But this article is not about race.
Itās easy to talk about race when a Charleston church is bloodstained and the murderer of nine Black people says that it is about race. When America is having Jim Crow flashbacks of four young girls killed in a Selma church bombing.
Itās easy to talk about race when according to the NAACP Criminal Fact Sheet āfive times as many whites are using drugs as African Americans, yet African Americans are sent to prison for drug offenses at 10 times the rate of whites.ā When according to Pew Research, Black men are six times more likely to be incarcerated than whites.
Itās easy to talk about race in America when even white people are using the ārā-word and justice looks color-coded. But thatās not what this article is about.
Itās about a Spanish newspaper, El Pais , quoting Tory Russell. “This is not Americaās or the Black communityās problem. It is a global problem of people who feel oppressed.ā
Itās about a tipping point where people all over the world know about the policemanās Billy club, government gone wild, and that proverbial straw.
The recent demise of Baltimoreās young Freddie Gray, a Black man mysteriously dead after an illegal arrest, set Baltimore ablaze. But the much publicized, ājustifiedā extra-judicial killings of countless Black men were Baltimoreās excelsior and Freddie Gray was just the match. Police perpetrators are usually spared the orange jumpsuit. The Malcolm X Grassroots Movement reported that as of November 2014, 91 percent of the police shootings were found ājustifiedā. Ten police were actually charged but there were only two convictions of manslaughter. I might mention that in Baltimore City, the Baltimore Sun reported that since 2011 the city has paid about US$5.7 million in compensations for police violence against citizens.
But Iām not buying the notion that hordes of roving Black people will seek justice by killing random white people in a race war. However, the idea of a violent revolt against āwhite privilegeā that has been simmering since they called Harriet Tubman, Moses, is a fear that lingers just beneath the thin veil of the racial divide.
Is there a racial divide in America? According to the media sound bytes and self-appointed spokespeople, yes there is. But racial dialogue cannot be had by TV talking heads hawking the next shiny thing. Is the threat of a race war just a sexy sound-byte, or is there truth in advertising?
Also, interracial marriages are on the rise. The Pew Research Center reported, ā8.4 percent of all current U.S. marriages are interracial, up from 3.2 percent in 1980.ā
It is also worth mentioning that America elected a Black president for two terms, birth certificate and drones notwithstanding.
First of all the facts of police shootings are in dispute with regard to race. Nicholas Kristol, syndicated columnist, wrote in an article entitled āWhen Whites Just Donāt Get Itā that Blacks are 21 times more likely to be shot by police.ā Fox news says the opposite. The facts are that we donāt know the facts. Extra-judicial killings are self-reporting, so all the data depends on police telling on themselves. Often they donāt.
The facts may be foggy, but what becomes clear is that justice is not being served. If we stop pummeling each other over race, maybe we can see the other moving parts of this dilemma. If we talk about a paid vacation (suspension with pay) for police officers who kill, we might be able to get to the root of the problem. Better yet, the policemanās āblue wall of silenceā is a subject that can really shed light.
Baltimore, you are not alone. Charleston, the world is watching. The struggle for justice has no borders. I offer that the Dylann Roof shooting was a catalyst for unity, not division. The resounding cry for justice comes from Haitians in the Dominican Republic, Africans in waterless villages, Palestinians living in apartheid conditions. The fight for racial justice that captured the imagination of people of all ethnicities and political persuasions in the ā60s is a spark that has inspired voices for the voiceless all around the world.
Racial differences in the U.S. cannot be denied, but the greatest tragedy is the lie that we the people do not have a common fight. Americans can ill afford to tempt the tipping point of injustice, Black or white. Police misconduct, jobs, the prison industrial complex, failing schools, economic meltdown, evaporating rights, unconstitutional laws, and the price of a loaf of bread: Americaās problems are of Titanic proportions. Viewing these riots merely in racial terms is myopic. Itās just rearranging chairs on an embattled ship.
Auset Marian Lewisās journalism has been published in over 50 media outlets from coast to coast and abroad. She was the first female African American columnist for the Wilmington News Journal. Her poetry and fiction have won awards and she has been invited to speak in venues on radio and TV from Yale University to homeless shelters in Baltimore, Maryland. Lewis has written two books: Ā A Settling of CrowsĀ andĀ From My Lips to God’s Ear: The Joanne Collins Story.
