The Lynching of Robert Hailey

I feel I must preface this piece by stating it is a Creative Piece not based on any factual persons. This is a piece, however, that speaks to a historic and traumatic past. So often though the voice always given to this narrative is the voice of pain, sorrow, and defeat. Knowing my people, however, I know there were many other voices which held more than pain. These forgotten or misplaced voices held also held anger due to becoming jaded of the brutality. Here is simply a piece in respect of that voice we have so rarely if ever heard.

From the widow of Robert Hailey...

So called “Black” people of today’s America have absolutely no idea of what it means to be a warrior. So called “Black” people of today’s America have absolutely no idea of what it means to fight. To see your family, your friends, your love ones, even countless strangers who look like you wiped out as if they were nothing or having no value equaling to a human, it does something to your wellbeing. The Black children of today could never lose themselves in that pain. To feel your soul ripped away at the whim of any pale-faced stranger on any giving day just because the wind blew in your direction.

Death!

Can you understand the finality of this reality, produced in the most monstrous way?

Murder!

By all accounts the action is barbarous, and the work of an ungodly beast. But no one blinks an eye at the perpetrator, and all guilt rest on the snapped neck of the hanging 2/3 corpse, swinging like an ornament of destruction. The children of today will never know this pain and fight. To lose your source of joy and happiness; your source of protection, your source of love, your source of life, and meet that with a fiery vengeance. If the children ever even get a glimpse of this pain, the children meet it with acceptance and forgiveness.

The community of the beast have corrupted your emotions, mentality, and spirit. They’ve taught you to cry out for justice instead of taking their heads. They’ve taught you to seek their approval and sums of money instead of your own dignity, self-worth, racial pride, and self-respect. They’ve taught you to beg for mercy instead of allowing the growth of your warrior spirit. They took the fight out of you and gave you comfortable amenities to serve out the sentence they’ve given you in the prison they convinced you to build.

The lynching of Robert Hailey is not a unique story, but it is my story. The day of Robert Hailey’s lynching is the day I accepted the beast for who he is, for who he’s always been, even before I knew what his history was. The history of the beast cannot be escaped. As long as I remember the lynching of Robert Hailey, I remember who the pale-faced monster is. I remember what he means to my people. I remember what his history has made of him, and I will not let him escape. I will not turn a blind eye to who he has always been. From centuries ago, the beast has not changed. I will not be so naïve as to think today’s date has changed what has been in the nature of the beast since the day he clawed his way into civilization.

To free your people, you must fight. You must nurture the warrior in your heart. You must allow your spirit to grow. The beast’s strength depends on your weakness and cowardice. The beast’s strength depends on your willingness to love and forgive. The beast’s strength causes your oppression and depression, your self-devaluing, and your destruction, all for the gain of the community of the beast. To allow your love and forgiveness to usher in your own destruction is foolish. In a world under your rule, you allowed the beast to grow and succeed with you. In a world under his rule, he has orchestrated your torture, exploitation, and demise. You must accept the beast’s evilness, his selfishness, and his truth.

Your people have gone through too much, fought through too much, suffered and cried through too much only to become who you have become today. You dishonor the fighters of our struggle with your complaints while you simultaneously lay down against the terrorism of the beast. Do you believe you are out of the hardest part of the struggle because you didn’t have to witness Robert Hailey’s lynching? I feel sorrow for you because you have it much worse than the Negros who witnessed the spirit of the beast daily. I could identify my enemy by his arrogance and audacity. The beast did not hide his ways and then convince me my reality was a lie. I lived the history he now tries to hide from you. This is why I say the Black children of today will never know that pain, a pain that will make you fight with everything you have. Jordons could never ease my pain. Weave could never cover my hurt. Netflix could never distract me from my plight. Money could never buy my liberation. The only way I will ever have true freedom is to fight and to leave my warrior’s mark. My soul nor my spirit will be at rest because I know the children are still at war. My eyes are not closed to our reality. My eyes are not only opened when an uncomfortable situation slaps me in the face, and my eyes are not only opened for just a moment before they are covered again by the next trendy distraction.

I want my people to fight. I need my people to fight. I want a warrior’s spirit to be more important than a Warriors game. Black children, rise! Awaken from the collective sunken place! Become more than a collective who is comfortable with white supremacy or even scared by it. Remember, the beast’s strength comes from your weakness. Deal with what makes you weak and fight, children! FIGHT!