Now I sit here stewing over the Ferguson grand jury decision not to indict Darren Wilson for shooting Michael Brown. I have so many things to say about it, but instead of just using the hashtags #blacklivesmatter and #blackvoicesmatter, I want to honor the intention of these statements and share the voices of some people of color who are beautifully expressing what this moment represents to them about race/racism in America today.
First, from friend and soon-to-be fellow Peace Corps Volunteer, Geoff Hutchinson:
A scenario runs through my mind from time to time, where I'm having a bad day. I'm in a bad mood and something happens that makes me visibly, audibly, and publicly angry. In this scenario, my frustration makes someone with a gun uneasy and I get shot and killed for it, without ever having the chance to defend my character. 24, almost 25 years ended over the course of a few minutes, with so many potential years ahead. I wish I could laugh it off, but then I think about the statistics and remember that this is a realistic scenario for me in the US, and I don't have the luxury of being able to shrug it off and say "I don't like politics or debates", because it concerns me, and truthfully, it concerns all of us.
What bothers me most about my scenario is that when similar scenarios happen in real life, they are only challenged on case-by-case basis. Sometimes the result is justice and other times it's not, but rarely does anyone address the nature of the disease. Cyclical and systemic in nature, the problems are too big to be answered by media and politicians in a few months, so when the immediate reactions subside, so too does the attention to the problem. Our society is missing the forest for the trees.
As a society, we shouldn't be asking "what happened?". What we should be asking is "why did this happen?" and "how can we fix it?". No scenario is as simple as Black & White, but can we at least agree that their is some underlying problem that needs to be addressed that reaches beyond any one young man? I don't know about everyone else, but I'm getting tired of reading the news about teenagers being killed because of something that happened over the course of a few minutes, without any concern given to the long-term causes of the circumstances. It doesn't make me angry. It doesn't make me want to break anything or hurt anyone. It just makes me sad, worried, and a little scared for the effects and implications of the society.
Next from civil rights advocate Michelle Alexander:
As we await the grand jury's decision, I want to take this opportunity to say thank you -- a deep, heart-wrenching thank you -- to all the organizers and activists who took to the streets following Michael Brown's killing and who refused to stop marching, raising their voices, and crying out for justice. It is because of them -- their courage, boldness, vision and stamina -- that the world is paying attention to what is happening in a suburb called Ferguson. The world is not watching because an unarmed black man was killed by the police. That's not news. What made this police killing different was that the people in Ferguson -- particularly the young people -- rose up and said We Will Not Take It Any More. Our Lives Matter. Black Lives Matter. And their cry has been heard around the world. No matter what the grand jury does, let us remember that true justice will come only when our criminal injustice system is radically transformed: when we no longer have militarized police forces, wars on our communities, a school-to-prison pipeline, and police departments that shoot first and ask questions later. True justice will be rendered not when when a single "guilty" verdict is rendered in one man's case, but when the system as a whole has been found guilty and we, as a nation, have committed ourselves to repairing, as best we can, the immeasurable harm that has been done.And lastly, I am excerpting from a long piece from my friend Epi Arias about Mike Brown and other RMPKs or "racially motivated killings by police." In the full piece he offers a detailed discussion of whether or not these racially motivated killings are reactionary or intentional and where racism comes from. I strongly urge you to go read the whole thing here.
So was it racially motivated? Is anything? The many unarmed black persons gunned down by police this year alone should tell you something. It’s a disgusting pattern that implies one of two things: either there is a racist problem in America, or black people are just simply dangerous. Ask the question now: Was it racially motivated?
I think we can see that both answers imply racial motivations. Here’s why: If a police officer guns down, say, an unarmed black man, and it’s not racially motivated, then it is presumably because that person posed a legitimate threat. And if an unarmed person posed a legitimate threat, one has to consider what kind of threat this might’ve been, given that a police officer has a gun while an unarmed person—well, an unarmed person is unarmed. There is no gun, no knife, no wrench, no candlestick, no rope—I think you can see where I’m going with this...
The problem is that we’re not asking the right questions. We already know that these killings are racially motivated regardless of who wants to split hairs. The two questions we should actually be asking are: Is the racially motivated murder of unarmed black persons intentional or reactionary? Second—and perhaps most importantly—what is racism? Although it might seem like an elementary question, our situation warrants the indulgence. I want to start this dialogue afresh, right now... The sad truth is many people do consider black people dangerous. It is actually such an established fact that we make light of it in movies, TV shows, and comedy skits. In proximity to a black person, many of you clutch your purse, lock your car door, increase your pace, tense up, and assume that there are drugs and/or weapons in the car. It’s ugly, but it’s reality—our reality.
We all know the story about the black guy shot by police after pulling a dark object from his pocket (i.e., wallet, candy bar, cellphone, hand). We know this happens all the time. And though it’s common knowledge, it keeps on happening due to the reactionary impulse that so often informs our decision-making: the good ole “Shit, he’s drawing a gun!” routine. We assume a threat from a black person with much more rapidity than we would otherwise; conditioned, as we are, to do so. And no, this does not excuse anyone from his or her actions, whether intentional or reactionary...
Police officers who kill/have killed/will kill unarmed black persons have a large ready-made network of apologists—civilians and law enforcement personnel alike—who are ready to defend them in the name of some unpronounced “principle,” whether or not said police officers may be guilty. This tells us that it is not about justice, that it is not about morality, and that—shockingly—it is almost only incidentally about race in the traditionally defined sense. It is mostly about a shameless pandering for validation, recognition, and acceptance. And this doesn’t make it any more excusable. It makes it worse, because if you identify with any conceptualization that is based on the disparaging or aversion of anyone because of race, you are not only ignorant, but also mindless. You are cult material. And should you ever find yourself, at any point, thinking for yourself, I guarantee that you will find your racist ideas completely ridiculous, empty, and devastatingly unfounded. You will be forced to change, to actually become human and think for yourself. And the next time an RMKP takes place (and it will, sadly, it will), you’ll be in a better position to reconsider the question: Was it racially motivated?
You’ll soon find that we’re all in this together, haunted by these names: Washington, Jones, Ashley, Allen, Carey, Brown, Gray, Garner, McDade, Russell, Diallo, Jefferson, Wilson, Zongo, Dorismond, Stansbury, Williams, Francis, Campbell, Bell, Davis, Edwards, Boyd, Miller, Barlow, Steen, Madison, Brissette, McGill, Smith, Grant, and Graham…to name enough.
