The problem with posting articles about “Unarmed White man killed by police, media says NOTHING” with the intention of somehow undermining the current Black Lives Matter Movement. These articles attempt to detract from the main point, while at the exact same time making it for us: That for so long, the deaths of unarmed Black and Brown folks at the hands of police have gone unreported in news, or when told had a distinct flavor of dehumanizing racism, and constantly had the victim put on trial instead of the cop. The narrative is shifting because we are demanding the other side of the story be told. We are demanding it by showing up in the streets. We are demanding it by being White or light-skinned folks that don’t want to be interviewed by media outlets at protests, telling the reporters to go find someone who is targeted by racial profiling to interview because it is their lives on the line. We are demanding that people notice the disproportionate violence, police brutality, and death sentences handed out on the street to Black people of all genders. This shift makes people uncomfortable. If one’s first reaction to the assertion that Black Lives Matter is to say “But what about all the White people killed too!” then you are not understanding the full scope of this movement, and the intersections that are at play. Black Lives Matter is about the disproportionate rates of violence experienced, and the violence itself. It is a call to all of us to raise our consciousness to battle externally and internally the system that we live in. A system that prioritizes Whiteness, White culture, White lives. This current movement is many things, and to this non-Black POC looking in the power is in prioritizing the voices, the stories, the wants, the needs, the demands, and the brilliance that is coming out the Black community. And we should be there, as non-Black POC and White folks alike to support in any way we can, any way that is helpful to our communities. What is most confusing for me in these moments is the same people who are saying the police officers where “just doing their job” are also the same people who are posting such articles demanding attention be paid to White victims of police murder. This contradiction is glaring. If it weren’t about race, and instead driven by the defense of unchecked power by police forces, it would be a hardline across the board that “officers have a job to do.” But it isn’t. People who defend police officers when they end a Black life, but demand justice when it is a White life, are showing more about themselves than they realize. If people want to end police brutality, end the use of deadly force by police in the streets, and hold police accountable then cool. Join the movement. Demilitarize the police with us. But if you only want to complain when the loss of a White life is mentioned on local news instead of national and people aren’t chanting their name in the streets, then you are not familiar with what can happen when all people are joined together to create change when the people most effected are given priority to speak and demand justice. Also, yes, of course all lives matter. It is also true that there has been a long-term dehumanization of Black lives that needs to be given priority. People are dying in the streets. If we(non-Black POC and White folks) want to be there, if we want to make a difference, we are going to have to realize when we are performing the racism of this world we were born into and demand change first from ourselves.
Posted on: Sat, 13 Dec 2014 06:23:12 +0000
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