Robert Nesta Marley (Bob Marley) of blessed memory was not just a great musician and prophet, he was a clever social analyst as well. In the lyrics of his 1973 hit song, “I shot the sheriff,” he captured the secret reason(s) for official police brutality against Blacks in White-dominated society in the following words:
“…Sheriff John Brown always hated me / For what I don’t know / Every time I plant a seed, he said kill it before it grows / He said kill it before it grows…”
By “seed”, Bob Marley was not simply referring to the psychotropic plant called Weed or Indian Hemp – as many of his fans assume. He was metaphorically referring to human seed or offspring as well. He was flagging, for the records (so to speak), unofficial policy of Black depopulation and ruthless suppression in the Jamaican society of the era in which he grew up.
In this article, the logic of that musically coded statement is broken down into its key components for the benefit of those still struggling to know why Jacob Blake was shot seven times in the back by a police officer in Kenosha Wisconsin; why George Floyd was killed instead of simply being arrested for a suspected minor offence of using a fake $20 bill; why hundreds and thousands of other Black people, mostly males, are “senselessly” gunned down or imprisoned daily; and why those who are lucky to be alive are endlessly harassed into living like rodents in “God’s own country.”
Here are the real reasons which no one would tell you:
1. Conservative White Americans secretly see Blacks as potential threats to their dominance, and unwanted elements dumped upon their society by history. If it was possible, all Blacks would have been shipped back to Africa at the end of slavery. But alas!
Blacks are everywhere and growing in population at a higher rate than other groups. Today, blacks constitute about 13.4% of total US population – more than Native Americans, Alaskans, Hawaiians and Asians combined. Besides, this percentage is rising steadily. White supremacists fear for the future of their kids and want to do something about it now.
Black males are also statistically more likely to attract White females (even during slavery) than White males are likely to attract Black females. This socio-sexual reality has always secretly driven White folks crazy.
Many years ago, it inspired a slew of laws forbidding any liaisons between Black men and White women and making it punishable by death. Meanwhile, White men were free to routinely rape and defile Black women. In fact, it was considered a sport.
2. To “protect” White folks and their “interests” from unwanted Black male elements therefore, the latter are denied strategic economic opportunities and made to work demeaning, backbreaking jobs with zero or miserable rewards. In the past, these jobs were in the fields, far away from White families. Today, these jobs are those which no self-respecting Whites would do.
Frustrated and dehumanized by systemic exclusion, some Black folks turn to crime, drugs and other anti-social behaviours. Others simply lose their minds and become vegetative. This is then used against them. Black males are profiled as miscreants and criminally minded and hunted down like game.
3. The police are empowered, funded, trained, organized and used primarily to keep an eye on this population. Black adult males are systematically killed, jailed or rendered biologically, economically, socially & politically impotent using the police.
If they cannot be killed, then they must be locked away from their wives to prevent them from having more babies and eventually outnumbering the Whites. At the very least, their women are left defenceless and alone to cater for children who grow up with no strong father figures. Most of these children become confused, angry and deviant.
And the beat goes on… It’s a self-perpetuating cycle of doom designed to keep an entire race down. A similar method was used in Apartheid South Africa with strikingly similar results until the Black majority rule in 1994.
4. Whites, other races and Black females are profiled differently as zero or low-risk demographics. Black females have for long been allowed to work as cleaners, nannies, caregivers, shop attendants and in other “safe” roles closer to Whites because they are believed to be powerless and less risky.
Over the years, this has created a situation where more Black women are economically able to fend for their families than their men – fueling domestic feuds and a (false) sense of male worthlessness within the African American community. Today, up to 70% of African- Americans are raised by single Black mums who were surreptitiously denied the comfort of their male companions by systemic racism.
Until the underlying mindsets and structures (and the evil interests they seek to protect) are exposed and expunged, and Black men are given a fair chance to thrive, Black (male) lives may not matter. The system is massively rigged and will continue to protect police officers, including those who use excessive lethal force, as long as the victims are Black. It’s not a coincidence that 28% of all those killed by police in the US since 2013 are Black even though Blacks make up 13% of the population. That means Blacks are more than twice more likely to die from police violence that other racial groups.
When the KKK was forced to go underground during the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, the police became the official, state-funded defender of conservative rights in a society that preaches inclusion but, deep down, practices some of the worst forms of exclusion.
Victor Anazonwu, a journalist and historian, is author of the book, The 8 Habits of Highly Ineffective People (Amazon.com 2019).
