Killer Mike, a brother who has grown from simply being a music artist into something of a hood political pundit, got played by the NRA over the weekend and recently apologized for it. While sitting down for an interview with the National Rifle Association several weeks ago, Mike apparently believed he was speaking on the need for black folks to exercise their 2nd Amendment Rights. However, as was illustrated with their gun control lobby aimed at curtailing the Black Panthers in the 60s and early 70s, the National Rifle Association has a historic disdain for blackness.
Killer Mike, Colion Noir: The Gun Conversation You Need to See
Colion Noir sits down with rapper, actor and activist Killer Mike to have the gun culture conversation no media, politician, celebrity or anti-gun protestor has the courage to engage in.
This is the same NRA that claimed race was the reason for increased gun violence in the United States in 1996. Then State Representative Chuck Schumer had to get on them with this quote.
“The NRA has consistently refused to admit the obvious: The number of guns on our streets increase the number of murders of police, children and others. Now they are going to a new extreme. To say it’s not guns, but the genetics of race, is a tawdry and evil form of race-baiting.”
The same NRA that gave Donald Trump a record $30 million, and the same NRA that produced a gun promoting comic book filled with racist imagery in 2006.
Indeed, the same NRA that employs NRA TV correspondent Chuck Holton, who claimed on an NRA program that white privilege is just simply the culture that we have created, that our fathers and grandfathers have worked hard to create, before saying that it would be nice if blacks joined whites in respecting authority and taking responsibility for your own actions.
Mind you, none of these things were hard to find and it bothered me that Killer Mike, who has gone on television speaking fire and fury about black rights and racism in America, could have whiffed so bad. You cannot reason with the devil, and Mike got caught out there thinking he was somehow different or special.
The National Rifle Association has repeatedly proven it has zero interests in a diverse America, nor welcoming blacks into its fold. Nothing was more striking to me than when Philando Castile, a brother who legally owned his firearm, was shot dead.
Cmon Mike. You want people to respect what you say, take your words seriously, but you get caught like that?
Killer Mike on Twitter
I hope this clears some stuff up. Love and Respect to all. Part 1 https://t.co/pq977HEG7A
Dating back to the Black Codes that were passed in southern states following the Civil War, white folks in America have always equated guns ownership with freedom. Thus, disarming blacks was always seen as a way to further subjugate them. Today, we are getting gunned down while standing on their own private property by police and nefarious neighbors. Also, hate groups and hate crimes have flourished under the Trump administration.
“Throughout much of American history gun control was a method for keeping Blacks and Hispanics, ‘in their place’ for lack of a better expression,” Tiffany Ware of the Brown Girls Project (BGP), an initiative that aims to encourage and inspire black women and teaches them to responsibly own and use firearms, told Al Jazeera.
Killer Mike on Twitter
P2 https://t.co/FigGacJeYM
So, I understand the gist of what Mike was saying. But, instead of harkening upon the Deacons of Defense via a media campaign that included BLACK groups for gun ownership, or even doing a livestream utilizing his own personal brand, Killer Mike goes to the NRA, and the NRA plays him like a two-string guitar.
In your own words, Mike: “Next time do better…”
