Amadou Diallo’s last words were “Mom, I want to go to college.”

In 2011, James Hal Cone the famous Black Liberation Theologian said in his epic book The Cross and The Lynching Tree that, “In its heyday, the lynching of black Americans was no secret. It was a public spectacle, often announced in advance in news papers and over the radios, attracting crowds of up to twenty thousand people.” This was despicable, detestable, disgusting and immoral. Now exactly sixty years later one would expect the story to change but sadly we are back in the same arena.

Amadou Diallo’s last words where “Mom, I want to go to college.”

On February 4, 1999, four New York City Police Department plain clothed officers:Edward McMellon, Kenneth Boss, Sean Carroll and Richard Murphy, fired 41 shots, 19 of which hit the unarmed and innocent Diallo outside his apartment. Yes 41 shots were fired!It was senseless, unnecessary and inhumane racist actions.

On the 5^th of March 2015 media carried news of Tampa police officers who rescued a dog that was tied to the tracks and had been shot 3 times. It dawned on me that we are living in a system that values the life of dogs more than it values the lives of black and brown human beings. A system of policing that is deeply entrenched in white supremacy and white privileged. An evil mechanization of institutionalized oppression and systematic racism. A system of highly militarized police brutality, neighborhood gentrification, post racial surveillance, mass black incarceration, dysfunctional education system and the criminal unjust system.

This morning I invite you to face the demons that suffocate and extinguish the lives of inherently valuable black and brown lives. We have come to shine the light on the underbelly of racism and the dark cave of subjugation.

Amadou Diallo was an immigrant from Guinea who came to America believing in the myth of the American Dream, But the American dream turned into an American Nightmare.If you listen to the mainstream media they paint a negative picture on Amadou, they tell you that he was a poor black West African vendor, but let me tell you his story.

First, Amadou was innocent, he had no weapon, and his record is clean. He did not even have a speeding ticket to his name. He was well travelled; he had previously been to Guinea, Togo, Liberia, Thailand, France, Japan and Singapore. He was well educated, he had studied at the International School in Thailand, did his computer studies in Singapore, an affiliate of the highly acclaimed Cambridge University in England. Amadou Diallo was fluent in five languages, which included Fulani, Thai, French, Spanish and English. He was not just a mere unemployed immigrant but a global citizen. He did not come to the United States of America simply to consume, he came to produce and provide a wealth of skills and abilities to this capitalist society.

Diallo came with a dream and a vision. But his dreams were extinguished by these racist, white cops who were inebriated by power, a badge and a gun. This reminds me of somewhere in the scriptures when Cain killed Abel and God asked Cain where is your brother because I heard the voice of his blood speaking. And Cain said, am I my brother’s keeper. Ladies and gentlemen let me tell you that, dead bodies might not speak but their blood screams loud in heaven. There is a lot of blood speaking in the drenched soils of America. Amadou might be dead and silent today but his blood is not silent, it is still speaking. Would you like to hear what his blood is saying? His blood is saying “ We hold these truths to be self evident that all men where created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” It is also saying, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people will not feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone and as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give others permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

 I have come with a holy defiance and a righteous indignation. We will not let anyone or anything diminish the sanctity of our humanity because black lives matter!