by Queennandi Xsheba, PoorNewsNetwork (PNN)
In the early 1900s, David Wark Griffith’s film “The Birth of a Nation” was dubbed one of Hollywood’s most influential titles. Though it came with controversy, this silent film grew to be immensely popular among the MAGA supporters of that time.
The movie had depicted Black people – men for the most part – to be these savage-like raving beasts destroying the “good ol’ boys’” way of life and raping white women, only to be “defeated” by the “heroic” KKK.
The spirit of “The Birth of a Nation” continues to live on to this day, as seen in the influx of police shootings involving Blacks and other folks of color, with the latest cop-related killing of Jonathan Price. On Saturday, Oct. 3, he was tased, shot and killed by Officer Shaun Lucas while Price was trying to break up an altercation at a gas station in downtown Wolfe City, Texas.
Witnesses state that Jonathan Price was not acting in a threatening manner, nor was he armed – he was trying to clarify the situation to police before he was tased then shot dead. Video recovered of the shooting had left Wolfe City Police Chief Matthew Martin “not happy” with what he saw.
Officer Shaun Lucas was arrested and charged with the murder of Price and has since posted the $1 million bail that was set in. According to the loved ones of Jonathan Price, he was once a football player for Hardin-Simmons University in Texas, and prior to his passing had worked two jobs and was a well-known, well-loved active member of the community.
White supremacy says it’s OK to murder Black men, women and children in the community of Rosewood, Fla., OK that many children were snuffed out in Atlanta for being of African descent, OK that we are not worthy of reparations to compensate for deliberate genocide.
The murder of Price comes right on the heels of the acquittal of the police officers in the Breonna Taylor case and several other police related killings of people of color in which very few cops were held accountable for their actions. With Amerikkka’s history of lynching Black folks, it is safe to say that this country will always perpetuate its MAGA ways and continue to support the worldwide false propaganda that D.W. Griffith had displayed on film.
Many social media critics have posted very hateful comments about Black folks in general, saying how we “deserve” the treatment we have endured – being stolen, enslaved, murdered, exploited and robbed of our language, culture and complete knowledge of self because we are “bad people who loot and commit crimes.”
To these same critics, it’s OK for the president of our “free” country to send a shout out to groups like the Proud Boys, who uphold the agenda of white supremacy. To them, it’s OK to murder Black men, women and children in the community of Rosewood, Fla.; OK that many children were snuffed out in Atlanta in the mid-to-late 1970s for no reason other than being of African descent; OK that we are not worthy of reparations to compensate for the deliberate genocide that has taken place for centuries and still continues to this day because of the stigma of us being “bad people” – with dark skin.
Nobody can blame the “bad people” who were created in the name of hate, for hate itself is a bad deed no matter where it comes from. Low-key racists brimming with hypocrisy have been coming out in full force, especially since they have a “grand dragon” for president who openly supports the white supremacist ideology – and Trump doesn’t even wear a mask to hide it.
Queennandi Xsheba is an activist and journalist with POOR Magazine and Poor News Network. She can be reached via poormag@gmail.com. To learn more, visit www.poormagazine.org and www.racepovertymediajustice.org.