Gaza vs. Oakland: Black America Still at War

This blog is not about whether the Israeli incursion is morally right or wrong. It’s not about the plight of the Palestinians or whether Hamas is the real cause of the issues in this conflict. This blog is about the overwhelming amount of significance we place on events overseas versus the little attention we pay to the ongoing war in this country: the war on Black America. I am not going to even compare what’s happening in America to the Middle East conflict. That would be foolish. My goal is to simply shed light on the black elephant in the room. Or should I say, in the morgue.

In the past week and half, 3 black males were shot by the police. 2 of the men were in their own driveway. Robbie Tolan, the son of St. Louis Cardinals MLB champion Bobby Tolan was, shot by a police officer who allegedly entered Tolan’s driveway in plain clothes and did not announce he was a police officer, according to Tolan’s cousin who was with him. The officer apparently Tolan stole his own car. Tolan was allegedly shot as he was trying to get up and protect his mother, who got into an altercation with the officer. Tolan was shot in the chest with the bullet piercing his lung and ending up in his liver, ending his baseball career. Oh yeah, Tolan was unarmed.

In New Orleans, Adolph Grimes III was shot in his driveway. There is still debate on whether the young father shot his registered gun first, but he was shot at 48 times and hit 14 times, 12 in the back. I am not an advocate for guns, but given what has been happening in New Orleans as of late, I may have been forced to get a gun as well. If he was shot once in the front, the case would not have garnered as much skepticism as it does in my soul than the fact that entire rounds were fired into him and he was shot 12 times…in the back…in his driveway.

Finally in Oakland, Oscar Grant was shot in the back while he was handcuffed and faced down on the ground by a police officer as another officer had his knee in Grant’s back. Sounds too horrific? Watch below and see for yourself as another child loses his father over nothing. Watch how others are forced to see that their lives could easily be taken at the whim of the police who may just get off and be placed on paid administrative leave. How can I not feel like we are at war?



All three of these men are me. They are me despite whether they had a criminal background or came from the richest black family from the most affluent neighborhood. By being black and young, I am an easy target. It does not matter whether I have all these degrees or travel the world. It is completely irrelevant and this has to stop. Those who feel no compassion about this simply do not see us as equals. Some will say: “Well, the guy in Oakland shouldn’t have been fighting.” I went to majority white schools most of my life. I’ve seen enough fights among them as well as arrests. None of them were killed for it. None of them have to deal with being shot first and questions being asked later by those charged to protect us.

The disconnect is similar when war comes into place overseas. Leaders think twice about sending their nation’s young to war when their children have to go too or when there is a draft. Until white kids begai getting murdered senselessly by the police over nothing, nothing will change. I hope, however, that this never happens because misery really does not love company. As we continue to protest the current conflict in the Middle East, we are hypocrites to ignore what is happening in our backyard. I lament the loss of innocent life in any part of the world. My hope is that those who protest the Middle East conflict will remember that our own American brothers and sisters are being killed over nothing. Is my life not as protest-worthy as anyone in Israel or Palestine? To protest Palestine but not protest Grant, Grimes III, or Tolan shows where some still place the life of young black males on their list of priorities, which is especially sad if we own the same passports.