Editor's Note: A tribute to Cameron Sterling from a Stonehill College Student.
I am Cameron Sterling.
I am Cameron Sterling. Maybe you’ve heard my name already or maybe you’ve heard the name of my father Alton Sterling. I can’t imagine that you haven’t, it’s been all over the news. My private tragedy is a public tragedy. My tragedy is our nation’s tragedy.
I’m sure you probably have mixed feelings about the case. Was my father armed? Was he a criminal? Why would a police officer attack a man if he was innocent? The truth is, it doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is that it happened and what we’re able to make from the aftermath. My father may have been carrying a firearm, but does that constitute death before trial? This incident should never have ended this way.
This incident should never have ended with a 15-year-old living without a father and my mother widowed. For my family, it’s not just another “misunderstood hate crime," it's the day our lives changed forever.
I will grow up into adulthood bearing the scars of this day with me for the rest of my life. It will influence my worldview, my career, my ability to trust and my life itself. How am I supposed to view my country as a place that has progressed from racism when I have the death of my father looming over my head? I could try to believe that it may have happened for other reasons than the color of his skin but at the end of the day, I will still feel victimized because I’m the boy whose father was taken from him too soon. I’m the boy without a father whose head is swimming with news article after news article promoting the fact that this was yet another hate crime in America. It doesn’t matter if it’s true or not because the outcome is the same. My father was taken from us through an injustice that called my race into question.
When my race is called into question, my self worth is called into question. Is my life or the life of my father not worth as much as that of a Caucasian race? This seems to be the underlying question following the untimely death of my father. This may not be something we can ever truly measure but my suffering remains the same.
At the end of the day a choice was made, a choice based off an assumption. Whether this choice was race related or not, the assumption was that my father’s life was something that they could take away from him. This is an assumption that cannot and never should be made by only two men.
My father should never have died.
I’m more than the boy who lost his father, I’m a person struggling with a loss of hope in humanity. In times like these we need to remember that yes, #BlackLivesMatter. Because right now we are the ones who need support. We need support for justice so that maybe one day we can build a nation where my own children won’t ever have to worry about losing their father to injustice, the way I lost mine.
To Cameron Sterling- I hope you learn to still see the good in the world. I truly wish that the potential hate behind these crimes doesn’t harden your soul and blacken your hope. I sincerely hope that you’re able to see and hear the words of those who empathize with your loss and that someday you yourself will contribute to a better world.
