There's an ENERGY in the air. I wonder if you can feel it. It's an ENERGY that's been in the air for quite some time. It's an ENERGY of being fed up.
Many people are sick and tired of being terrorized by the actions of neighborhood thugs and those who inflict violence on others. The saddest and hardest thing for the Black community to admit is that we're tired of each other in many ways. We're tired of being "pulled down" by the ENERGY of those who don't seem to care if they progress or not. And many are not only tired but embarrassed by the actions of some at a time in Society where everything's made visible due to the INTERNET.
Because of this when it comes to a Black person in legal "hot water" we tend to do one of three things: We shun a person, we defend a person or become passive to their actions thereby inadvertently accepting their actions. Usually we choose to play-out the last two scenarios.
The recent incident involving rayon McIntosh demonstrates this.
Along with others, many Black people have made a point of defending Rayon McIntosh. In usual fashion we have taken it a step further and made it a race issue.
First, let's start by learning a little background to Rayon McIntosh including details the mainstream media might have left out.
Rayon McIntosh attended the same High School I went to, Evander Childs High School in the Bronx, a year or so after I left the school. Evander Childs has always been considered a "zone school". Most of its students live in the surrounding area. Unlike other High Schools there aren't many incoming students that specifically applied to go to the school. It's a school attended if a student did not apply to other High Schools of their choice or got rejected by them. It's not a really bad school, nor is it a really good school. The ENERGY of the school basically reflects most "zone schools" that aren't considered top choice. It's a school where most of the students don't have a focus but simply go because it's the closest in their neighborhood.
Now, I want to bring up the first incident involving Rayon McIntosh, an incident that resulted in jail time. I want to bring up this incident because it does hold weight and it does have an ENERGY worth assessing.
Rayon McIntosh accidentally shot one of his friends and a 8-year old boy in a parking garage at the "Galleria" mall in White Plains, New York after having a confrontation with a rival group of teenagers. He claimed he "Busted a shot" to scare the rival group away. Instead as pointed, out two people were injured. His friend was killed by the gunshot and the 8 year old boy was shot in the leg.
This first incident shows that McIntosh is quick to react and not afraid to use force that is potentially deadly.
Here's my complexity, I don't want to see him go back to hell which is jail, just like others. However he's not a martyr for this community and this race.Over the many, many years of doing this with Rodney King, Jena 6, Heather Ellis, and others we have not learned we should not make every Black person symbolize a Civil Rights case.
I don't really need to go on, it's just another incident where I chose being an independent thinker that looks at the facts as opposed to a "Tribal Thinker", like many others. I do not want him to do alot if time. I think anger management would be a better solution. However, due to his background and his tendency to react with deadly force, I will not stand behind him as if he's being persecuted unjustly.
