I posted somewhat of an emotional rant a few days ago after watching the body camera footage of unarmed black Sam Dubose being shot in the head by white police officer Ray Tensing at point blank range…followed by Tensing blatantly lying to his fellow officers about what happened as a way of trying to make himself look innocent. I wrote what I wrote in the context of those fresh emotions. In reflection, I think there are a few key points that need to be understood, particularly by whites, regarding the #BlackLivesMatter conversation:
1. The reason that making an extra concerted effort to proclaim that black lives matter is because for most of our history, they haven’t.
Whether it be slavery, Jim Crow laws, or the free reign white police officers had throughout the Civil Rights Movement to savagely beat blacks without any legal repercussions, America has a long history of black lives not mattering. This has not been the case with any other demographic group to the extent seen among black people in U.S. history.
2. The lack of prosecution of police officers who kill unarmed black men is the key behind the #BlackLivesMatter movement.
Yes black people kill black people, and they are prosecuted for it. Yes black people kill police officers, and they are prosecuted for it. What #BlackLivesMatter is protesting is that when a black person gets killed by a white police officer, the officer is always taken at his word and is almost always not prosecuted (just like it’s been throughout America’s dark history). The recent Sam Dubose / Ray Tensing case is a good example of the progress made since Ferguson. Because of #BlackLivesMatter style protests and awareness, the police force at the University of Cincinnati adopted body cameras. (The UCPD began wearing body cameras in October 2014, Michael Brown was shot in Ferguson in August 2014, just two months prior). If Ray Tensing had not been wearing a body camera, it’s likely he would never have been prosecuted. His word would have been taken as truth and he’d continue to patrol the urban streets of Cincinnati, oppressing and abusing blacks. This is the point I was trying to make in my previous blog post and the point the #BlackLivesMatter movement has been making: Just because a white police officer says something is true, does not make it true. They should not be above the law. This in no way means that all white cops are liars–to make that jump is illogical and entirely counter-productive.
Police officers are going to continue killing unarmed black men. Sometimes these will be justified acts in the line of duty, sometimes they will not be. When it is not, these police officers need to go to jail for murder, period. Body cameras and other intentional efforts will make a huge difference in ensuring justice is served. These cameras also protect the word of police officers when they are telling the truth.
3. Saying that black lives matter in no way implies that police lives don’t or that white lives don’t or that all lives don’t or that police aren’t appreciated.
Black lives have consistently not mattered in American society for almost all of our history. This historical fact should be able to be pointed out for the wrong that it is without having to declare that white lives also matter or that police lives also matter or that good police officers are appreciated. It’s like apples and oranges.
#BlackLivesMatter isn’t meant to bring attention to blacks over and above other groups, it’s meant to give dignity to a group that has consistently had their dignity stripped from them.
Should we make a point to appreciate our police officers? Yes. Just as we should our firemen and our teachers and our military service men and women. But if someone does a blog post on black lives mattering, they also don’t need to touch all of these other bases, as if leaving someone out somehow means something derogatory toward that group.
It can’t be said in any more helpful terms than James said it in the comment thread of my original post about Dubose’s death:
4. White people tend to see things individualistically and ahistorically, while black people tend to see things communally and with history behind it.
Take the Baltimore riots for example. White people see a bunch of young “thugs” being violent and disorderly. Black people see a young generation of African Americans fed up with having no voice (a.k.a. whites being in almost all of the positions of power) and tired of taking it anymore (after generation after generation of their parents and grandparents having no voice).
In Ferguson, white people see one troubled teen in Michael Brown who was shoplifting and who may have charged at a police officer, whom they feel likely got what he deserved. Black people see an unarmed black man who witnesses say had his arms up saying “Don’t shoot,” get gunned down by a white police officer…just like they saw throughout the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s…or Rodney King in 1991…or any number of violent run ins with police in their own lives or their family members’ lives.
There is a deeply engrained subconscious fear that many white people have of black men. For some, it goes further than fear and into full blown prejudice and racism (and I understand that it can be argued that fear and prejudice are the same things). This fear (and prejudice) leads to SOME (NOT ALL) white police officers to be trigger happy when in an altercation with a black man. This type of thinking must end once and for all, and the #BlackLivesMatter movement is pushing for that. If Tamir Rice wasn’t black, it’s very doubtful he would have been shot and killed. This is simply reality, and this reality must change.
There is a reason that black parents have to instruct their children, especially their sons, how to live in white society without being killed by police. Yes, this is a regular conversation in black households. And it goes much much further than the simple, naive, arrogant expression I hear whites say online over and over again, “If they didn’t break the law, this wouldn’t happen.” This is simply reality, and this reality must change.
These memories don’t go away folks. And when an incident like Ferguson or Trayvon Martin hits the news, it brings all of these memories back in a flood.
As if black lives don’t matter.
We as white folks need to see the modern events surrounding race in the light of our history, history that is not divorced from the present but is interconnected with it and has been what has shaped it. If we don’t, and if we don’t validate this history, we invalidate our black brothers and sisters altogether because this is their story and their communal identity.
If there were a history of black men killing white police officers and not being prosecuted for it, those comparisons could be justified. But as is, replying to #BlackLivesMatter with things like #AllLivesMatter, #PoliceLivesMatter (#BlueLivesMatter), or #WhiteLivesMatter is disrespectful, unloving and in general, just misses the point.
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The link below is a TED Talk by Rich Benjamin about Whitopia, his 2 year journey living in 3 white communities as a black man. “I learned how a country can have racism without racists.”
http://www.ted.com/talks/rich_benjamin_my_road_trip_through_the_whitest_towns_in_america/transcript?language=en#t-773849
Thank you for sharing this!
Race is such a complicated issue. I keep writing things and then deleting them. White people as a whole have done a lot of bad things to black people. White people today for the most part ignore and justify the biases they have and the problems they create. They ignore the advantages they enjoy because of the actions and their ancestors and then pretend as though their place is 100% attributable to their virtue and hard work. If I were black it would really piss me off. There is an immense amount of anger that black people would be completely justified in having. But as I think about solutions to the problem, things like anger, force, blaming, shaming and any other tactics that are adversarial in nature simply will not work. I don’t say that to shirk responsibility as a white person or nullify the feelings of black people. But if the ultimate goal is harmony we can’t achieve it by creating greater disharmony. If I say “there’s something wrong with you that you have to change”, that may be a very accurate statement but it’s not an effective one in eliciting change. Saying “there is something wrong with each of us that we have to change” is far more effective in creating harmony.
This perspective isn’t exactly “fair”. It might be more fair to make all the white people be yelled at for a while and then spend a couple of centuries dealing with poverty and off the charts incarceration rates but we wouldn’t be any closer to harmony. God is a lot more interested in harmony than he is with fairness. God hasn’t been fair with you or me has he? I know my point of view is frustrating to some. It’s frustrating to me in a lot of ways but grace is the only way I’ve found that people can be redeemed to one another.
um Trayvon Martin is a horrible example. He was beating the living crap out of the other guy George. The other guy was following him yup true. He was screaming for help and his face was a massacre. He shot Trayvon because as it looked Trayvon may have beat him to death. Ferguson….Michael Brown was not a shoplifter. It was Robbery once he pushed the store clerk. I dont know why we have to always downplay the actions of black Criminals. I believe Michael Brown did assault the officer. I believe most officers regardless are not looking for opportunities to kill black people. We downplay the actions of Rodney King as he continuously was attacking the officers when the other three black men were not touched. Rodney King did get beaten and the officers did go to jail. Do we not remember that? Rodney King was a HUGE black man tazered twice high on PCP and a terrible threat. I just think we live in a world where all things are blamed on white people and it is just as unfair. Black “””criminals” are criminals. They are commiting crimes often when they interact with police officers. Its their guilt and fear that often confronts fearful cops of them and bad things happen. MOST of the time cops do NOT kill blacks. Mostly they dont. ALL LIVES MATTER blacks as well as whites as well as asians etc…
trayvon was using self defense 911 told Zimmerman “do not to follow him and to leave”Zimmerman did not listen he continued to follow Martin …mike brown had no weapon he had his hands up and the officer still shot him at least 6 time…McDonald got shot for no aperant reason… tamair rice got shot in a park a PARK 12 years old man 12 they did not even ask him a question about why he was pointing a BB gun at other people when the cops arrived they immediately shot and kill tamair smh… Eric Garner got choked to death had Asthma and waas saying “I Cant Breath STOP! I Cant Breath” but the they didnt stop then he died from being choked to death…….SMFH…..and i did a school project on cops killing teens and kids and i only saw 1 white person and the cop went straight to prison but when Zimmerman killed trayvon he got out nothing happened…. Darren Wilson no prison no indictment .. john van dyke got lucky and got out on bail but #blacklivesmatter #imatter #rice #mike #mcdonald #martin #garner
Powerful comment. Thank you Jessiah.
I’m not sure much will be accomplished if 1. False narratives keep getting pushed, even after the evidence is examined. 2. People start being honest about the sin of all involved.
You might actually start seeing effectual change if you addressed the sins of BLM as well as that of whites.
We are all fallen decedents of the first Adam, and need the Gospel of the second Adam, not just white guilt, motivating us.
Look up Voddie Baucham’s sermon on Genesis 10, it is much more Gospel driven than most of the conversation going on lately.
Well, you don’t really know that Trayvon was beating Zimmerman at all, you really just have zimmerman’s word to go by. Zimmerman’s own claim isn’t that he shot Trayvon because he was being beaten, it was that Trayvon was *going for his gun* to murder him with it and Trayvon specifically said that he was going to murder Zimmerman. But really NOBODY knows anything concerning trayvon’s actions because nothing was actually proven concerning Trayvon’s actions. Keep in mind that Zimmerman was the one that killed someone and only a fool would confess to murder based on how little evidence there was guaranteed to be considering the poor visibility that night in that dark alley.
There is a deeply engrained subconscious fear that many black men have of white police officers. For some, it goes further than fear and into full blown prejudice and racism (and I understand that it can be argued that fear and prejudice are the same things). This fear (and prejudice) leads to SOME (NOT ALL) black men to be trigger happy when in an altercation with white police officers. This type of thinking must end once and for all…
#TruthMatters
Far more white people are killed by black men every year than police killing black men, so irrational fear is ok in that instance too?
“..replying to #BlackLivesMatter with things like #AllLivesMatter, #PoliceLivesMatter (#BlueLivesMatter), or #WhiteLivesMatter is disrespectful, unloving and in general, just misses the point.”
This from the pastor who wrote, “Please White Police Officers, Stop Murdering Black Men”
Talk about being disrespectful, unloving and missing the point.
On that post, someone left a comment that there’s 348,000 white police officers and asked how many you thought actually wanted to kill blacks. You didn’t respond but it’s a good question. Do you think it’s 50%, 174,00, or 10%, 34,800, or 1%. 3,480, or .1%, 348 white police officers who want to murder black men? Unless you honestly believe that it’s a significant number, then the point is that the overwhelming majority of white police officers are not out to kill blacks, and that headlines like yours do more to set back race relations than any suggestions you make to improve them.
#AllLivesMatter as principle and practice is the point. #AllLivesMatter as a thought terminating cliché is missing the point. The first is difficult and dangerous. The second is easy and safe.