Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

letter to the editor:

Face facts about race in America

Being a black man, I’ve heard a lot of talk about the George Zimmerman case, but even before the verdict was announced, I felt the final analysis would be not guilty. Why? I will have to give you the simple facts.

When I was 12, my social studies teacher teared up when he read a simple fact: I had a 25 percent chance of being incarcerated or dead every year until I was 18. That meant I had a 150 percent chance against me. I was determined to beat the odds. By 18, I had gone through a lot. I had a 9 percent chance of getting a job, so I went through more than 120 interviews to overcome it.

By 18, I had two cars and excellent grades. Out of 1,000 friends, schoolmates, etc., only a few of us beat the odds. Hate, bias, stereotypes, etc., decimated us.

Mainly, spirituality saw us through it. In the Bible, it says Lucifer was the most beautiful being in all God’s creation. Lucifer hated God for not making him the same as God, and thus evil was born. Racism, hate and evil are all the same to me. As black men, we don’t ask for understanding, sympathy or even respect. We do ask that you accept the facts. We do.

For more than 400 years, it hasn’t changed, but as the Bible says: faith, hope and love. Above all, love.

It will eventually overcome.

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