Crisis is defined by Merriam Webster Dictionary as a difficult or dangerous situation that needs serious attention. An easy equation that I was taught to understand crisis is: Crisis = Danger + Turning Point. The police brutality toward black and brown people in this Nation is a national crisis. Too many people choose to ignore this crisis. Others don’t realize it’s even there.

Why? White privilege.

White privilege is the ability to not focus on the root cause of the problem of a racist system. White privilege is telling a culture how to react to oppression, or that there is no oppression. White privilege is a sickness that, through the natural way of life, will either be the downfall of our Nation, or lead to a tremendous turning point. Recently, NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick took a stance by not standing for the National Anthem before a televised NFL preseason game. Our Nation has been in an outrage since Kaepernick’s stance against a racist system. Some media made the case that the way Kaepernick went about his stance was wrong.

But, it was NOT.

The National Anthem was created with racist intent; anyone who can carry out credible history research can discover that. For example, we only sing the first verse of the National Anthem. The lesser known, or hidden, third verse shows the racist intent. America’s racist history is like peeling back an onion, it gets worse the deeper you go.  This is the third verse:

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore,

That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion

A home and a Country should leave us no more?

Their blood has wash’d out their foul footstep’s pollution.

No refuge could save the hireling and slave

From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,

And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave

O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Francis Scott Key, the writer of the National Anthem, was a noted anti-abolitionist; he was also noted as saying my race is “a distinct and inferior race of people”. That is a historically inaccurate way to describe any African people. The strength of African people is present in something so simple as the sun’s rays. Black and Brown people interact with the sun on a deeper level than whites who get burned.

Does that not show a type of inferiority for whites? The third verse of the National Anthem is best broken down by AJ Willingham of CNN who states, “Some interpretations of these lyrics contend Key was in fact taking pleasure in the deaths of freed black slaves who had decided to fight with the British against the United States. In order to bolster their numbers, British forces offered slaves their freedom in British territories if they would join their cause during the war. These black recruits formed the Colonial Marines, and were looked down upon by people like Key who saw their actions as treasonous.”

Police brutality against black and brown people is a crisis that the majority of American’s will just not understand. It is a problem that happens toward all people oppressed by color throughout the world. Police brutality without consequence is an epidemic crisis that the government should focus on. As a black community, we have given America life. If you don’t agree, I would question your knowledge of history. The majority of Americans are white. But, whites do not make up even half of the world’s population. White supremacy has to be conquered for us to live in peace as a human race.