It feels like every day there is an officer involved shooting that kills a black man. It is time we collectively stop looking the other way, thinking this will go away. It is time we all speak up.
________
Last night I sat in my daughters’ room and watched as my fiancé read to them. My mind couldn’t shake the video I watched earlier of a young 15 year old boy crying out for his father. His father, who was murdered in front of a convenience store the night before. A murder he has likely watched on video and now will never forget…or if he for any reason hasn’t seen it, he knows millions of people around the world have.
Alton Sterling didn’t make it home that night. Simply because he is black. He was doing exactly what he is legally allowed to do. Exactly what the NRA would argue every American should do…or do they just mean every white American??
After waking up this morning to the images of the aftermath of Philando Castille being shot in front of his girlfriend and child, as he reached for his registration, the reality seems to be that our license to carry isn’t based on a paper document, but on the color of our skin.
I can’t wrap my mind around a world that could prevent me from making it home, could rob my children of their father, could end my life at any moment, for no other reason but skin color.
These senseless and entirely unnecessary deaths of black men in this country, at the hands of law enforcement has been out of control for some time now. It has gone from upsetting to infuriating to now feeling hopeless. I’ve all but given up engaging friends in a discussion about what can change. Far too many prefer to stay in the bubble, pretend it’s happening “somewhere else” or doesn’t impact them.
It’s time more voices are heard. It’s time more white voices are heard. I don’t want to hand over a world to my children that looks like ours will look, if we don’t fix this.
I can’t wrap my mind around a world that could prevent me from making it home, could rob my children of their father, could end my life at any moment, because of the color of my skin.
|
And I’m not just talking about police brutality. This is about justice in general. Let these stats sink in for a minute.
Incarceration
-One of every three black American males born today can expect to go to prison in his lifetime.
-African Americans now constitute nearly 1 million of the total 2.3 million incarcerated population
-African Americans are incarcerated at nearly six times the rate of whites
-African Americans represent 12% of the total population of drug users, but 38% of those arrested for drug offenses, and 59% of those in state prison for a drug offense.
-African Americans serve virtually as much time in prison for a drug offense (58.7 months) as whites do for a violent offense (61.7 months).
Poverty
-In 2010, the poverty threshold was $22,314 for a family of four.
-Among racial and ethnic groups, African Americans had the highest poverty rate, 27.4 percent, followed by Hispanics at 26.6 percent and whites at 9.9 percent.
-45.8 percent of young black children (under age 6) live in poverty, compared to 14.5 percent of white children.
Education
– 54% of African Americans graduate from high school, compared to more than three quarters of white
and Asian students.
– Nationally, African American male students in grades K-12 were nearly 2½ times as likely to be suspended from school in 2000 as white students.
– Only 14% of African American eighth graders score at or above the proficient level. These results reveal that millions of young people cannot understand or evaluate text, provide relevant details, or support inferences about the written documents they read.
◊♦◊
There are clearly two different Americas. These stats don’t represent the one I have experienced. When I think of my daughters, it isn’t the one they face. I can’t grasp sending my child into the world to face this reality. Who is prepared for that?
We live in a society that is slanted against a segment of the population in significant ways. Not only are black men and women at a disadvantage in essentially every conceivable category, they are often treated as if this burden is entirely their own doing.
our license to carry isn’t based on a paper document, but on the color of our skin.
|
Alton Sterling’s death isn’t the breaking point. That should have happened a long time ago. Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, Sandra Bland all should have been avoided. The point at which these events are happening too frequently was a long time ago. But since we failed then, we need to act now.
It is time more of us speak up. More of us have to contact our representatives at every level of government, and demand change. More of us need to get involved in our own communities, with effort to improve the systems. We all post pictures and videos of our efforts to raise awareness for military suicide, the ALS Challenge our walks to find a cure for breast cancer. While all important, it is time this issue became the one filling our social media feeds. No matter how uncomfortable this topic feels, it is too important for us to not change.
I don’t want to raise my children in a society where it’s okay that people die every day, at the hands of those sworn to protect and serve, simply because of the color of their skin.
Photo credit: flickr.com/rosecoloredphoto
Also by Patrick Sallee
An Open Letter to the Woman I Want (A Man’s View) |
Online Dating Has Turned Us Into Unicorn Hunters |
To My Daughters: You Are More Powerful Than You Ever Imagined |
In some ways, it seems worse now than when we were marching for civil rights, integrating swimming pools and the like in the 60s. We worked so hard — some even shed blood, others died — for civil rights and, later for women’s rights. Then we thought it was pretty much done and we felt good about what we had accomplished, how far we’d come. It’s heartbreaking that we have regressed so far while we tested in the comfort of our accomplishments.