Who do 'black lives' matter to?

Good morning London & beyond.

I'm feeling somewhat better even if I could use more sleep but evidently... I'm up.

Age and maturity are funny things aren't they.
as in.. maturity is not age related.. certainty not always.

Aside from that, I wanted to say something about violence young people and race.
On Saturday my nephew was stabbed. He's okay physically, but mentally/psychologically he is not.

As upset as I am about it, I can't say that I'm entirely surprised. He's a lovely lad, but I don't know what's going on these days. ( rather, past few years)

As you can imagine his mum is very upset, and as a single mum ( his father is my brother) she has been the one to pick up the pieces ( as single mums do) ( although my brother disagrees).

Why am I telling you this?

Because there is a serious lack of respect for the lives of black folk, even among black folk. Young black folk, and even old.
From the UK to US Africa and beyond.

Now clearly, violence is not an issue for Africans alone. History proves this, our media informs us daily, and we see it every day. Great nations have been built on violence, and continue to be sustained through violent means

But here's the other thing.
If that gunman we've heard so much about lately were Muslim the narrative would be very different. Pretty much all muslims would be viewed with an air of suspicion., possibly even disliked
If we operated on a like for like basis all US police would be deemed racist and guilty until proven not guilty and so on.....

Yet, this is not the case is it
Violence tends to be racialized, sanitized at times..depending on... your 'race'
Lone gunman... blah blah... yet with views shared by countless others no doubt

When it comes to violence, Africans at home or abroad always seem to get the raw end of the deal

Africans in America are certainly getting their arses whipped that's for sure... again

And then in some cases, in other pars of the world, we be busy whipping our own arses.. so accustomed have some of us become to the belief that 'black lives don't matter'

Weird.
It's a sickness I tell you