Tag: #blacklivesmatter

#Dallas

Another day, another tragedy. At a peaceful Black Lives Matter protest in Dallas last night – a rally where protesters and cops were taking pictures together, where peace reigned, where we were seeing solidarity – murderers struck. Armed with sniper rifles and highly coordinated, they managed to kill 5 police officers and injure 7 others.

This is domestic terrorism. This is terrible and unacceptable. The actions of these terrorists undermines the goals of the Black Lives Matter movement and it’s supporters. Not because the murderers represent BLM (they most certainly don’t), but because this becomes an easy way for BLM critics to paint the movement as violent and dangerous.

I don’t have a lot to say this morning. Last night was surreal and scary, and it’s still difficult to process this morning, as more news comes in and we watch the videos from Dallas. I only hope and pray that this event, rather than tearing our nation further apart, can instead rally us all together.

Violence to protest violence is not the answer. I know it’s not my place, as a member of the oppressor class, to tell the oppressed how to respond to their oppression. And violence certainly would seem justified and logical at this point. But, as a Christian, I know unequivocally that Jesus showed us that the only way to break the cycle of violence is through non-violent action. Not non-violent inaction, not laying down, but concerted, imaginative action that gets attention and shows the futility of continued violence against one another.

Jesus was wept last night. Weeping at the death, and our inability to understand that only in solidarity and complete regard for all human life- black, white, police – will we find peace. I pray we can begin to understand that.

While I don’t have many words today, my wife Arianna wrote something beautiful and moving in the middle of the night as she watched the news coverage. I will be sharing that here later today.

#PhilandoCastile

We didn’t even have 24 hours to mourn Alton Sterling, and here we are again, learning of another unjust death of a black man at hands of a police officer.

philandocastilePhilando Castile was a 32-year-old cafeteria worker at a Montessori school in Falcon Heights, Minnesota. He was pulled over for a busted tail light last night by an officer from the St. Anthony Police Department. The officer asked Philando to hand over his ID; Philando complied, and also informed the officer that he was licensed to carry a concealed weapon, and was carrying at the time. At this point, the officer fired 4 shots into the car.

Philando’s girlfriend, Lavish Reynolds, and her 4-year-old daughter, were in the car. Immediately after the shooting, Lavish begin recording the aftermath with Facebook Live. The video, which you can find online, shows Philando bleeding out, as Lavish narrates what just happened. The officer can be seen still pointing his weapon into the car, but seeming to panic, yelling curse words wildly.

Philando Castile did not deserve to die. He committed no crime. He did nothing wrong. In fact, he did exactly what we hear constantly black men are supposed to do in encounters with police: he was calm, he followed orders, he informed the officer he was a concealed carrying. And yet, despite following all the things he was told he was supposed to do to avoid being killed, Philando Castile was still killed.

The problem in America is not wild young black men. The problem in encounters between police and black men and women is not the black men and women. The problem is that black lives are not valued like white lives. Black lives are feared, and considered dispensable.

In the video, we see an officer who is panicky and terrified and out of control. If you are a police officer, and you are terrified of being a police officer and doing police officer things (like routine traffic stops) then you should consider a new career. Police officers have a duty, to protect the lives of citizens. You can’t do that if you are so afraid of your fellow citizens that you are willing to kill them as a first option.

I keep writing these posts about Black Lives Matter and police violence, and I want to clarify something. I’m a straight white man. I have every privilege and opportunity. I don’t fear for my life when I see a police officer. I don’t write these things claiming to speak for the black community, or to say I can fully comprehend or understand the fear they live with.

I write these things as an attempt to be a conscience to white folks. Because it seems to me that, for far too many white people in America, these kinds of injustices just don’t matter. Too many people who look like me just don’t care, don’t get it, or even worse, automatically defend the white police officer.

That’s what I’ve seen constantly since writing about Alton Sterling yesterday. Too many white men and women on social media ridiculing a dead man, finding reasons to justify his death, practicing dehumanization. What I wrote yesterday is 100% accurate:

The racists and apologists out there will begin throwing these things out there, to distract attention from the clear actions shown in a cell phone video of what happened. They will trot out his past mug shots, and other pictures that emphasize his blackness. They will call him a thug. They will call him a criminal. They will blame him for his own death.They will say these things to dehumanize Alton Sterling, to make his death unimportant, to make him seem like a danger to society. They will do this to ease their own consciences of the guilt of being a proponent of a system that destroys black bodies.

So, white folks, how do you defend the officer in Falcon Heights, Minnesota? What will it take for you to wake up and realize that real, actual human beings are being killed every damn day, and for you to actually care that this is happening? What will it take for you to stop defending injustice and murder, and instead call on our nation to begin respecting black lives, valuing them, letting them live?

Yesterday, we saw Jesus bleeding out in a parking lot in Baton Rogue, Louisiana. Today, we saw Jesus dying in the passenger seat of his car in Falcon Heights, Minnesota. Where will we see Jesus being crucified tomorrow? And will we even know or care?

#AltonSterling

It seems that, no matter how many times we insist that “Black Lives Matter,” it still just isn’t getting through to people. Black lives are still disposable in America.

alton-sterling-10The latest example came late last night, when Alton Sterling, a 37 year old black man selling CD’s outside of a local convenience store in Baton Rogue, Louisiana, was thrown to the ground by two officers, and then, while they had him pinned there with their knees in his back, they shot and killed him at point blank range.

Alton was the father of 5 children. He was known as the “CD Man,” because he often sold CD’s outside of that store to make a little extra cash, something hard to come by in an area where the median salary is $27,000.

Those two officers rolled up on Alton last night, and reminded all of America, once again, that black lives don’t matter to our white society. Alton is a reminder, just like Mike Brown was, and Tamir was, and Eric was, and Freddie was, and Trayvon was, and so many others are.

It doesn’t matter that Alton had a past criminal record. He had done nothing, and was doing nothing, worthy of capital punishment, of cold-blooded execution.

It doesn’t matter that he may or may not have had a gun in his pocket, something perfectly legal in Louisiana, thanks to a complete open carry law, passed by the same folks who will demonize him for it. Remember, the 2nd Amendment only really applies to white America.

The racists and apologists out there will begin throwing these things out there, to distract attention from the clear actions shown in a cell phone video of what happened. They will trot out his past mug shots, and other pictures that emphasize his blackness. They will call him a thug. They will call him a criminal. They will blame him for his own death.They will say these things to dehumanize Alton Sterling, to make his death unimportant, to make him seem like a danger to society. They will do this to ease their own consciences of the guilt of being a proponent of a system that destroys black bodies.

When I wrote my piece last year entitled “Why Black Lives Matter is Crucial, All Lives Matter is Unnecessary, and White Lives Matter is Just Racist,” I got a lot of pushback from folks saying that BLM was basically a solution looking for a problem, that our racial problems magically disappeared in the late 60s, that white people are the ones actually being persecuted in this country. A year later, I still get comments over there to that effect. My fellow white people can’t stand the spotlight being off of us, can’t stand the idea that other folks want to their full humanity acknowledged and not dismissed.

Alton Sterling shows how wrong that worldview is.

What happened in Baton Rogue is a profound injustice. It was completely unnecessary. It was disgusting, enraging and despicable.

It was also completely typical.

Let me close with the words I ended that earlier piece with:

I have no doubt that, were Jesus alive today, he would be saying Black Lives Matter and marching in the streets of Ferguson and Baltimore. And really, he already is, in the form of every human who says these words and marches for justice. I want to be on the side of Jesus, and the side of justice and truth. That’s why I support Black Lives Matter.

Jesus was shot and killed in a parking lot in Baton Rogue last night. Did we white Americans recognize him in that video? Or did we just see another expendable black body, and forget, again, that where the poor and oppressed and weak are, there is Jesus?

For updates and impassioned commentary on the death of Alton Sterling, and the protests happening now, I highly recommend following Shaun King. You can also find the cell phone video of Alton’s death there.