America’s Dirty Slip is Showing

No justice. No peace. 

I was 11 years old the first time I heard people say this. A cop, whose name I don't remember killed a kid whose name I do remember.  Santos Rodriguez.  

We had no hashtags then. We had no social media then. We had no justice then as we still do not now. When George Floyd was murdered casually by a police force that seems to have been infiltrated by Nazis, white supremacists, and undercover racists, I thought the reckoning that was long overdue was finally happening.  But, once again, it was not. 

America's dirty slip is showing, and no one has time to address the systemic racism that  permeates the nation’s police forces.  I've been watching the political ads of Texas politicians, and it is amazing how divisive and chillingly racist they are.  They talk of  socialist  and Marxist and leftist trying to take THEIR police from THEM, and I want to scream.

White people always call the police THEIR police. Black people always call the police THE police.  THEY are not OUR police. And Marxist, leftist, socialist does not describe Black Lives Matter protesters or the Black Lives Matter movement.

But none of that matters.  Change is not coming fast enough.

I was 11 the first time I heard, “No Justice. No peace.”  I was 11 the first time I remember the chant, say his name. Santos Rodriguez was not the first.  George Floyd was not the last.  Rather than address the blatant systemic racism of our weaponized police force, America will turn her dirty slip inside out and keep paying the families of our murdered Black and Brown people so blonds can continue to feel safe with THEIR police. 

#SantosRodriguez---I remember your name.