned the blood and infected the bones of our polity, and that poison remains, still doing its sinful work. If we believe what we were taught in school about America as the land of freedom and equal opportunity, about all of us -- all of us -- being equally endowed with inalienable rights, about the purpose of government, as declared in the Declaration of Independence, being to secure those rights, then we have a lot of work still to do. We remain very far from a post-racial country.
From 12 to 50 it's assumed we're packing, assumed that like the Hulk or zombies we possess superhuman, virtually unstoppable destructive power. So where an average citizen may disagree, even argue and berate a police officer, treating them as the public servant that they indeed are, a black man, if he wishes to continue living, must channel his ancestors.
My husband always has the option of changing careers. My son can never change who he is. But my son and other black boys need allies in uniform to protect him. Allies like his father.
We can be grateful for the young activists of yesterday and today, our country's ability to transform for the better and our own capacity to effect meaningful change.
Decades of segregation and inequality in Ferguson, as well as most American metropolitan areas, have fostered a racial inequality exacerbated by the criminalization of not just poverty, but the criminalization of black and brown bodies. Too many whites are too willing to believe that a black body poses a threat.
One of the prevailing things I noticed on that fateful night was the high volume of teens who were speaking out and explaining why this isn't just about one of our peers -- it's a bigger societal indication about civil rights and the racism that still exists in America.
Now is the time, and we are the ones, to release and liberate ourselves from bondage to racism, to repair what is broken in our nation, to restore peace born of justice in the streets.
A native of St Louis, long a New York City expat, I less felt anger than shame at the inevitability of it all. Performers cast in a familiar play with specific roles to play once the curtain went up.
So rather than take the hit back in August, he used the grand jury for political cover. He could just say: "See, it was the grand jury, not me, who said there wasn't enough evidence for an indictment. They did it, not me. I was just seeking the truth."
Because of the great social implications of cases involving police shootings of people of color, the presumption in these cases should be that prosecutors utilize the public preliminary hearing process instead of the secret grand jury proceeding.
President Obama's recent speech fits a historic and racist framework through which we can describe the exclusion and banishment of people with felonies who are detained and deported. Even while some parents of citizens will be eligible for relief, parents with felonies and their families will remain vulnerable.
No matter how "respectable" we are or become, as long as our skin is Black we will never amount to white standards though we are expected to be a reflection of them. Respectability will never be a solution because the issue isn't us; it's how white America views blackness.
It is now almost a week after the grand jury decision was released in the case of police officer Darren Wilson's murder of unarmed teenager Michael Brown. As an artist and activist, I am here to say that IT IS NOT OVER, by a long shot.
Brown, as was King, was unarmed. Brown and King were not charged with a crime when detained. Brown as King received injuries after he ceased resisting. Brown, as King was, was abused during an official stop. These, as they were with King, are compelling civil rights violations.
It's hard to continue. I wish it was my kids' bedtime. I wish the dishes were done. I wish the house was clean. I wish America wasn't racist. I wish Mike Brown was in police custody. I wish Darren Wilson admitted guilt. I wish America admitted guilt.
My daughter and I were standing in the middle of the baseball field in Inwood Hill Park, looking up at the stars, when something told me to check to see if the decision was finally announced. "NO INDICTMENT" stared back at me, taunting. I fell to my knees, crying. Yet again I was that kid watching an injustice occur right before my eyes and feeling helpless to do anything about it.
The gradual ground we have gained regarding our civil rights should not be confused with the literal stalemate we have had with the U.S. justice system regarding our human rights for more than 200 years.