The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

Eric Garner, Mike Brown, Ezell Ford, John Crawford III. 4 unarmed black men killed by Unites States Police Officers in the past month. Some have been labelled as thugs, thieves, gang bangers, violent sociopaths, one was even mentally challenged, but it's not the fact that our young men are dying, it's how they're being portrayed. They say Mike Brown now fits the suspect that was seen at the convenience store robbery that happened hours before, but when the police officer saw him and shot him he had not a single weapon on is body. Actually, after the first two times he was shot, he turned around and put his hands up to show he had nothing, to surrender, and then was still shot 8 more times. 

Ezell Ford was mentally disabled and complying with police laying on the floor when he was shot. The police would not even tell his mother where he was being hospitalised before he died. He died alone.

Eric Garner was put in a choke hold because he allegedly was resisting arrest for once more allegedly illegally selling cigarettes. 

John Crawford III was playing with a toy handgun when he was gunned down. What more can I say about that?

They're those that say social outrage occurs when there's a shooting of an unarmed man, we should be focusing more on black on black violence, but wait, hold up, what do you think we've been trying to prevent for years? We set up community centers, after school programs and we try to raise our children in a way that in educating themselves they do not fall victim to the pressures and ills of society. This in itself is not a race issue, because all races kill one another. Genocide, 'weeding out the bad seeds', those happen within every race. Must I go to the paper I wrote on Genocide and the effect it has on society psychologically? Because I could. 

Why I say the revolution will not be televised is because we are now in the age of warfare. Where black kids are afraid to walk the streets. In Barbados, we're more afraid that our house will be raided because of some error made by Police, or some kind of erroneous excuse of a death by Police Officers. We're afraid of our circumstances because things are getting so unbelievably grim that youth are dropping at our feet. Romario Yarde, 20, killed on Sunday, Mark Walton (age unknown) but killed last Monday, by who? A 18 yr old and 20 yr old.

The Revolution will not be televised. 

The day where our young boys in Barbados, are hunted and gunned down like deer by Police, just like they're doing in the US, we will see war, we will see blood in the streets, we will see protests, we will see our prison cells full and I will sit and say, 'The revolution will not be televised. 

What sparked this blog just now was a video my friend shared on FaceBook. It hurt me to my core. A young girl was being mouthy, ok, police told her to leave, she started walking off, one white officer decided that he was going to grab her back and by instinct her brother stepped in to help dissolve the situation. He was then thrown to the ground, with one officer's knee on his neck, and the officer who grabbed his sister pinning him down handcuffing him, all the while he was was asking 'what did I do? That's my sister'. It made me think of my own four brothers and what they would do for me, and the fact that we all know I would sit in a jail cell for them. But to know that you stepped in to help diffuse the situation to save your sister and that's what happens, what if someone attacks your mother or father, cousin, aunt, grandparent? Are you to sit idly by? Excuse my language right now, but the revolution will not be fucking televised. 

I am not a Pan-Africanist, I am not a freedom fighter but I AM human, I bleed the same red blood as everyone else and therefore can formulate my own opinions. I AM a feminist, and I will until the day I die, work towards the rights of young women and girls all over this world, because in the end we only have each other to lean on and not 'The Man'.

Gil Scott-Heron (may he rest in peace) said 'The Revolution will not be televised' and he was right. The violence will never end because human nature does not allow rage and anger and power hunger to cease, but we can do something about it. I am absolutely tired of seeing my young people falling on the streets, race excluded. Tired of seeing kids dropping like flies in Syria and Gaza, young black men being reduced to nothing but meagre minions all over the World and I'm tired of seeing my young women lose all respect for themselves. Here is Gil's "The Revolution will not be Televised'.

"The Revolution Will Not Be Televised"

You will not be able to stay home, brother.
You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out.
You will not be able to lose yourself on skag and
skip out for beer during commercials,
Because the revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be televised.
The revolution will not be brought to you by Xerox
In 4 parts without commercial interruptions.
The revolution will not show you pictures of Nixon
blowing a bugle and leading a charge by John
Mitchell, General Abrams and Mendel Rivers to eat
hog maws confiscated from a Harlem sanctuary.

The revolution will not be televised.
The revolution will not be brought to you by the
Schaefer Award Theatre and will not star Natalie
Woods and Steve McQueen or Bullwinkle and Julia.
The revolution will not give your mouth sex appeal.
The revolution will not get rid of the nubs.
The revolution will not make you look five pounds
thinner, the revolution will not be televised, Brother.

There will be no pictures of you and Willie Mays
pushing that shopping cart down the block on the dead run,
or trying to slide that color television into a stolen ambulance.
NBC will not be able predict the winner at 8:32
on reports from 29 districts.
The revolution will not be televised.

There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down
brothers in the instant replay.
There will be no pictures of Whitney Young being
run out of Harlem on a rail with a brand new process.
There will be no slow motion or still life of Roy
Wilkens strolling through Watts in a Red, Black and
Green liberation jumpsuit that he had been saving
For just the right occasion.

Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies, and Hooterville
Junction will no longer be so god damned relevant, and
women will not care if Dick finally screwed
Jane on Search for Tomorrow because Black people
will be in the street looking for a brighter day.
The revolution will not be televised.

There will be no highlights on the eleven o'clock
news and no pictures of hairy armed women
liberationists and Jackie Onassis blowing her nose.
The theme song will not be written by Jim Webb or
Francis Scott Key, nor sung by Glen Campbell, Tom
Jones, Johnny Cash or Englebert Humperdink.
The revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be right back
after a message about a white tornado, white lightning, or white people.
You will not have to worry about a dove in your
bedroom, a tiger in your tank, or the giant in your toilet bowl.
The revolution will not go better with Coke.
The revolution will not fight the germs that may cause bad breath.
The revolution will put you in the driver's seat.

The revolution will not be televised, will not be televised,
will not be televised, will not be televised.
The revolution will be no re-run brothers;
The revolution will be live.

May the road RISE to meet you.

Vernee

Inked.

And with a pumping heart, I covered my boobs and laid down for my Sternum Tattoo. I listened to friends, I researched but nothing could've prepared me for the pain I was going to experience. 7 tattoos in and my 8th would prove to be the most painful (so far, you know I'm far from done! Hehe) 

Through the pain I thought about what this tattoo meant to me. A flower :- Me with 6 roots. The flower forever blooming, forever growing, forever learning, forever shining represents Vernée as she is now, the 6 roots represent the reasons why and how Vernée keeps blooming and keeps pushing forward. Each root is a significant person in my life:- Margaret, Vernon, Hazel, Valerie, Marion or Ordine as mummy would call her and Mirriam, daddy's mum who passed before I was born but I'm told is like a reincarnation. I am who I am because of these 6 people, my personality, my traits and characteristics. My loving nature, my craziness, lackadaisical, say what's on your mind, that one girl who will punch you out and ask questions later and that tenacious attitude. I am me because of them and I love all of them immensely. 

To my family, you are the reason I survive. Don't give up on me yet! Better things to come! 

With many words left unsaid, these are the words from my head. 

May the road rise to meet you.

Plain ol' Vernée.