By Kenneth L. Hardin

I know why the caged bird sings, and it has nothing to do with the late poet Maya Angelou.

A line from my favorite movie, A Soldier’s Story, is “I have more crow in me than bald eagle.” I share in their intelligence, adaptability and strong  communication skills. I’ve had to endure false allegations, fears, insecurity and the forked tongue of many so-called leaders who have tried to create false narratives when they come ill-equipped and ill-prepared intellectually. When you can’t attack the message, you always attack the messenger.

Many Black leaders in history, who’ve led a revolutionary mindset, have had to just shut up and  dribble. It was no different for me back in April  of 2017 as a sitting councilman.

I received a number of  messages about the surprising release of Bill Cosby from prison. His conviction was overturned by the Pennsylvania State Supreme Court because his due process rights were violated. I’m not a fan, and I place him in the same category as I do the murderous OJ Simpson. So, I’m not celebrating. The emotion that envelopes me most is how all throughout history Black men have been victims of an unjust and uneven legal system. Somewhere in Heaven, 14-year-old George Stinney is shedding another tear in addition to the ones he displayed as he sat in the South Carolina electric chair back in 1944 after being wrongly convicted of murdering two white girls. Seventy years later, in 2014, his conviction was vacated.  As Dr. King said, “Justice deferred is justice denied … justice too long delayed is justice denied.”

I had no use for Cosby after his unnecessary finger-wagging criticism and dismissal of a segment of the Black population in his now commonly referred to “Pound Cake Speech” given at the 2014 NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund’s Awards Ceremony.  Cosby went in on poor people of color and those in the margins by criticizing the uniqueness in their speech patterns, single parent homes and those who were incarcerated for crimes he deemed ridiculous. He piled on the many others who suffered and gave up under the enormous weight of oppression and discriminatory practices.

Many folk wearing his same birthday uniform took offense to how he sat on a lofty perch and looked down at those who struggled to find and realize the elusive American dream as he had. It’s detestable to me that a man of great power and influence would feel it necessary to take to a national platform and castigate an entire culture of people so publicly. Why don’t you ever hear powerful and prominent people of other cultures publicly criticizing those in theirs?

NFL star QB Deshaun Watson has 21 civil lawsuits (no criminal charges) from allegations of sexual assault and misconduct. His pro career has been upended and his trade value diminished. Singer Marilyn Manson was recently sued for the fourth time in two months for sexual assault and battery, but that caged bird won’t have to sing because he has the complexion for the protection. When a Black man believes his skin color doesn’t matter, America will remind you.

I was an outspoken councilman whose voice was not welcomed, valued or respected. I was falsely charged with harassment by a city employee, who I had one interaction with over two years, in the presence of the City Manager. In that meeting, I expressed to him the employee’s job performance was subpar. That was within my role as a councilman. It somehow turned into a harassment allegation with the mayor initiating a bogus investigation wasting taxpayer funds.

This carefully constructed ruse painted me as the boogeyman, which many white citizens bought into. When it was revealed there was no smoke, let alone a spark there, people involved retreated and built fake outraged defenses for their actions, and it quietly went away. Missing was the same energy in explaining the farce that was used to concoct it.  I reluctantly entered politics, but after what I saw and endured I see no point in ever running for any seat again and have little respect for so many in the arena.

The legal system has been termed the new Jim Crow. In a report titled, “Race and Wrongful Convictions in the United States,” innocent Black people are 12 times more likely to be convicted of drug crimes than innocent white people. Black prisoners who were convicted of murder are about 50 percent more likely to be innocent than other convicted murderers and spend longer in prison before exoneration. I’ve never been in a jail cell, but  I’ve been confined to a lot of cages in my life. I was guilty at birth.

Kenneth L. Hardin is a writer living in Salisbury, a former member of the Salisbury City Council and is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists.