October 2nd marks the anniversary of the birth of Mahatma Gandhi. The political and spiritual leader of India during the Indian independence movement, Gandhi preached a message of non-violence and civil disobedience, his ideals influenced Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. which forever changed American society, and as I witnessed what happened to Derrion Albert and watching his mother Anjanette Albert say ‘ I have to put my baby to rest’, I must say, his message was not received. It is important that we all reflect on his message of non-violence and civil disobedience, we must renew our commitment to live his ideals and to celebrate the dignity of all.
Saying that, I don’t want to come off as preachy, but as fellow Golbal Grind blogger Reagan Gomez asked, Young Black Men = Endangered Species?, The answer is no, the fact of the matter is we are endangering ourselves, we are fighting ourselves and making it real easy for those who don’t want to see us succeed, we can’t make it easy, we must stop. As rapper Nas said ‘young warriors we are fighting the wrong wars’. Countless others have said the same thing in one way or another and the same thing has been going, let’s try to stop it now.
On October 3rd Anjanete Albert will put her son in the ground, a young brother who had great promise and the ability to do whatever he wanted, I pledge to you don’t forget the name Derrion Albert, to many of our young brothers names are forgotten, probably because so much of us have fallen and it’s hard to keep track, so please let’s not forget this young man’s name.
-Illmatic
GlobalGrind.com, Staff
