What Didn't Happen After Katrina...

[a conversation with myself upon reading of the suburban Paris "riots" lead by North African and Muslim youth]

Riots. Uprising. Protests. Mass Rallies. Boycotts. Healing Circles.

Now for the Gulf states folks, this did happen. After all New Orleanians were in the thick of the Super Dome chaos. I imagine and have read some stories that confirm that families and strangers and community members came together, making decisions around food, shelter, and safety. I saw an image of a dog standing on the side of the road next to his deceased human companion: Rememberance.

But what I didn't see and what I wish I had not only seen but been a part of was a massive uprising vs. this country lead by Blacks. Come on now, we all know what they did to the levees. The years of neglect to an already neglected city that paradoxically has one of the largest amounts of oil desposits off a U.S. coast. But it's not so paradoxical right? The rich and powerful will only look to what's in their best interest - but let me not digress. Now, knowing all this and so much more, why were there just a few Black social justice organizations making small waves of agitation? Why didn't all Black folks take to the streets after we saw Katrina, Bush, Brown/FEMA, and the media abandon, criminalize, and uproot our fellow Brothas, Sistas, family?

Is it because a large majority of Blacks don't see the links between the situation down south to our respective cities/states? If this is the case, why then did everyone hoot and holler at Kanye for telling it like it is?

I'm scared yall. I'm really freaking out that the kind of revolution that needs to take place in the streets is becoming harder and harder to make into reality.

This post, however, is not a funeral procession commemorating the Death of Black Political Uprising. A mid-life crisis maybe, but definitely not the mourning of something that was. I'm too damned hopeful for it to be ovah. I still have a lot of questions though.

Light,