In a previous article, I shared the voices of three people of color with whom I have had a personal connection, and that of a fourth whom I suppose I’ll never meet,  but whose interview I found compelling. My obvious intent: to use my small voice to direct attention to the louder voices of those most affected by racist policies and thinking, and to ask my white brothers and sisters to just listen. Don’t react. Don’t troll. Don’t “yeah-but.” Just for once in your lives – just listen.

Apparently There are many who do not want this conversation.

If I say that Black lives matter, someone deflects by voicing opposition to vandalism and burning buildings.

If I say that the effects of generations of racism is exacting a heavy toll on the “community of color”, another says that I am the racist for talking about racism.

If I point out that racism as a social construct is the product of identifying those of a particular skin tone as worthy of less (less freedom, less respect, less education, less rights), then I am told that racism is a matter of history and should not be referenced today.

If I acknowledge that too many black lives are being destroyed by an irrational police response which turns failing taillights, unfastened seat-belts, selling of single cigarettes, selecting a toy rifle while shopping in Walmart, holding a toy gun when only 12 years old, courteously informing a policeman that he had a registered firearm, knowingly or unknowingly passing a counterfeit bill, missing child-support payments, sleeping off too much alcohol, etc. ad infinitum into capital offenses adjudicated by immediate lethal force – then I am told that “white people also get shot by policemen” or “blue lives matter too.”

If I advocate for greater insight into the racial conditioning to which we have all been exposed, which must be at the root of continuous, deadly, over-reactions against Black people, then I am told that I am somehow the problem, that I am divisive.

And when I suggest that my white brothers and sisters might try to listen better, then I an scolded for daring to tell other whitefolk what they should feel.

Or if  I or anyone else would suggest that it’s more complex than race only, but involves a police mentality that has three armed policeman firing over thirty rounds into an apartment registered to one female tenant (bullets which had two other families cowering in terror as the rounds penetrated walls to adjacent apartments) all because a terrified guest fired one round as he tried to defend against the violation of her home — if I suggest that, well then all hell breaks loose!

Up go the memes. And the accusations.

• Suddenly, I am against the police, due process, and all that is right and just.
• She wasn’t law-abiding enough I am told, to deserve protection from a midnight invasion, nor should she be allowed any due process.

• She was currently dating a drug dealer – except that she wasn’t. Neither she nor her current boyfriend had been charged with anything, and no drugs were in her apartment.
• She had dated a drug dealer two years ago, and therefore, therefore, …THEREFORE WHAT?

 

And then there are the “Besides” which somehow would seek to diminish the tragedy. “I know she is dead and all, but besides…”

• Besides, we are told, she wasn’t really an EMT when she was shot six times. No, she currently was working two jobs as an Emergency Room Technician, aspiring to one day become a nurse.
• Besides, she wasn’t shot in her bed – No, she was shot in her hallway on the way to her front door, as if that really matters.
• Besides, We should instead be worried about the injured policemen (who fortunately was evacuated in time to receive critical emergency medical attention) and not about people like Breonna who died as her distraught boyfriend called her mother and 911, still unaware that police officers had attempted the forced entry, and then had fired blindly over thirty times.
• Besides, no one really knows who fired the fatal shot. Yet five of the 30+ rounds fired by three policemen were listed as the cause of death, according to the death certificate. And the prosecutors cannot build a case, we are told, because they don’t know which of the three policeman actually fired the fatal round, as they collectively sprayed bullets into Breonna’s apartment.

And so I would respectfully ask:

Can you quit “otherizing” them?

Can you see a Black couple, committed but not yet married, returning to her home after a pleasant meal at Texas Roadhouse, to watch a movie together?

Can you imagine your home being violated, your neighbors’ lives threatened, and the carnage that followed?

Do you realize that you have acquaintances of color who may not feel safe in their cars, on the street, or in their homes? And that it’s futile to call 911?

The question posed by NPR’s Kenya Young still stands:

Are you here with me? You know, are you still a little bit further behind trying to catch up? Or are you finally here with me now? Are we ready to have this conversation?

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