Despite the Hooplah - Black Lives Still Don't Matter

Sandra Bland

I woke up in a great mood today.   My wife was in a good mood.  My kids are healthy and happy.  The house is decorated for Christmas.    Things are really good right now.   And then two posts on my Facebook page brought me straight to anger, frustration, and depression.   One was the news that a Texas grand jury is not going to indict anyone in the death of Sandra Bland, and the other is that Trayvon Martin's brother Jahvaris Fulton just graduated from college.  Two young black people who had their lives snatched from them over complete bullshit, and no one will be held accountable for either.

Jahvaris Fulton

Quick recap for those who live in a world where they can not know what happened to these two young people.  Sandra Bland, 28 years old,  was pulled over on July 10, 2015 for a minor traffic violation by Texas State Trooper Brian Encinia.  They had words and he arrested her, alleging that she assaulted him.  The video from his dashcam and a bystander's cell phones prove that those allegations were false.  Sandra Bland was found dead in her jail cell on July 13, 2015, the police say she hanged herself.  Travyon Martin, 17 years old, was fatally shot by George Zimmerman, a self appointed Neighborhood Watchman, on his way back to Martin's father's house after a run to a convenience store to buy Skittles and Iced tea.   No criminal charges will be filed in the Bland case, and none were filed initially in the Martin case.  After public outcry, Zimmerman was charged with second degree murder and manslaughter.  A jury acquitted him in July of 2013.

The #blacklivesmatter movement has gotten a lot of negative press.  It's critics say that All Lives Matter would be more appropriate, because black lives matter is by definition a racist term.   These two young black people epitomize the necessity of black lives matter.  To put it simply, the American criminal justice system is racist, especially in the South.   I know a lot of you don't want to admit it, but every single study that's done on the topic verifies the fact.   Blacks are arrested and convicted at much higher rates than whites for committing the same crimes.  That's a fact.  If you don't believe me Google it.   And the thing you might not know is it was designed to be that way.

Policing in the American South is a direct descendant of the "Slave Patrols" established in the Carolina colonies in 1704.  These slave patrols had 3 primary functions according to Dr. Gary Potter of Eastern Kentucky University:

1.  Chase down runaway slaves and return them to their owners.
2.  Provide an organized terror force to deter slave revolts.
3.  Maintain a form of discipline for slave-workers who were subject to summary justice, outside of the law, if they violated any plantation rules. (emphasis added)

According to Dr. Potter,  "Following the Civil War, these vigilante-style organizations evolved in modern Southern police departments primarily as a means of controlling freed slaves who were now laborers working in an agricultural caste system, and enforcing "Jim Crow" segregation laws, designed to deny freed slaves equal rights and access to the political system." You don't have to be Sherlock Holmes or Einstein to see the remnants of the Slave Patrols in today's police forces and their relationships to black people.  Today's police may not be officially called "Slave Patrols", but they too often act as "Black Patrols" with al almost identical mission.

So why do we say #blacklivesmatter instead of #alllivesmatter?  It's because, in the words of comedian Bill Maher, "saying "All Lives Matter" implies that all lives are equally at risk, and they are not."  Consider since April of 2014:

Dontre Hamilton

4/30/ 2014:   Dontre Hamilton (Milwaukee, WI 31) Shot 14 times by a police officer in a park because someone called from Starbucks and said he was disturbing the peace.  Officer wasn't charged.

6/17/14:  Eric Garner (New York, NY 43) Killed after being put in an illegal chokehold by a police officer for 15 seconds for selling loose cigarettes.  Officer wasn't charged.

8/5/14: John Crawford (Dayton, OH 22) Shot and killed by a police officer at a Walmart while shopping.  He was holding a toy BB gun sold by Wal Mart.  Officer wasn't charged. 

John Crawford

8/9/14: Michael Brown (Ferguson, MO 18) Shot and killed by a police officer after an altercation over what began as an admonishment for Brown to stop walking in the middle of the street.  Officer wasn't charged.

11/22/14:  Tamir Rice (Cleveland, OH 12) Shot and killed by police while playing in a park when police mistook his toy gun for a real weapon.  Officer wasn't charged. 

I think it's safe to say there is a pattern.  And I only stopped for the sake of brevity.  I could have added Ezell Ford (Florence, CA 25), Dante Parker (Victorville, CA 36), Tanisha Anderson, Cleveland, OH 37), Akai Gurley (Brooklyn, NY 28),  Eric Harris (Tulsa, OK 44), Walter Scott (Charleston, SC 50),  Freddie Gray (Baltimore, MD 25) and many others.   All killed by police officers while they were unarmed.  Can any of you seriously say that if this were a list of white names there would not be a national outcry?   And you ask why I don't say all lives matter?  The answer is because apparently to the American criminal justice system, all lives don't matter.

Tamir Rice

James Baldwin once said that "to be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time."  I used to doubt the accuracy of that statement but I've come to believe that it's true.  How can I be even relatively conscious and not be in a rage over the fact that Sandra Bland and Travyon Martin had their lives ended so prematurely, so senselessly, and the American criminal justice system can't find a way to hold somebody accountable?  

But this is my country.  My ancestors helped to build it.  Even though that I admittedly have that rage at the injustices that still go on, I won't surrender the right to experience all that this country has to offer.  So I'm going to to try to get back into my good mood and enjoy the day.  But to paraphrase Jules in Pulp Fiction, I'm trying.  I'm trying real hard.