Despite Us Being American: after Michael Brown Jr. & too many more

Eric Garner's murder saddened me as it has many. As a person of color, as a person who has men that resemble Eric in my family. As a tax payer and American, his murder brought me so much sadness it took two weeks for me to write what I thought was a concise and useful post about it.

Then Micheal Brown Jr. an unarmed 18year old was killed in Ferguson, MO. by a police officer, shot six times, dead. It's been a week of me mostly avoiding that story for a variety of reasons.

Finally I wrote this, and my point if you want a headline, is it's not simply the shooting, the death, the tragedy of how people are viewed that has and continues to disturb me, it's that when these tragedies occur, the aftermath says as much about how people of color are considered in America if not more than the entire situation.

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"Despite Us Being American"

He said "I will fight for your right to protest" and I could feel the tears forming.

I don't know why I chose finally watching Ferguson/Michael Brown Murder news reports to be tonight's insomnia activity.

One of the clips I saw was Capt. Ron Johnson the solidly build African-American head of the Missouri State Highway Patrol, who was shoehorned into this situation and seems to have been elected for his ability to sit exactly between a rock (the historically disenfranchised community of African-Americans) and the hard place(the Police in Ferguson who as a group have largely deflected the law).

Capt. Johnson started with an apology to Michael Brown's family, speaking in uniform as a member of law enforcement in that state. But you know got me, what gave me pause?

When Capt. Johnson said to the parishioners ,"I'll protect your right to protest" my eyes watered up. I had to stop watching and wonder if I was just going to start bawling flat out.

If you haven't watched all these black people, not just in the last two months, or two years but since lets just say the last twenty or thirty years, watching all these black and brown people, (Oscar Grant, Patrick Dorismond, Timothy Stansbury Jr., Anthony Baez, Amadou Diallo, Eric Garner) many of whom haven't committed a crime, several who committed misdemeanors or were caught in situations where they didn't know they were interacting with police, be killed by law enforcement. If you haven't witnessed that through the life of a black, brown or some other variation of "Other" person, then in some ways frankly you're lucky.

Lucky to know you're a citizen of a country that can't get enough talking about Freedom and almost always feels an obligation to protect yours. Do you who are not visually "other" have to interact with assholes despite being an American? Of course. Do you wonder if the government is not trying to take advantage or misuse your tax dollars, despite your not being an "other" american? Yes of course. There's lots of concerns. But usually law enforcement doesn't target you. If someone in law enforcement does target you, you have options, you can seek and expect justice, mistreatment of you will most always only go so far.

That's what hurts. The cop who shot a kid he'd probably never met ten minutes earlier is all kinds of idiot. But the entire police force felt it justifiable to back that idiot. That's a big part of being "other" usually Black as in this case and most cases. The police backed the murder, the victim was Black.That's the full on injustice. It's the same damned injustice. Even with a deep tan in the white house. The injustice starts with the precept that an unarmed, (very possibly innocent) brown skinned male is deserving of gun violence. It's an idea promoted across american society and embraced by law enforcement. Then the injustice continues when the officer of the law kills that black male without (we now know) knowing anything about this male. Then the injustice reaches full voice in the chorus of systematic American racism, when those in charge of the Ferguson Police force decide to back the murder. It starts with a racial history and the ideas that come out of it. But to understand the crime, for friends of those who don't, understand a police officer made very bad decisions, over reacted, killed a person he knew nothing about, and then the Police force decided to do everything it could including leaking false information in public media, to protect the murder.

That's what happened.

When the Highway Patrol officer told the congregation "I'll protect your right to protest" they erupted in cheers. CHEERS. Capt, Ron Johnson didn't promise to get justice (he can't alone) he didn't promise to hunt down the murderer (who's not been charged and was allowed to leave the state) he didn't promise to end racism and bias. He said he'll defend the crowd's American rights, and the people cheered. If you’re anything people refer to as “Black” you know this already. You’ve lived this, near and from afar but always as a member of the group not able to get equal treatment under our law. If you aren’t what people call "Black", or married, parented, bonded, brothered and sistered in some authentic way to someone considered as Black, I’m laying this out for you. The crowd cheered, at a member of law enforcement who resembles us, saying that he’ll simply do his job so we could simply have our right to say we’re terribly sad and upset, without us having to fear those we pay to protect us.

Because that's not something we're used to from American police forces, despite us being American.

Black Male Town Hall, real talk.

As is often the case with substantive stories, they're no match for cute or silly stories, like giant rodents who own the night.

So after a delay I now report on the details of Kevin Powell's "Black and Male in America/Town Hall" event held Thursday night at the Lafayette Presbyterian church.


Left: Moderator Soledad O'Brien and Panelist Ryan Mack (speaking)

This quote comes from the website promoting the event:

The OSI Campaign for Black Male Achievement presented this town hall event, moderated by CNN’s Soledad O’Brien, celebrating the launch of The Black Male Handbook: A Blueprint for Life (Atria), edited by acclaimed author and community activist Kevin Powell. Powell and a panel featuring a number of the book’s contributors discussed the spiritual, mental, and physical components of being a black male in America. ...feature[ing] essays by influential black male educators, activists, and correspondents, including writer and award-winning documentary filmmaker Byron Hurt, actor and author Hill Harper, and author and educator Dr. William Jelani Cobb.

Basically the forum was an opportunity for the audience to participate in a meaningful discussion focused on personal and communal upliftment. The event was packed, with hundreds of people taking their seats before the 7pm start time. Unfortunately at least a hundred more showed from ten to seven through 7:30 looking for seating, pushing the start time back. I wasn't much better arriving at 6:45.

In his welcome Kevin Powell introduced the moderator, CNN anchor Soledad O'Brien. who many know from her CNN programs addressing American racial and cultural issues. The panelists and "Black Male Handbook" contributors introduced themselves, sometimes to the point of speechifying. Although in the case of Dr. Andrae L. Brown, the amazing story of his nearly indestructible father (heart attack, fire and gunshot survivor) as testament to Black male resilience, was as revealing as his earnest storytelling was entertaining.

Rounding out the opening was an acapella performance of Sam Cooke's "A Change Gonna Come" by the Samuel Austin Male Chorus. But the highlight of the open were two school aged young men (Akido Burnett and T'Cal Watson) who performed a not too long recital about identity ending with a proclamation to be visible (black) men in the world.

The man of the hour of course was thousands of miles away. President-Elect Obama was praised and lauded poignantly and at times used to trigger easy applause. Powell informed the audience that the event was planned months in advanced, and so there was no guarantee that holding a "Black Men's Town Hall" a week after the presidential election would be as significant as it was. The fact that the president-elect's name was invoked frequently throughout the night was to be expected what was not assured was how Obama's name would be used.

One by one the panelists sited our President to be with a cautionary note directed not at him but at all of us. They rightfully drummed home the idea that the change needs to come as much of and by the people. And to that end we as a community needed to make a special focus on Black males to be closer to our highest potential. That thought was underscored by Dr. William Jelani Cobb and several panelists. In Dr. Cobb's case that realization came while listening to Obama's acceptance speech at the Democratic Convention in Denver. At that moment Cobb said, he and a friend, both accomplished professionals and Democratic delegates thought, "we [all] have to step our game up". The discussion continued on that note raising issues of responsibility in every aspect of our lives, from relationships to the amount of water we're often not drinking.



I've been to many forums like this one and what I find is considering the topic and how much the discussion becomes about what's not being done, it's difficult for this type of event to not become preachy. Which from there runs the risk of devolving into more statement making than discussion. Perhaps with that as a consideration, Mrs O'Brien coyly offered in her opening remarks that in the Q&A to following the discussion, she would be looking to the audience for just that; Questions and or Answers. She added, (paraphrasing) that any other thoughts or comments (the audience) may have are appreciated, you can send directly to me, she said, but tonight we need questions and answers.

The panel in speaking about their views and perspectives was enlightening and somewhat provocative in a personal way, but I didn't feel they were always following Mrs. O'Brien's request for direct answers. At times I drifted to the those debate moments of the last two years when I wanted to yell at the TV "answer the question!"

For me while it's interesting to hear what people think I believe it's necessary to hear ideas challenged and debated so we the audience can see how well those methods and opinions standup. I presume that the spirit of brotherhood made it difficult to want to debate or challenge, and hopefully these events will become more commonplace so that the panelists whom the audience is looking toward for ideas will express as much intellectual provocation as parallel pleasantries.

Despite that, it can not be overstated that the most important part was the effort on the part of Mr.Powell for his organizing, Mrs. O'Brien for her dedication and time as well as the panelist several of whom flew in for the event and last but not least the audience for stepping up.

I left hopeful that as a group our "eyes were on the prize" to borrow the civil rights phrase, and that while the victory is Obama's, we're aware that the prize is us.

On two separate notes:

First despite being born and raised not far from the Lafayette Presbyterian Church, I had never been inside before. The building is warm and beautiful in its classical structure and I was most pleasantly surprised by the murals featuring scenes of diverse peoples, (see below) which adorn the upper walls. Powell mentioned in his opening remarks that the church was a site of abolitionists meetings drew connections between that movement and the progressive movement needed today in america.




And secondly, while this is a serious topic it's my blog and I would not be forthright if I didn't mention the obvious; Soledad O'Brien is hotter than the sun. Sorry voyeurs no cheesecake pics of Soledad, we were in church after all.