A Facebook friend of mine posted a status about how mainstream America was mourning the loss of Robin Williams, but disproportionately ignoring the plight of the recently killed Michael Brown. He went on to vilify Black Americans for appreciating Mr. Williams' career because he was successful with it, highlighting their hypocrisy feeling sorry for "a millionaire that lived his life and commits Suicide and [chose] to give up his life [rather than] a black man that was gunned down."
My response to him in the comments thread was as follows:
My response to him in the comments thread was as follows:
What the liberal media chooses to report is one thing, but I don't feel any guilt for expressing remorse for an artist who gave so much of himself to entertain and lift people's spirits + who openly addressed his drug issues and subsequent depression. Depression doesn't have a class or race. And I'm certain that any compassionate person who is outraged by the Mike Brown incident hasn't forgotten about it, present company included.
His follow-up to that was this:
Matthew 6:7 "But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking" I can care less for that damn heathen. He was part of the society that took our birth right, funded the operation of taking away our language, putting us on slave ships, brain washed us with the WILLIE LYNCH LETTER, and helps to support keeping the real Jews of the bible in the low state that they are in now. And until his death he was a active Jewish person that still supported their wicked agenda. So anybody that supports his death just cause he makes people laugh but meanwhile doesn't feel pissed off cause he helped put our people in the conditions [they're] in and helps support the black genocide that you see everyday on the news is a fool. And I have no love for him. The reason you don't feel guilt is cause you don't even know who you are or care to know.
I responded:
[Who is] to decide who is wicked and who is just? Where do any of us get off deciding whose truth is more valid? And how dare you...make the completely subjective assessment that I don't know who I am? Outside of maybe a few hours, collectively, of direct conversation, and social media discussion, you know nothing about me. And your personal interpretation of the Scriptures means nothing to me; you're certainly welcome to make conclusions about God as it pertains to you, but to condemn anyone else according to the laws of your own personal vendetta is the same kind of intellectual suicide that's plaguing the Middle East conflict. God can decide for Himself my place in the Universal design. He certainly doesn't need your help, or mine.
I concluded by posting the news on the Instagram post left by The Roots' Drummer, Questlove, on his encounter with the actor (Williams was not only able to recognize the musician, but talk about his band's projects by name, via his son's listening palette).
I normally don't put folks on blast like this, but this exchange really irked me because, once again, fundamentalist believers in an Abrahamic religion are using their self-righteous bigotry to assert their beliefs onto other people (in this case, namely, me). I want to be clear that I'm not some sort of anarchist who thinks that people have enough inherent good to exemplify self-control and peacefully coexist with out help; clearly, that hasn't worked in like, ever. But I consistently take issue with individuals who believe that their preconceived notions about God are the only answer to the world's problems; meanwhile, it is an arguable point, but more wars have been fought in the name of God - particularly, an Abrahamic God - than any other man-made purpose.
We are hating, hurting, and killing each other over a concept which we are not at all fully equipped to understand, and I refuse to be victim of that hatred, or a perpetuator of it. I refuse to be told that how I'm living my life is wrong, or missing something, or needs to be set straight. And I absolutely refuse to be told that I've somehow confounded my "true" identity because I don't conform to standards that never applied to me. I hope someone who reads this understands my perspective, and maybe it can change some minds as well.
