People that look a lot like me are being killed what seems to be daily. They are being killed and their churches, their place of spirituality and community, are being burned to the ground. This is happening because they look like how I look. I can’t fathom this. Why would someone kill or try to destroy a community simply because their skin is brown?
When I watch the news and an anchor says another African-American has been killed or another church has burned I’m ashamed to say I change the channel. I can’t stand it anymore. I know that the anchor could easily have said my name or that of someone I love and I can’t handle the fear that this brings up in me. Many of the men and women killed looked a lot like my father, step brother, step mother, sisters, cousins, friends, and of course, me. I can’t look at the faces of these people who not so long ago were happy and living their lives only to be killed for something out of their control. It makes me scared to leave my home. It makes me scared to look people in the eye. It makes me scared to be me.
So, I change the channel. It wasn’t until the shooting in Charleston, SC, that killed nine people at Bible study that I couldn’t help but to wonder how many other people are out there changing their channels too. How many other people are trying to avoid this devastating news?
If I had to guess, a lot. Certainly only ratings could account for the media’s lack of coverage of the eight black churches burned down in the South. Apparently, black people aren’t rating magnets.
People change the channel. And what do they find on the other channels? Well, they find white faces. On broadcast television minorities make up 5.1 percent of lead roles; that’s a factor of seven to one. Movies fare a little better with leading roles for minorities at 10.5 percent or a factor of three to one. This means if you’re watching TV or a movie and you see a black actor they’ve either beat the odds or they’re token, the villain, a homeless person, or victim. Rarely will someone that looks like me be the hero.
No wonder everyone who isn’t brown is so afraid of us. We’re not people in the media or entertainment, we’re problems. In the news all that can be found is ill representations: fights, robberies, murders, hungry children, rape, neglect and overall scary things.
Nothing is available showing black people just being people. We’re not super geniuses, we’re not a funny middle class family, and we’re not even the subject of daytime soaps.The most popular representation of us is a new comedy about a black family that is the definition of every black stereotype out there, which is seemingly legitimized by their outlandish wealth. This is not us. We’re an enigma. Being black has become something so outside of the realm of normalcy people are impersonating us like a middle school cry for help Goth phase.
It’s only once we’re represented like normal people as often as everyone else that people will be more familiar with us. When people change the channel from all of the horrible things in the news they should see us being normal on the other channels, that way they’ll be accustomed to us.The more comfortable with us people are the less likely they are to pull a weapon every time we walk in a room. We are human beings. We’re not a novelty, we’re not new, and we’re not something to fear or idealize. We’re just people. We are people.
WE ARE PEOPLE.
I’m afraid that fact has been forgotten somewhere along the way.
I am afraid.
