American history is replete with examples of other people telling oppressed people how they should react to their oppression.
Native Americans being told that their land was not theirs. Japanese Americans being interned and told that it was in the nation’s interest. Women told that they were not smart enough to vote. Jews seeing signs that read, “No Jews, No Dogs.” African-Americans watching their children murdered just to be told by pompous bigoted people that their children are thugs and hoodlums. The recent acquittal of a Minnesota police officer in the death of Philando Castile is an eerie reminder that even with a dash camera showing people what happened, it doesn’t matter. It didn’t matter in the case of Rodney King in 1982, and it doesn’t matter in the case of Philando Castile in 2017.
Every oppressed people reach a point where “Enough is enough.” In the black community, it was Fannie Lou Hamer who said, “I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.” After the recent murder of 2nd Lt. Richard Collins by an alleged white supremacist from our own county, there is a huge need to begin a local dialogue on where our community is headed.
This Sunday, June 25, 2017 at 2:30 P.M. at the site of the Kunta Kinte-Alex Haley Memorial at Annapolis City Dock, there will be a rally to support Anne Arundel County Councilman Pete Smith’s call for a “State of Emergency on Race Relations in the State of Maryland.” This multi-racial demonstration on Sunday is to dramatize the shameful plight of race relations in America. I am glad that we have chosen the site where Kunta Kinte was taken. I am glad that people have decided that “Enough is enough.”
Join us on Sunday in Annapolis, Maryland. Lift your voice in protest. When you hear people shouting “Enough!”, you will know it is a rallying cry.
“Enough is enough.”
A Luta Continua!
Carl Snowden is a political and civil rights leader in Annapolis.
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