That’s it. That’s all you need to know. It doesn’t matter that I walk like you, or talk like you. It doesn’t matter what my education is or what my goals in life are. It doesn’t matter if I wear with my pants sagging or have all tailored made suit. My crime was already committed when I was born as a black child.
When I was born as a black child I was marked, I was different. I was looked upon as being unable or unwilling or uninterested. I was perceived as someone… no wait… something incapable of contributing, unfit to add my own special stitch in this great fabric of society. I was a criminal and you already knew it. My crime was committed when I was born as a black child.
I was born distinguished from the rest, different, I was not like you. One look at me and you saw my entire story, you already knew. My crime is as obvious as the color of my skin worn daily so you won’t be confused. Black skin worn daily so you will know, that here is someone who cannot be honest, a “thug” that should not be trusted. A criminal whose crime was already committed when I was born as a black child.
Being a criminal because I was born a black child must then mean that I am expendable. That my hopes and dreams are voided and that anything or everything possible must be done to end my criminal ways.
So when you see me running down the street in my own neighborhood, running for my life as I try to get away from someone who knows nothing about me but my skin, someone who has already prosecuted me, judged me and sentenced me to die because in their eyes, I must be a criminal. When you see me trying to get away from someone like you, who would gun me down in the streets as if I were an animal left there to bleed to death while my neighbors and friends and parents watched, you should rest assured knowing that it is no big deal. For in your eyes I was already damned. I was just a criminal, my crime already committed when I was born as a black child.
And I’m sure you have black friends…
