Nigga Moment Vs Social Responsibility
Nigga Moment Vs Social Responsibility
Nigga Moment Vs Social Responsibility
I’ve always maintained that the “Nigga” must die so that the BLACK MAN can live and prosper and I’ve examined that statement to the point of argument to whether it’s a form of self-hate toward my own race or just an element of thinking and being that needs to disappear from our community.
Anyway yesterday on my way to work, I witnessed live what I thought at first was just a driver’s lapse in judgment accident. These two drivers turning right in a keep moving merge lane, when one just runs into the other HARD, really hard after the lead driver slowed down to merge with traffic. So as I drive by the accident, I see this truck back up off the vehicle and dipped, almost running into me in the process. As they sped past me I decided nah, let me do the right thing here, because if that was me in that situation I’d hope someone did the same. I looked at the tag, memorized the number called 911. Gave the details of the accident to the dispatcher, said no I don’t want to give you my details, I don’t really want to be involved, hung up the phone went about my merry way.
After the phone call to 911, in my mind at first I’m thinking, I did the right thing, I was being socially responsible, looking out for my fellow man yadda yadda yadda and once again, I’d hope if it was me that someone rear ended, someone would call the police if they saw it happen. But just when I got to the point of feeling good about what I had done here comes that nigga moment, I started to think…..
you’re a snitch, a stinking rasoul informa
You actually just called the police?? Really? The same assholes who hemmed you up and called you a criminal for maneuvering around a lane swerving vehicle? The same people who systematically target people of your own race? The same people who would not hesitate to treat you worst than an African American because you’d be considered by them to be foreign. All these thoughts of betrayal towards, honestly I don’t know what, started to creep into my mind. All this was coming off the back of just a couple days prior, I was making jokes about how white people love telling doing their telling voice and everything.
I remember years ago, after a guy I knew had an accident on the motorway, these white people pulled up and parked, walked back on the shoulder just to tell us “he was driving like a maniac“, they even showed up in court. At the time that was absolutely crazy to me, why go through so much effort, the guy didn’t kill anyone, he just hurt his own car and maybe slightly damaged a guard rail, just mind your business white people.
Now in a day and age of terrorism, work place shoot outs and just plain madness in society, we’re asked to see & report! For most of my life I’ve been taught….
see and don’t see, hear and don’t hear
This no snitching thing is not just an urban or black American thing, it is rampant in the Caribbean as well and thanks to the virus of reggae dancehall music and culture, the verbiage of being “stinking ass informa”. (Which I am sure was just copied from a US movie and someone saying informant) Anyway doubled with a deep mistrust of the police, the two have always seemed to go hand in hand. I’ve witness shootings, stabbings, physical abuse towards women, car break-ins etc, in all these cases I just decided to mind my own business, it wasn’t my problem or I really didn’t want to deal with any possible repercussions. Over the years I have always questioned the idiocy of this type of mentality, but that was it, just questioned mildly but never really decided to put change into effect.
The older I’ve become, the more this gradually changed, the more I actually thought about how things happen around me, I added to the questions “what if it happened to you”. To internalize and personalize it made sense. To then put it out on a broader plain such as community even society, did eventually make sense. But even armed with this growing sense of social responsibility, couple years ago while driving with someone, I saw a guy beating the hell out of this female just walking along the street, again the question, do the right thing here guy, just do the right thing….. Now I wasn’t about to do something dumb like getting out of my car and confronting the situation, but I figured calling the police would be better, but as the couple got further and further in my rare view mirror, their situation got further and further out of my mind. The next day I thought about how I would have felt if I had seen on the news, that the guy had killed that female…..
Now back to more recent events, after witnessing, then calling 911 to report the hit and run, then having feelings of an accomplishment of sorts, why then am I plagued with thoughts of what can only be described as a damn “nigga moment”!! This asshole rammed into the vehicle so hard, I know that driver had to be hurt and I had to get to work so I could not stop to check on them, but I could do my part and as a world citizen I should do my part, I should partake in social responsibility, we all should, we should all strive to help each other even if it’s a small contribution at a time. I hope this one action sets me up for some good karma, if some ass-clown runs into me and takes off; hopefully someone sees and reports it.
