Why Black Lives Matter

Every few weeks we are reminded of what it's like to be black in America.

We see Trayvon Martin gunned down a block from his home, his life taken from him by a neighborhood watchman who deemed him "suspicious" despite the fact he had only skittles and iced tea in his hands.

We see Eric Garner choked to death on the streets of New York city for selling loose cigarettes, his endless cries of "I can't breathe" completely ignored by the NYPD officers surrounding him.

We see 12-year-old Tamir Rice executed on a Cleveland playground, sentenced to death for playing with a toy gun.

We see Sandra Bland assaulted on the side of a dusty Texas road, tossed in jail and mysteriously killed, all for a minor traffic violation.

We see Walter Scott shot in the back multiple times as he's running away from police after being pulled over for a broken tail light.

We see Freddie Gray thrown into a Baltimore police van and given a "rough ride," his spine severed, his life ended, simply for possessing a legal switchblade.

Now we see a teenage girl violently assaulted by a school resource officer in South Carolina. Why? Because she was using her cell-phone and refused to exit the classroom.

Across America, there are two major reactions to these types of events when they take place. Half of the country is disgusted, ashamed, depressed, saddened, confused and upset. We keep asking ourselves the same questions. Why does this keep happening? Why are African Americans treated so unfairly? 

The other half of the country sees these events through a completely different lens. Their is no shared sense of guilt or bewilderment. No long, deep soul searching. No uneasiness over the fact that their fellow Americans are being treated unjustly. They see a teenager killed by a neighborhood watchman or a student tossed aside like a rag-doll and think they must have done something to deserve it. They should have respected authority. They were probably guilty anyway. They got what was coming to them.

These two conflicting perspectives grow more and more entrenched after each tragic event, deepening the divide between law enforcement and communities of color, causing further polarization among everyday Americans.

WHY BLACK LIVES MATTER

When the topic of racial injustice is brought up at the 2016 presidential debates, the candidates on both sides are often asked whether "all lives matter" or "black lives matter." 

Republicans say "all lives matter." They are dismissive of the black lives matter movement. They argue that it's divisive and antagonistic and anti-police. They do not believe it raises legitimate concerns about police brutality or the corrupt nature of our justice system.

However, with each passing day, it's getting harder and harder to ignore the reality of the situation we face. These incidents keep happening. We can argue over the reasons why they keep happening, but that doesn't stop them from taking place. 

Recently, President Obama brilliantly explained the reason why black lives (and not all lives) matter.

I think the reason that the organizers used the phrase "black lives matter" was not because they were suggesting nobody else's life matters. Rather, what they were suggesting was there is a specific problem that is happening in the African American community that's not happening in other communities. And that is a legitimate issue that we've got to address.

Simply put, the tragic events we keep witnessing do not happen with the same frequency in white communities. White kids wearing hoods aren't deemed to be "suspicious." They aren't gunned down in their own neighborhoods. They aren't beaten up by cops in their own classroom. White women aren't pulled over for minor traffic violations, assaulted and mysteriously killed in police custody.

I know this because I grew up in a white community. I made many of the same "mistakes" but never once did I fear for my life. Why? Because I'm white. 

Because of the color of my skin, I am given a free pass, a presumption of innocence, a perpetual benefit of the doubt. I don't have to worry about going out at night, or the clothes I wear, or how I have to speak to police if I'm pulled over for a broken tail-light.

African Americans are not afforded these same rights.

That is the essence of white privilege.

WE STILL MUST OVERCOME

Despite taking place hundreds of years ago, the sinful legacy of slavery lives on in America. African Americans may no longer be held in bondage, but they are still not afforded full citizenship under the law. In many ways, they are still treated as 3/5 of a person.

A powerful new video by the The Equal Justice Initiative brilliantly illustrates this sad reality. As the narrator explains, slavery didn't end in 1865, it evolved. We see it everyday in the form of violent policing and mass incarceration. 

Recently, FBI Director James Comey blamed the rise of violence and racial tensions over the past year on "the Ferguson effect." He argued that officers are "under siege" and unable to "protect and serve" because they worry about being caught on a career-ending cell-phone video.

This completely misses the point. Simply put, if the only thing that motivates you to act properly is the threat of being caught on tape then you are not fit to be a police officer in the first place. 

To fix the situation, we must reform the way we police. We must also reform our corrupt criminal justice system that preys upon African Americans and leads to mass incarceration.

But changing our laws can only do so much. In order to fully exorcise the racial demons that plague us, we must overcome our own individual prejudices. We must learn to empathize with our fellow Americans who are drowning in injustice.

We must reject the long lasting biases, left over from centuries of oppression, that cause us to see African Americans as innately guilty and somehow less human, less worthy of full citizenship and protection under the law.

We must learn to see Trayvon Martin, Sandra Bland, Eric Garner, the young girl in the South Carolina classroom and the countless other unnamed victims of racial injustice not as thugs who got what they deserved, but as fellow Americans who are being denied their rights.

We must remember what Martin Luther King Jr. told us: injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.