The Gantt Report
By Lucius Gantt
Let the protests begin!
Every day something bad happens somewhere in a Black community in the United States.
An unarmed Black man may get shot while jogging, a beautiful Black woman might get gunned down in her own home for no justifiable reason or a young, Black boy might get murdered for going to the corner store to get a can of tea and a bag of Skittles.
Whenever something happens, the community gets angry, they get upset and the people want justice.
The people that live in the affected Black neighborhoods know what response they want and need in instances of police misconduct and wrongful deaths. Black neighbor-hood residents know who they know and know who they trust to voice their concerns.
The people in Black communities that are hurting and mourning are not impressed by protest clowns that come to town to deliver phillipic rants and raves that were choreographed and orchestrated by red necks, hillbillys, conservatives and closet klansmen!
As a young man, I was proud to call Atlanta home. I once lived in the East Lake community and Hosea Williams and Maynard Jackson once lived there. I went to high school with Yolanda King and her Daddy and Grandpa used to live two doors down from my grandmother on Auburn Avenue.
As a youth, I went to marches, I participated in protests and I even had a newspaper column in The Georgia State College newspaper, “The Signal”.
Then I was involved, so to speak. Now, I’m not!
I stopped going to rallies and protests because I know how most of today’s protests will turn out.
First, the local people will pretty much be kicked to the curb and the modern day carpetbaggers will assume the leadership of the protest event.
When the local and national news cameras begin to roll, there will be some preachers at the protests that don’t minister in the impacted community, there will be politicians that don’t re-present that particular community and there will be organizations and groups at the protests that will pretend to be your friends, pretend to be your protectors, pretend to your providers and pre-tend to be your benefactor and supporter.
The protest pimps that you love will never tell you they may have been bought, sold and paid a salary to guide you down a path to freedom and justice that will get you absolutely nowhere! Such as telling you, “Vote for he, she or we and we’ll set you free!”
Do a background check on your protest participants, the persons you like to invite into the pulpit, walk to the podium and give them a microphone to tell the people how to behave just might be working for People for the American Way, Planned Parenthood, white controlled labor unions, so-called voter groups and so forth,
The people that stand up, speak out and fight for your community on a daily basis are shunned, ignored and disavowed when videos are being shot.
At the end of the protest day, “protesters” pray, they preach, they pass around baskets to collect as much money as they can and they lock arms with nationalists and segregationists and sing “We Shall Overcome”!
No disrespect to the protest pimps is intended. To be honest, we all have a role in any fight for equal rights and justice.
I urge the people that travel from state to state and to protest after protest to continue to voice their opinions, and I recognize the attorneys seeking big settlements for the victims of police misconduct that will get big paydays to the lawyers themselves. Do what you do. The people know how the game goes.
The people need full protest disclosure. Are the protest leaders being paid by ornery groups or individuals? Are the protest leaders telling the people to complain only in a way that is acceptable to exploiters and oppressors? Are the protests pimps merely modern day carpetbaggers or will they stay with you and fight with you for the duration of the equal rights and justice battles?
Their histories are the best teachers!
Support the families that have been hurt by police and government misconduct.
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