On October 24, 2018, shots rang out at a Kroger grocery store in Jeffersontown, KY, killing two people---Maurice E. Stallard and Vickie Lee Jones. While they weren't the initial intended targets of Gregory A. Bush, 51, a White man, they fit the description well enough to suffice. 
That description was that they were Black---like the members of First Baptist Church, a predominantly Black church nearby, where Bush initially attempted to enter, but failed.
An hour and a half earlier, about 70 people had gathered at the church, but by the time Bush arrived to rain down mayhem only about 10 people remained and, thankfully, the entrance had been locked. The gunman fled, but was later apprehended by authorities.
Imagine walking in the shoes of Maurice Stallard and Vickie Jones, 69 and 67 years old respectively. Imagine being born during the late 1940s to early 1950s, during a time where racism was legally enforced through Jim Crow law in many parts of the country.
Imagine living and surviving through that era to witness the Civil Rights movement and the advancements for Black people that were birthed during that period in American history. Imagine living through the '60s screaming along with James Brown that you are Black and proud.
Imagine living out loud in your Blackness during the '70s---living as big and as broad and as colorful and as cool as your Black self intended. Imagine surviving to witness your children and grandchildren have many more opportunities and freedoms than you did growing up.
Imagine being able to vote for and enjoy two terms of a Black president.
Imagine living your whole life through terrible times and through small triumphs as a people only to lose your life to the very same racist hatred you navigated all your life. Navigated not circumvented.
Imagine a 12 year old young man experiencing trauma per your death at the hands of a racist, an experience you yourself very well may have lived 70 years without having.
Imagine succumbing to a racism that is still alive and well and breathing via an evil soul belonging to someone born 20 years your junior.
The same racism that historically could have taken your life some 50 or 60 years ago waited patiently for you in one grocery store parking lot on a fateful day in October 2018. Yes 2018. Imagine racism coming full circle and engulfing you at the end.
Racism in this country is exhausting. Racism is not just a dark cloud hovering over us---for dark clouds move about and are eventually replaced by blue skies and sun rays. No, racism is in the very air we breathe.
It lives bc there are too many hosts willing to be used to feed and incubate this virus. Too many carriers willing to spread this disease wherever they roam. The country is sick. Was born sick. Sickness may be its death. Imagine racism coming full circle, engulfing it in the end.
See original post at BlackWithNoChaser.com. Also follow @BlackNoChaser here on Twitter for news and views of Black America. Black With No Chaser is also on FB and IG: blackwithnochaser. Also follow me on FB: Talibah Mawusi and IG: talibah_mawusi #JusticeForWillieJonesJr
