National WHAT Day?

“Stop police violence”. “This clip art is derived from clip art that was released into the public domain by the Open Clip Art Library.

Have you heard the news? Friday, October 21, is the 21st National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation Day.  There are protest activities scheduled all around the country—including Massachusetts   –and internationally.

Engagingpeace has expressed concern over the militarization of police, and featured several posts on police violence—with reference, for example, to Trayvon Martin , Tamir Rice, and Eric Garner  and the 68-year-old grandmother terrorized by a SWAT team that invaded the wrong house.

Not all police officers are violent; not all police officers are racist.  Moreover, many police officers serve in dangerous areas, face genuine threats, and endure grueling occupational stress. But the problems of police bullying, violence, and murder are real.  It is worth recognizing the value of attempts to address the problems.

If Trayvon Martin/Tamir Rice/Eric Garner could talk

if-beale-st-could-talk1974. Does it seem like a long time ago? A whole different era—before omnipresent computers spying on everyone, before killer drones, before ISIS? Well, maybe.

James Baldwin published If Beale Street Could Talk in 1974. If you read the book, you will have to admit that the experiences of young black men in 1974 sound very much like the travails of people of color in this country today, especially if they grow up in poverty but even if they just happen to be of the wrong color in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Although If Beale Street Could Talk is an engaging and haunting love story, it is an even more haunting story of racism, particularly institutional racism, police racism, racism that is, directly and indirectly, murderous—to bodies, to minds, to communities, to our nation.

If you want to understand better the necessity and significance of movements like Black Lives Matter, read If Beale Street Could Talk. And if Trayvon and Tamir and Eric and thousands of other young people of color whose lives were brutally ended could talk, they might want to say something like:

“Of course all lives matter. But you white people just assume your life matters, and you assume you have rights, and you demand respect for your life and your rights. If you think you’re not getting what you deserve,  you get rip-roaring mad, and you feel downright entitled to look for scapegoats and lock them up or shoot them. And sometimes you even vote for crazy people who promise to get rid of all the bad guys troubling your lives. But if you’re black, you know your life doesn’t matter one whit to millions of white people, you know you’re dispensable, and you know your life is at risk even if you’re just driving your car down the road with a broken tail light.”

For anyone who wants to understand why some people feel the need to point out that their lives matter, that black lives matter, too,  I urge you to read James Baldwin. He’s as relevant today as he was 42 years ago, and that is chillingly, distressingly relevant.