Political Gumbo: Damn, Grow Up

Saturday thousands of people gathered for the annual Black History Parade and hundreds stuck around for the Black History Festival.

It was a beautiful day. 

Until it wasn’t.

At some point after the parade and festival concluded multiple fights broke out in two locations.

We’ve all seen the police numbers by now. Local residents still there when the fights broke out say it was far fewer skirmishes.

Either way, there shouldn’t have been any fights at all.

On a day when many in Pasadena came together to acknowledge Black men and women who stood tall in the face of real challenges and death in the fights for equality, multiple Black people were in the street throwing punches.

Embarrassing.

Damn shame. 

Learn the lessons of the past.

You get nowhere when you behave this way. As a matter of fact it sets us all back. 

Let me say this to City officials, the parade and the festival are not the issue. 

Ignorance is the issue.

Plain and simple.  

Yes, some locals have focused on the police response. 

No use of force, no arrests. 

Doesn’t sound like they are the bad guys here.  

Still we can have a discussion about the police presence and response. I have no issues with that.

And then after that, let’s have a separate discussion about how these people behaved that day and the example they set. 

Yes, Black Lives Matter – but so do Black examples.

Be better.