Stuff Black People Don’t Like
August 3, 2015
Though the movie is undeniably flawed (starting with the casting of George Clooney), Disney’s Tomorrowland is a modern classic.
Directed by Pixar alumni Brad Bird, Tomorrowland – like 2014’s Interstellar – has a consistent theme running throughout the movie: that something is seriously wrong with modernity, though no one can quite put a finger on the problem which, if left unchecked, will only jeopardize the future for everyone.
The most striking scene of Tomorrowland is seeing a glimpse into the future as the launch pad at Cape Canaveral is slowly deconstructed piece by piece, and the hope for exploring the heavens becomes a dream of the past.
In essence, the future ain’t what it used to be…
What exactly could be hindering the future from becoming today? Oh… [300 Men March bikes across city to call for an end to violence, Baltimore Sun, August 2, 2015]:
A group known for cross-city marches on foot took to bicycles Saturday to protest a recent surge in violence, as the number of homicides in Baltimore has risen to a level not seen in decades.
The 300 Men March, which has held several 10-mile marches along the stretch of North Avenue and back, for the first time rode bikes to promote the message also printed on their black T-shirts: “We must stop killing each other.”
The west-to-east Baltimore bike ride took place after 45 people were killed in July, tying a monthly record set in August 1972, when the city had about 275,000 more residents. “All these incidents are hurting the morale of the city,” said Munir Bahar, organizer of the 300 Men March.
“Right now it’s so desperate, we have to have conversations just about hope. It seems as if a lot of people have given up hope.”
The group started their ride at Frederick Douglass High School, near Mondawmin Mall, where rioting first broke out in April after the death of Freddie Gray. The 25-year-old suffered a severe spinal cord injury while in police custody.
They cycled to East Baltimore, which has seen much of the violence this year. The group typically stops to talk to young men along the routes they march to encourage them to give up a life of violence, but Bahar said they planned to “keep it moving” for this event.
About 50 men, young and old, gathered in the Frederick Douglass parking lot to start the bike ride, pumping up flat tires and drinking Gatorade. Nathan Thomas, 17, said the recent spike in violence has left many young people scared to go about their daily activities.
“It’s a lot of fear to even go outside,” he said. “Bullets are getting flung around.”
The teen said he shared information about the bike ride with his friends on Twitter and Instagram and got several of them interested in participating.
“Baltimore can be known as a place not just for violence and killings,” he said.
“This bike ride is really going to help.” This year 190 people have been killed in Baltimore, with much of the violence coming after Gray’s death.
The city recorded 42 homicides in May and 29 in June. Six police officers have been charged in Gray’s arrest and death and are scheduled to face trial in October. All of them have pleaded not guilty.
Charlene Rock-Foster, 48, participated in the bike ride after attending a 300 Men March last month.
“Ever since the uprising in April, I’ve thought that in our city, we are in need of unity,” she said, straddling a Titan Trailblazer bike. “With the recent rash of killings, we have to do a better job of getting our views across.”
When Jim Crow kept Baltimore’s majority white population safe from the violence of the growing minority racial group ( the same plague currently feasting on the every day dysfunction of the [now] majority black population, requiring marches for peace on an almost monthly basis now), the United States of America was on the verge of sending men to the moon.
This was the 1960s, when the world of Jim Crow was overturned. And though it was defeated, the stunning denouement to this civilization was two white men walking on the moon on July 20, 1969.
All the post-Jim Crow world of Baltimore has given us is the first empty stadium game in Major League Baseball history, a perfect symbol for why this system of government was once enacted to keep the civilization whites created intact.
The world of tomorrow never came, precisely because our leaders decided to bet the future on the proposition “all men are actually created equal…”
But the inequality of men continues to be on embarrassing display in now 65% black Baltimore, a city where black people find it necessary to not only march against violence, but now ride their bikes in hopes of convincing black people to put down their guns and hug it out.
If we stay on present course, the world of tomorrow for all of America looks an awful lot like 2015 Baltimore, where elected officials dance at circuses and ‘responsible’ adults march (or bike) against violence.
It’s becoming increasingly clear this isn’t going to be the future, though.