Black Lives Matter – Page 4

1974. 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.

No racism.
Image by Martynas Barzda and is in the public domain.

Racism is as deadly as AIDS, as contagious as influenza, and as contemptible as human sacrifice—which indeed is what it is.

It has reached epidemic proportions in the US, and not for the first time.

As with most diseases, some groups appear to be particularly vulnerable both to becoming infected and to spreading their infections to others; these groups include, in frightening proportions, people responsible for the public welfare such as the police.

Even in the corporate media, and especially in the alternative media, evidence of brutal police harassment of people of color seems nearly ubitquitous:

Episcopal priest on road trip with interracial family shares harrowing story of police harassment

Police Harassment and Violence Against the Transgender Community

Undoubtedly, you are already aware of the rash of recent incidents wherein police attacked unarmed people of color and beat and/or murdered them by one means or another—in public places or paddy wagons or jail cells.

Here are a few recent cases you may have missed:

Walter Scott

Andres Green (15-years-old)

And here is a broad sampling of people of color killed in police custody between 2005 and 2014.

Virulent diseases can evolve into a number of different forms, and in the case of racism, forcible invasions of the vaginas of women of color are among the loathsome manifestations of the disease.

Imagine such things happening to you or someone you love.

But also recognize that while pernicious, the disease is not irradicable.

Sometimes a single person speaking out against injustice can make a difference:

A White Woman Confronts Police Harassing a Black Man, and the Result Is Stunning

And it took just one person to start a petition that gained thousands of signatures asking the United States Department of Justice to take over the investigation of the death in police custody of Sandra Bland :

Take Over The Investigation Into The Death of Sandra Bland From The Waller County, Texas Police Department.

Moreover, in the wake of the long overdue and desperately needed media attention to police lethality, major group initiatives have emerged, such as Black Lives Matter. Read this article about the significance of this movement

Black Lives Matter joins a long line of protest movements that have shifted public opinion — most recently, Occupy Wall Street

Climb aboard and be part of the solution.

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology

If Trayvon Martin/Tamir Rice/Eric Garner could talk

Warning: this disease is contagious, deadly, and right in your own backyard