Editor’s note: The opinions presented in this column are the author’s and do not imply any endorsement from Downtown Devil.
The thing about living in America is understanding that you have rights. You have the right to bear arms, you have the right of freedom of speech and, most importantly, you have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness… if you’re a white male.
Lives have been taken and liberties have been trampled on while pursuing happiness by a corrupt system that promotes freedom but only to a specific race or people. A majority of white Americans refuse to see the issues that are presented in front of them by their minority counterparts.
When the Native American community informed the country that their land was being taken for an oil pipeline, they were ignored. When the Latino community broadcasted that their families were being caged like animals, it was shoved to the side. When the African American community stated and proved that systematic racism is a rampant issue, it was met with nothing but ignorance and disdain.
The thing that separates the Black issues from the Latino and Native American issues is that those groups were compensated in some form or fashion.
Native Americans own casino gambling and have rights to other land and in the Latinx culture, for certain cities, asylum cities were established as well as other government assistance. However, systematic oppression has been going on since the first African was brought to this country as a slave and hasn’t changed.
When we fought for our rights for equality, we received affirmative action, that long hard battle didn’t just help the African American community, it helped everyone even though we were on the front lines. When we ask for reparation, a topic that has been ignored for decades, for the pain and inhumane suffering of slavery we’re ignored or told by presidential candidate Joe Biden: “I don’t feel responsible for the sins of my father and grandfather. I feel responsible for what the situation is today, for the sins of my own generation. And I’ll be damned if I feel responsible to pay for what happened 300 years ago.”
This is an example of how the system sees African Americans, a 300-year-old wound that can be covered up by a one-size-fits-all Band-Aid. When we speak on modern-day lynching, we are seen as a race who wishes to dismantle a fragile system built by old white men who only want to stay above every gender and every race. The system as a whole is corrupt to the core and as African Americans, we have been at the bottom of the totem pole and the only thing we experience and see is various forms of oppression, slavery and death.
Death today is modern-day lynching, and when mentioned, some people naturally assume that it involves a tree, a rope, a dead black man and other out-of-date concepts, but it’s not.
In these times, you take everything away but the dead black man and you add a white police officer.
The term comes from the perspective that when these officers abuse their power, it’s always in front of a crowd of people or presented in the media, broadcasted on every news channel and social media site.
These lynchings are seen by millions, they are projected into our brains and either instill fear that leaves black people with anxiety and fear making them question ‘Am I next?’, ‘Will I get jumped by five cops?’, or ‘Will I end up with a bullet in the back for a traffic stop?’. It’s also seen as a form of entertainment that has people asking ‘What did he or she do?’.
The methods and actions of cops are rarely ever questioned or investigated until the outcry of a community forces certain actions to be taken; when those actions are taken, the punishment for murder or excessive force is usually a note on their record, paid leave and/or a transfer. If it does get to court, the punishment for a white officer murdering an unarmed black person is a slap on the wrist, but if a cop of color shoots an unarmed white woman, like Justine Ruszcyk, the system suddenly becomes fair and efficient.
This a repeated cycle that does nothing but let African Americans know that their trip to the hospital or morgue is just a minor issue when enforcing their version of the law. Peaceful words are filtered into nagging, protest is seen as an inconvenience, and our fight for proper equality and justice is just seen as a burden by people who only see and reap the benefits of an out-of-date system.
The people who only see the good in the justice system are the people who have only been treated well by the system.
These are the same people who chant “all lives matter” just to counter the Black Lives Matter movement. These are the same people who mocked and shamed activist and NFL player Colin Kaepernick for taking a knee to the national anthem because of injustice. These are the people who look up any form of past bad deeds to justify a person’s death at the hands of the law. These are people who enjoy seeing a black man’s eyes glaze over with fear and panic as a gun is pressed against him.
Most of these acts of brutality usually happen all over a routine traffic stop or a call from a person who feels that a black person’s presence is uncomfortable, usually by a white person who knows their comfort is more important than a person’s life, as seen from recent privileged white woman Amy Cooper.
We, as people, are angry at the fact that no one seems to understand that we have validated paranoia when it comes to the justice system. It’s hard for people who have no fear of the system to see that when a cop stops you, he has his word and the full system behind his back.
These officers can beat, maim and kill a person and all they have to say is “I feared for my life” or “they were resisting arrest.”
The feeling of being in a completely helpless situation where you’re either going to die or go to jail is a foreign concept to people who know the system is built for them, that when a cop speaks his oath to protect and serve that oath is only meant for certain people.
As a race we understand if there is no justice, there is no peace.
We do not wish to dismantle the system, we only wish to update, fix or correct the system that treats its biggest contributors fairly and justly. We have no land of our own to go to, no country in which we can go back to when things get tough. We only have this country, whose soil is soaked in the blood of the many who help build it to what it is today.
Every protest isn’t about anti-patriotism. It’s an outcry to a system that’s been ignoring our words of anger for decades and when all else fails what are we expected to do with this corked anger? What are we to do when all legal action is taken and there are no results? What are we to do when no one cares to listen?
These questions have been asked a million times over and not one person who believes in the system has an answer or they can’t properly think of one because they have no fear of something they won’t ever experience.
So until there is a proper answer, we as race and culture will continue to fight for change that’s fair. We will continue to protest and find ways that make life for the next generation better so a child doesn’t have to worry about being shot by a grown white man or have panic attacks when he sees a shield and a gun.
All we ask is to either join us and help make things right for a race that has done nothing but give, or stay out of the way while we make things right for ourselves.
Contact the reporter at twgarret@asu.edu.
