Three more black men became hashtags in the last couple weeks. Tyre King. Terrence Crutcher. Keith Lamont Scott. Tyre King was not even a man, but a young boy. At least 15 more people have been killed since Colin Kaepernick began his protest just one month ago. Those are just the ones we’ve heard about. There have been plenty of men, women and boys. And perhaps the worst part is feeling that some people don’t even care.
I find myself wrapped up in these Black Lives Matter protests, and I'm at a point where I feel like I am treading to stay above despair. I am doing my part to raise awareness, encourage dialogue and promote open-mindedness and understanding. I will continue to do so, but it is not enough. I can feel my underlying tension and anger, that I just want to channel into something positive, tangible, and productive.
We millennials have the capabilities of changing the rhetoric around the perception of black men and other people of color in this country. Some of us are doing that, and the evidence is all over social media. We are kneeling at our own sporting events, and challenging our elders. We are burning bridges with the former friends who can’t see beyond their privilege and ignorance.
But what about those privileged or ignorant people? The ones who think they can take down this entire civil rights movement with an edited and intentionally framed video of black people doing bad things, or irresponsible conservative informants like Tomi Lahren? Or the videos of the Uncle Toms who share skin color with the victims but are brainwashed by the dominant society? There are people fighting for their human rights, for their right to live, wondering what it’s going to take for these people to care.
Will it take subtracting race from the picture entirely? Go ahead and try. Because even if we didn’t specify the race of the police or their victims, in what world is it okay to shoot an unarmed someone in the back more than six times? When did we decide a police officer could ask someone to take out their license and then shoot them for doing just that? Or that a father, any father, sitting in the car waiting for his kid to get out of school could look suspicious reading a book. We weren’t taught in elementary school, ‘stop, drop and roll’, ‘don’t talk to strangers’ and ‘oh, don’t wear a hoodie and carry candy in your hand.’ Yet I imagine there are mothers out there teaching their children just that. Black and brown mothers, teaching black and brown children.
It isn’t our place to justify those murders either. These deniers will bring up prior records, point fingers at the pictures of the victims and call them thugs. The media doesn’t show the images of the black men in uniforms, or at graduation. These same deniers say nothing when white men’s images finally surface of them waving guns around and sitting with Confederate flags. It is not up to us to decide who “deserves” to die. Yet there are people out there thinking they can “play God.” What happens when we suddenly have to humanize our white victims too?
Are these deniers waiting for it to be someone they love before they decide to care? What happens when it’s not Tyre King running away from the cops with his BB gun, most likely because he’s scared? He was just 13. What happens when it’s not Tyre King, or Tamir Rice, but your 15-year-old cousin who you know wants to go to college, or maybe the NFL? He’s a good boy, just mischievous, like most kids his age. Or what if it’s someone else in your family, who has a mental disability and needs to be approached a certain way? These are the little details that you know, but the cops don’t. Now what? Will you question police training then?
We shouldn’t have to demand empathy, or humanity from fellow human beings. We shouldn’t have to justify the means we are using to gain that empathy and humanity when those people aren’t even willing to acknowledge the cause. So what is it going to take for the majority to say those names, identify with them and feel something?
Say their names.
