Black Lives, They Matter Here!
As the world held its collective breath for the verdict in the George Floyd murder trial, I was terrified. I was convinced, because of the depth of racism and white supremacy in this country that it was not a foregone conclusion that we would get the guilty, guilty, guilty verdict that seemed so completely obvious to even a 9 year old child! I feared maybe a hung jury or the lesser charge of manslaughter, which would have been incredibly f&%$ed up. I even had to argue with my father in Montana, who considers himself a liberal about how surprised I was when it finally was read. He’s a lovely man, but simply not seeing the ugly truth of this country he claims to care so deeply for.
That sense of dread and preparing for the worst case scenario is well-earned in our history of juries who viewed the evidence and voted to acquit anyway (or never even got the case!), especially when it comes to a white police officer murdering a Black man (or any BIPOC of any gender). I don’t think I have to re-hash all the heinous historical events, starting with the the first ships to arrive with enslaved human beings from Africa, to the lynchings after reconstruction to Emmitt Till to Rodney King (the only one who “survived” on this list, but was never the same) to Trayvon Martin to Tamir Rice to Walter Scott to Philando Castile to Michael Brown to Ahmed Arbery to Jorge Gomez to Sandra Bland to Breonna Taylor, etc. and unfortunately, still counting! There are literally too many to name.
Then we have all the white folks who claim they are not racist, yet continue to support the qualified immunity and give the police officers or self-appointed vigilantes the benefit of the doubt. There is absolutely zero equity in how they view the cases yet, we continue to pretend as if racism isn’t an issue… ACK!
As we marinated on what the verdict of one of the biggest cases in recent history means for moving our collective consciousness forward, we saw the killing of a Black teenage girl, Ma’Khia Bryant, seconds after arriving to the scene of a fight. Rather than restraining her with a less fatal shot (there were FOUR SHOTS) they murdered her… she was only 15, a regular Tik Tok’er and reminded me so much of my own darling 16 year old granddaughter, I want to sob for her loss. We also just had the murder of another unarmed Black man, Andrew Brown in North Carolina, as they were serving a warrant. The videos will show an indifference, yet again to the lives of our BIPOC siblings.
Its exhausting and I walk around with privilege as a white woman, imagine how traumatized the BIPOC community is as the state sanctioned murders continue. It infuriates me how completely oblivious the rest of the nation has been and continues to be with regards to how much we are all complicit. Yes, white America, we are part of the problem. After both sides gave their closing arguments there was a poll conducted that found 64% of Black people thought George Floyd was murdered and only 28% of white people thought it was murder. Um… WTF? That disparity is unacceptable and more troubling than I know what to do with. This was not taken from people watching the trial, it was random, but still, if a verdict comes back in 11 hours with guilty on all 3 counts, its pretty clear there is a disconnect and a lack of racial justice IQ. Which, honestly has been obvious for over 400 years!
I cried a lot this week. I cried after the verdict because it did not miraculously bring back George Floyd to his family. I cried because we as a collective are so quick to assume the worst of BIPOC and the best of white officers. Neither of those assumptions are accurate and the worst part is, the assuming the worst of BIPOC is getting them killed. I cried because of Ma’Khia Bryant and Adam Brown and the other people killed or beaten by our law enforcement that we don’t know about yet and in some cases, maybe never know their names.
I cried because I learned our new home state of Nevada has a police force focused on the public school system here and it seems there has not been much racial reconciliation work after the schools were inadvertently integrated. There was no intentional integration, it just happened with the bizarre growth of this city, like all of the odd neighborhoods around Vegas.
How do we address the larger systemic issues if there is so much fall out that we have to deal with crisis after crisis caused by the systemic failures? Intentionality matters and getting the folks creating the crises to stop the bleeding long enough for us to address some of the underlying issues would be helpful. Disruptions of systems may be the only way at this point. I know folks are weirded out by the abolishing police department movements but I actually think there is a way to do it without making all of us less safe. Let’s face it, BIPOC are not more safe the way it is now, and frankly, as the mother, step-mother and grandmother of BIPOC adults (and one teenager), I’m terrified!
Large public forums are still not possible at this time, but strategically placed protests or other actions can be effective. We MUST have a collective reconciliation and educate white folks in their own implicit biases and help them to understand how programmed they have been and how dangerous that programming is to ALL of us! None of us are free until ALL of us are free. Its called collective liberation and I for one am deeply committed to it. I’ve recently taken on a new key role in SURJ Las Vegas and have started rallying the anti-racist white folks of this interesting, transient city as well as connected with a Black led Reproductive Justice organization I’d love to partner with on many of these systemic issues; economic fairness, lack of affordable housing, over policed and under resourced public school system, accessible and safe healthcare, etc.
The urgency for me is that we have a desperate need for immediate intervention as people are getting evicted and beaten or killed as I write this. We have a moral imperative to change the system and stop the state sanctioned violence (physical, emotional, verbal, etc.) perpetrated on the bodies and in the lives of BIPOC. We have the opportunity as the world is listening. Its not ok, it should never be ok and its time we stop pretending any of it has been ok, ever.
RIP George Floyd, I hope your family and the families of the countless other BIPOC who have died at the hands of our police will find peace one day and that we all find a way to work towards a world that protects the lives of ALL of our people. And all BIPOC, Asian Lives Matter, Indigenous Lives Matter, Trans Lives Matter, etc. There is no hierarchy of oppression, its intersectional and we MUST start dismantling the systems that reward those who continue to oppress, no matter how you identify! Until then, say it with me and say it loud, for all to hear: “Black Lives They Matter Here!”
