Overlaps

by Sarita Miller

The unfortunate death of Brother Floyd is a reoccurring plague of violence that has been unleashed on the African American people for well over 400 years. Our history is overlapped with accounts of rape, murder and shanghai. The Black culture has been under attack from a menacing enemy blood thirsty for annihilation. We as a people have struggled through diabolical plots and schemes of those who hate us, our roots weeded out and destroyed. We have persevered through drug addictions, poverty and alienation. The grey clouds of systematic racism, police brutality and judicial corruption have been exposed to the world spiritually. They can no longer minimizing the illegal and oppressive incarceration and murder of our people under the reign of a secretly ran Hitlerism régime. Just as people of color are unjustifiably harassed and murdered by police so are we imprisoned. The relativity between the two subjects are undeniable!

I know first hand what it was like to experience racism in the judicial system. In 2003 I was booked and charged with murder and related offenses. My first time in prison and I was beyond naive to the system. I’ll never forget one instance among many relating to my case, when my defense attorney came to the county on a legal visit. As I sat in the privacy of a closed door with this attorney, I remember I started to go over the events that took place. Out of the blue my attorney who was white jumped out of his chair and leaned over top of me screaming in my face like a mad man! THIS WAS A WHITE WOMAN THAT WAS KILLED! I remember looking at him and saying would it have been better if she were black! I’ll never forget that! I knew I was doomed. but being ignorant to the law I thought I had to except him as my attorney. Even in that personnel event in my life I was being shown that black lives did not matter to them.