I Can’t “Keep Calm.” He Couldn’t Breathe!
Over the holiday weekend, millions of Americans emerged from our coronavirus cocoons to pursue some semblance of normalcy. We logged out of Zoom meetings, and some went to beaches, had cookouts, and crowded restaurants.
While some people wore masks, a more insidious contagion continued to plague Black America in ways that render PPE useless — White people weaponizing the privilege of their race. We saw this through the release of two videos more disgusting than a person not covering her cough or washing his hands. In one, a White woman walking her dog in New York’s Central Park gets into a back-and-forth with a Black man who politely asks her to leash her pet. Rather than complying with the rules of the park, as he kindly points out, the woman flips the script and calls the cops on him. Here’s the coup de grâce:
“I’m going to tell them there’s an African American man threatening my life,” she imperiled before calling 911.
In the second incident, an unarmed Black man — George Floyd — while gasping, “I can’t breathe,” is asphyxiated by a Minneapolis, Minnesota police officer. Meanwhile, his partner stood by, smirking menacingly at onlookers.
“This is what happens, kids, when you do drugs.”
Both of these situations came as we are suffering from the painful whiplash of 25-year-old Ahmaud Aubrey being shot to death by two White men (one of which, a recently retired police detective) out for vigilante justice. His “crime”? Jogging while Black.
“Black men have long been a bogeyman in White America’s collective psyche. There’s something about us that brings out the worst in many people, “ wrote John Blake.
This notion is glaringly apparent in our criminal justice system. A system that incarcerated me for nearly 14 years in its federal corner. A system that, in part, arrested me after I was released, for child support arrears that accrued while I was incarcerated. A system that I personally know more people who matriculated through than graduated from high school, daring to mention college!
Most African Americans are familiar with the colloquial term, “Get your foot off my neck,” but the Minneapolis Police Department recently served up a more graphic and literal version. The officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd for six minutes is a real-life manifestation of how people who don’t have access to resources and power — disproportionately those of color — are both proverbially and literally stepped on and forced into the submission of an inequitable and inhumane racial caste system. The other officer involved, who passively stood with his back turned to the injustice, demonstrates privilege in operation. He symbolizes the millions of Americans who say they believe in justice, fairness, and equity, but allow a racist criminal justice system to continue to operate in their names. A system that incarcerates Blacks 5 times more than the rate of Whites. A system that imprisons Black women twice as much as White women. A system that has prisons and jails as 8 out of the 10 national hotspots for COVID-19.
“Shallow understanding from people of goodwill is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.” — MLK, Jr.
As a Black man in America, I am furious. I am angry. I am livid. However, I will think this louder than I will voice it, for fear that I may be perceived as a “threat” by virtue of my race. So, to make this notion palatable to the Amy Cooper’s of the world, I’ll say I am “afraid.” I am afraid that if I even have incidental contact with the police it could result in my personal tragedy. I am afraid to think about how the media could try to criminalize my passing, suggesting that my history was justifiable means of an officer being in “reasonable fear” of his life to shoot me like I am a target for practice on the range.
I’m not afraid because I am supposedly doing something wrong. I am afraid I’m supposed to have rights!
I am supposed to have the right to be a tax-paying citizen. I am supposed to have the right to safe travel. I am supposed to have the right to be free from racial profiling. I am supposed to have the right to travel through any neighborhood, dressed down, on my way to wherever, and get gas without police bias, intimidation, and/or harassment. I am supposed to have the right not to get shot simply because I am at the right place at the wrong time! These aren’t rights just conferred upon me through the merits of articles such as The Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, or a state or federal statute. This was a sovereign, God-given right to life that supersedes, trumps, and tramples any man-made piece of legislation running counter to or attempting to validate it.
What’s Next?
We can’t go jogging (#AmaudArbery).
We can’t relax in the comfort of our own homes (#BothamJean and #AtatianaJefferson).
We can’t have a cellphone (#StephonClarke)
We can’t leave a party to get to safety (#JordanEdwards).
We can’t sell CD’s (#AltonSterling).
We can’t sleep (#AiyanaJones).
We can’t walk from the corner store (#MikeBrown).
We can’t play cops-&-robbers (#TamirRice).
We can’t go to church (#Charleston9).
We can’t walk home with Skittles (#TrayvonMartin).
We can’t hold a hairbrush while leaving our own bachelor party (#SeanBell).
We can’t run (#WalterScott).
We can’t breathe (#EricGarnder).
We can’t get a traffic citation (#SandraBland).
We can’t lawfully carry a weapon (#PhilandoCastile).
We can’t break down on a public road (#CoreyJones).
We can’t take out our wallet (#AmadouDiallo).
We can’t get fair justice in our criminal justice system (#StillNotFree).
We are tired. Tired of making hashtags. Tired of trying to convince you that we are created just as equal as you. Tired of our incarcerated family members being infected with COVID-19 while cavalier prison systems do nothing. Tired of being wrongful, harmful, or illegally convicted of crimes with excessive sentences. Tired of needing White America to become outraged by an incident for our circumstances to be validated.
We shouldn’t have to fight corruption and coronavirus at the same time. America is infected with White supremacy that feels more deadlier by those dressed in uniforms and positioned in the highest levels of government, than what is microscopic and living on surfaces.
Racism in America isn’t getting worse,” Will Smith observed years ago on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, following the shooting deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile at the hands of police officers. “It’s just being recorded.”
Louis L. Reed is the National Organizer for #cut50, a bipartisan criminal justice initiative co-founded by Van Jones and Jessica Jackson. He is also a member of the Council of Criminal Justice and a board-certified clinician.
