White Privilege – Black Deaths

This country’s carnage continues, and the acts of unprecedented murder boggle the human mind. For example, the shooting in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on August 26, 2020, wasn’t just the police. Still, it was a 17-year-old white supremacist who killed two protestors and wounding another as he walked by a host of police officers at the scene and was allowed to move on his way.

Jacob Blake, an innocent victim whose only act was an attempt to end a fight, was later shot seven times in the back while leaning over inside his car. He was no threat! He wasn’t brandishing any weapon, and in fact, he never exchanged any words with police officers to rile them but left him paralyzed from the waist down. The double tragedy came when the victim’s children were observed from the back seat. Incidents such as this continue across the country, and the perpetrators, all police officers, are often exonerated. Those officers taken into custody are usually a ‘smokescreen’ that carries no weight, no substance, and no justice.

These incidents are not uncommon, nor are the outcomes as black men face fear every day. What do we do? What can we say that will protect us from harm? More to come, these incidents are a blatant misuse of police authority as black lives become a coin toss within a society that couldn’t care less. If the choice is fight or flight, make sure you’re fleeing outside the scope of a pending crime scene as people of color become human props.

I cannot accept this new norm and sleep in peace because the possibility of this happening to me or my son or grandson is more of a reality than fiction. The pressure of this ongoing story of hate and prejudice will end in anarchy, and the blood of innocent people will be shed on both sides of the racial track. If blacks face death for no reason, what will keep the black race from retaliating in a like manner? For me, the answer is nothing because with no chance of peace and opportunity, what’s left? What are these protests accomplishing? What should our next plan be?