by Lucius Gantt
I’m a Georgia boy, so to speak. I spent a lot of time in Florida but I grew up in the ghettos, projects and in the tough streets in Atlanta, the City too busy to hate!
However, the “Peach State” has always had residents that had no problem showing hatred toward any person of color.
Lester Maddox, an elected official in Atlanta, once got worldwide publicity for threatening Black people with axe handles.
A Democrat, Maddox came to prominence as a staunch segregationist when he refused to serve black customers in his Atlanta restaurant, in violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. He later served as Lieutenant Governor during the period when Jimmy Carter was Governor.
Back in those days, Black people, and white people, pretty much stayed in their lane. For instance, we didn’t hang out in Stone Mountain, where the Klan held cross burning ceremonies and non-Blacks wouldn’t dare be caught in neighborhoods like “Buttermilk Bottom” or “Bucket of Blood”!
Today, there is a resurgence of devilish hate mongers. Hoods and sheets have been replaced by “closet klansmen” that wear three-piece suits, MAGA hats and carry military weapons of destruction.
It is not unusual to hear about one or more people with devilish intentions that arm themselves and go out and search for a person of color to shoot and kill in broad daylight or in the dark of the night time.
When a cold blooded murder is committed, excuses include “I was in fear”, “I stood my ground” or “I was trying to make a citizen’s arrest”!
No, today’s closet klansmen are no different from the racists of the past.
Can I prove it? Yes! Today’s race haters operate just like their parents, grandparents and other ancestors.
One unarmed racist will never confront an unarmed man, or woman, of color. They get suited, booted, locked, loaded and they call family, friends and neighbors and say, “There’s a Black guy jogging in the neighborhood. Let’s pretend he was breaking the law so we can go out and shoot him!”
Jogging While Black is dangerous in any so-called white neighborhood but [especially] in gentrified Atlanta and in other gentrified American cities, [where] white people walk their poodles, push their baby carriages and jog on the Atlanta Beltline that weaves through what used to be some of Atlanta, Georgia’s most dangerous locales.
Today’s klansmen are embolden by the white nationalists in the White House, they are brave when they have numbers, they are courageous when they have weapons and they have little or no fear of a judge or jury giving them the death penalty for killing Black men, women and children!
Don’t think the recent murder of a young Black man in South Georgia is an isolated incident. You have to be careful and cautious in every neighborhood you’re in. You have to be aware of your surroundings every where you go and everywhere you are.
I think closet klansmen that are living by their guns today can easily die by a gunshot tomorrow especially if they push up on a person of color that has a permit to carry a weapon.
Pray for the family of the 25-year-old Brunswick, Georgia murder victim, Ahmaud Arbery. Jogging and exercising is not a crime that requires a ku klux klan posse that will hunt and follow young Black men to murder them in cold blood!
The struggle continues! Protect yourself at all times!
Lucius is a contributing columnist to NNPA newspapers around the nation, and the author of “Beast Too: Dead Man Writing,” available on Amazon.com and from bookstores everywhere.