ALICIA BANKS

Radio Producer, Talk Show Host, DJ, Columnist

ELOQUENT FURY



REVOLUTIONARYAFRICAN TRUTH

EXPRESSLY FOR RADICAL INTELLECTUALS WHO SEEK KNOWLEDGE
   (*******WARNING: HAZARDOUS TO NEOCON DELUSION*******)

LEGACY OF A LYNCHING
ON MOURNING JAMES BYRD

Until now, I have reserved all comments regarding the lynching of James Byrd. My silence has been motivated primarily by numbing horror. Also, I have been painfully touched personally by this vicious murder. The eternal Byrd is a distant cousin of my best friend. The heinous nature of this savage racist act haunts a nation, at a distance. It torments me at a far closer proximity.

It has been reported that one of the three killers was no stranger to Byrd. They offered him a lift when they drove by him, walking, in the wee hours of the morning, on June 7, 1999, in Jasper, Texas. They took him to a dirt logging trail and beat him. They also chained him to the back of their truck. Then, they drug him for several miles.

Coroners say Byrd appeared to have lived for at least two miles. He tried to endure the excruciating pain by propping his body up on his elbows. He may even have been alive when his head swung against a concrete drain pipe, causing it to be ripped from his neck.

In every tragedy, there are lessons. Byrd accepted a ride from someone he assumed to be a friend. We must all choose friends cautiously and wisely. Byrd made every effort to lessen the pain of his torture. We must all fight with such defiance and courage until our very last breaths. Byrd was a kind and great person. We must all accept that life and death are both, often, brutally unfair.

I never thought that I would witness such rabid acts of racism in my own lifetime. Yet, I am witnessing hate crimes increasingly. Hatred is clearly in vogue as we enter the millennium. There is a tangible, collective evil that is fueled by toxic legions of racists, misogynists, gaybashers, killer cops, genocidal government scientists, elitists, fascists and various other mad fools. Clearly, like technology, hatred has entered the age of Aquarius.

Clarence Thomas’s brazen reference to a “high tech lynching”, made in a rare moment of African association inspired by public exposure of his lechery, was a disgrace to all who have actually been lynched for centuries. Byrd and millions of his ancestors are evidence of such neocon slander, as they exemplify the tragedy of real horror rather than shameless exaggeration. America has now admitted that a black man has indeed been lynched. And like the revolution will not be, it was not televised.

It is curious that the media have reported that these three Caucasian animals who abducted and tortured Byrd to death were “looking for women” at the time they morphed into a demonic lynch mob. Could their sexual frustration have played a role in this gruesome murder? Did these monsters come upon Byrd and presume that he was strolling away from/to a superior evening? Perhaps even one in the company of one of the white women who seemed to be hiding from them? Did their twisted racial sex fantasies and sexual envy cause them to see O. J. Simpson and his ilk in the innocent, black, male face of Byrd?

Nothing anyone could ever have done could warrant such a grisly exit from this world. No rejection or dementia or displacement can excuse this insanely sinful act. The monsters who tortured and killed Byrd are spiritually doomed. No court of law can begin to make them pay for such a huge karmic debt.

There is a level of violence that is randomly ruthless. What might have happened had these monsters found a woman that night? Would they have maimed her body as fatally as they maimed the corpse of Byrd? What if they had found a black woman walking alone that night? Would they have ravaged her so as to inspire a new tattoo? Perhaps one to match the prophetic tattoo of a black man being lynched, which one of the killers dons with Nazi-like pride?

I pray routinely for a world devoid of hatred. I dream of a world where we are all judged by who we are inside.  I long for a world where all who are loving are loved. Yet, I deal daily with the sorrow and rage evoked by the knowledge that it will be ages before such worlds exist. And, the despair this wisdom breeds festers into hatred within me.

I hate the rabid, white dogs who murdered Byrd. I hate that they reportedly feel no remorse. I hate that Byrd’s family and this nation are eternally wounded by this evil slaughter. I hate that so many people are unloved/self hating. I hate that unloved people hate those who are loved. But, what I hate most of all is that such haters will kill again.

May my own hatred guide, defend and protect me from the kind of demonic dogs who devoured Byrd.

I send all of my love and blessings to the eternal soul of James Byrd. May his wounded spirit rest in a superior place. A place where there is no racism and no lynchings...


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