I have to tell y’all something.

Last night I had an amazing conversation with my Black brother. He was living with me when Obama was elected the first time and since then we talk politics more openly than I do with most people IRL.

We talk all the time, but last night we had a long conversation...

He is so frustrated and I get it. Watching the righteous movement sparked by the murder of George Floyd get hijacked by people who don’t give a shit about the Black community.
All of this destruction... and for what?

Will a single thing change?

We all want the same answers.

Most Black people don’t want to Defund the Police, they do however want the Cops held accountable for their actions.

That isn’t radical. It’s common sense.

And all of these “symbols” being removed won’t improve the shitty city schools, nor do one thing to improve the life of Black citizens.

That’s reality.

It’s not the Black folks that are building “Autonomous Zones”

Black men are getting shot inside them.

And yet.....

We talked about @SenatorTimScott’s bill and how it is getting tanked simply because he has an R after his name.

Which is insanity.

We talked about why Black people are taken for granted by the Democrats.... and often ignored by Republicans.

We talked about #Juneteenth and how being from Texas made him think everyone just “knew” about it. I told him honestly that most white people had never heard of it.

Then he pointed me to an episode of #Blackish that covered it. It’s a few years old, but truly Genius.

We talked about all the dirty White kids ruining the tax base of the city.

We talked about black mold in the schools. So of course we talked about Mayor Stoney and Gov Coonman.

We talked about the confederate flag controversy. How that flag will always mean different things to different people.

Always.

We talked about how hard it is for young Black people and young people in general right now.

The Media makes everything so confusing for the uninitiated.

We talked about @BubbaWallace and the epic failure by #NASCAR to nip the situation in the bud.

We talked about @KingJames.

(Some conversations are meant to be kept in the family)

We talked about my niece going off to college in another year. The way current events are influencing her decision.

Everyone in her family has gone to an HBCU, she will continue that legacy.

Which lead us to talking about Donald Trump. HBCU & his Stupid Mouth.

What Trump did by extending the HBCU grants forever was incredible.

Yet no one wants to give him credit. So what does Trump say?

“I saved Black Colleges!”

Great policy but It came from Trump.

So The Media won’t talk about it.

I lamented the reception to the #FirstStepAct It’s a good first step and it’s ignored because Trump did it.

Which lead us to talk about Obama.

My brother cried when Obama won the Presidency. It meant so much to him on so many levels.

I told him, his joy at the historic election helped me keep my Obama Derangement Syndrome under control for the first 4 years.

We laughed.

We talked about our individual frustrations with Obama. How he squandered his time in Washington.

He had an opportunity to pass the same legislation that Trump has and didn’t.

Why isn’t #Juneteenth a holiday already? Why does it take Trump to get it done?

We talked about how most people aren’t “Racist” in their hearts, they’re afraid of what is unfamiliar.

How we both had different kinds of prejudice introduced to us as kids.

We talked about possible solutions, and questioned if any of our elected representatives have the balls to do what is needed for real change.

Everyone is beholden to someone.

We talked about corruption.

Which lead to a brief tangent about #TheWire.

We talked about talking to other people to get their perspective on things.

And as our conversation came today close...he asked if I thought we’d ever have solutions.

Here’s what I said:

The solutions don’t lie in government. It’s people like us willing to talk to each other about things in an honest way that will *eventually* bring real results.

Everything takes time, but the single most important thing is that we all keep talking.

PS.

He says he only jumps on Twitter to “see whose cage” I have riled. Thinks its fun to watch me snark at people, “who don’t know that you don’t give a fuck”.

I love him so much. Maybe he’ll see this.