This is Difficult, June 1, 2020, by Catherine Onyemelukwe, for Sister Grannies
Amy Cooper gave the most eloquent and blatant demonstration of racism last week in Central Park. When she pulled out her phone and said she was calling 911 to say an African-American man was threatening her, she knew she faced no consequences. She would be believed. She would not be criticized for disobeying the rule about having a dog on a leash. And she was putting a black man in danger of his life!
I love Trevor Noah. Last night I was looking for a little diversion before continuing to work on my essay. I spotted a Trevor Noah YouTube video I didn’t think I had seen and opened it. He spoke seriously and with deep thought about the tragedies we are facing. For 20 minutes he described what he sees happening. Here’s the link to Trevor Noah’s YouTube video.
I took my comments about Amy Cooper from him. He also talked about why the protests are no surprise. The built-up anger of generations and especially the recent weeks, combined with the pandemic, had no place to go. He says a society works because there is a social contract; we all agree to obey certain basic rules of behavior. But today that social contract has been broken. The police who are supposed to protect all of us instead kill black people. Then they are not prosecuted and even if prosecuted, not convicted.
People may say, “Why riot and loot?” The question should be, “Why not loot?” The social contract which says those in power should uphold protection for everyone has been completely disregarded. So how can black people believe they should still uphold this failed social contract? Why should they?
I take up from Trevor’s comment: I cannot condemn the violence. I am saddened by it, but until we can have a social contract that works for all of us and does not discriminate based on skin color, I am not surprised. I am amazed we waited this long!
Another brilliant public statement came from Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor in a May 29, New York Times opinion piece. Her comments are similar to Trevor Noah’s. She said,
“The anger exploding on the streets runs much deeper than the obvious hypocrisies in the disparate treatment of white, conservative protesters and a multiracial crowd of people objecting to police brutality. Over the last several weeks, there has been the taped murder of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia, the vicious shooting of Breonna Taylor by the Louisville police and the killing of Tony McDade, a black trans man, by police officers in Tallahassee. These cases were ignored until public outcry forced the nation to pay attention, even as the public has been riveted to the news because of stay-at-home orders. Meanwhile, there is the highly publicized case of a white woman in Central Park calling the police on a black man when he asked her to put her dog on a leash. The potential consequences of that call were made clear by the killing of George Floyd.
“But what is also unmistakable in the bitter protests in Minneapolis and around the country is the sense that the state is either complicit or incapable of effecting substantive change.”
Another writer pointed out that even in the riots, the police tried to protect the corporate offices and large stores, not the smaller shops often owned by African-Americans or immigrants.
Now with the pandemic, we have learned that the virus is affecting people of color at double the rate it affects whites. And then there is the attempt to blame black people for their greater mortality rate, ignoring the systemic racism that impacts every aspect of black lives.
For examples of the systemic racism that affects the daily lives of black people, think about this list that has been circulating in the last few days:
I have privilege as a white person because I can do all of these things without thinking twice:
I can go birding (#ChristianCooper)
I can go jogging (#AmaudArbery)
I can take out my wallet (#AmadouDiallo)
I can run (#WalterScott)
I can breathe (#EricGarner)
I can play loud music (#JordanDavis)
I can sell CDs (#AltonSterling)
I can walk from the corner store (#MikeBrown)
The list has another 20+ things I can do without thinking because of my white privilege. The whole list is here. You may have seen it already – it’s making the rounds on Facebook.
The last item on the list?
I can be arrested without the fear of being murdered (#GeorgeFloyd) White privilege is real.
At the end of the list are these words: Take a minute to consider a Black person’s experience today. One prominent black person, Teju Cole, author, journalist, and photographer, said this in a Facebook post this week:
“These are things we’ve seen before. But somehow, this time, there’s a shift of tone. Folks sounded so tired, distressed, sad. . . I don’t know if non-black folks know how hard these past couple of days have hit.”
In addition to all the public events, we also heard from a black church member who lives in Orange.
“For the second time this week, Siddiq was questioned by the police…for walking around our neighborhood. The first time, THREE police cars stopped and questioned my son because “someone had alerted them that a suspicious male was walking in the neighborhood.” After confirming his address, the officers allowed Siddiq to go home. Siddiq asked me not to take any action at that time.
“This afternoon, Siddiq was questioned AGAIN. The officers said that they had received two phone calls from people who were ‘extremely agitated about him walking through the neighborhood.’ When Siddiq arrived home, he broke down. My stoic, reserved son sobbed onto my shoulder because he didn’t feel he’d done anything wrong and, short of staying indoors, doesn’t know how to avoid further harassment.”
Walking while black, in his own neighborhood!
The protests happening in the last few days, likely to continue tonight, are not surprising at all. After 400 years of being used, brutalized, denied rights, and feeling powerless, it’s no wonder that our black citizens turn to the streets in anger and frustration. It’s time for us white citizens to join.