Jogging While Black Can Be Deadly: The Case of Ahmaud Arbery

by Rev. Michael Robinson, M.S.

I truly understand the depth of what American author James Baldwin meant when he said, "To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time."

To watch the viral video of the modern day lynching/murder for sport of Ahmaud Arbery is sickening. Ahmaud, a Black... male, was jogging, minding his own business, unarmed, when two White racists riding in a pick-up truck decided to stalk and shoot him dead in a neighborhood outside of Brunswick, Georgia. Even with video evidence, the District Attorney and the local police have NOT arrested these two murderous dogs - - the incident happened in February of 2020, and NO CHARGES have been filed against these two men, father Gregory McMichael and son Travis McMichael.

The Georgia NAACP "...demand that District Attorneys Jackie Johnson of the Brunswick Judicial Circuit and George Barnhill of the Waycross Judicial Circuit resign, effective immediately. They’re inaction in this case has led to the swift mismanagement of the judicial process and has further harmed the trust of the Brunswick community."

Here's the petition link:

https://www.naacpga.org/post/sign-the-petition-that-demands-d-a-jackie-johnson-to-resign-immediately

During the hundreds of years of institutionalized racism, violence, abuse, public murder for sport, injustice and inequality perpetrated against African Americans, White racists in America have routinely disrespected, denigrated and destroyed Blacks publicly as a fear tactic to oppress Blacks, often getting away with blatant murder for sport with flimsy excuses or no excuse at all. White racists felt emboldened to commit their atrocities because of the protections and privilege afforded them by institutionalized racism…then and now.

The atrocities perpetrated in America by the hateful White racists produced strong radical Black heroes that were forged in the fiery furnace of tribulation. Heroes that rose from the ash-heap of oppression. Heroes that fought back. Heroes that were strategists. Heroes that refused to passively accept being bullied and abused. Heroes that demanded to be respected. Heroes that weren’t afraid of the consequences of defending themselves from their enemies. Heroes that weren’t afraid to die for justice, respect, equality and civil liberties! Past and present radical Black heroes like Nat Turner, Harriet Tubman, Prince Hall, Frederick Douglass, Anna Murray-Douglass, Charles Remond Douglass, Christopher James Perry, Sr., Dred Scott, Huey P. Newton, Bobby Seals, Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, Thurgood Marshall, Cecil B. Moore, Shaun King, Al Sharpton, Michael Coard, Esq., Tom Joyner, Hakeem Jeffries, and Ben Jealous to name a few.

These were strong Black men and women that refused to accept the injustice and hatred of White supremacy. These Black heroes were labeled radical because they refused to tolerate racism and injustice on any level. These Black heroes would retaliate when provoked.

We needed these firebrand Negros then and we need them now!

It’s only when we fight back with great strategic intensity and heavy bluntness that our enemies respect our retaliation. But then they cry foul when we retaliate with equal aggression; they label us a threat to take the attention off their longstanding terrorism in our communities. Now, we must be socially castrated, legally lynched, publicly ridiculed, racially raped, and senselessly shot down in the streets by marauding murderers like the McMichaels to get our comeuppance. And law enforcement and the courts turn a blind eye, because after all, it’s one less threatening Negro in the world to deal with (pardon my heavy handed sarcasm).

The fact remains, the McMichaels were videotaped executing Ahmuad in February 2020. It’s May 2020, and the McMichaels haven’t spent one day in jail. Is it because Gregory McMichael use to work for the local District Attorney’s Office as an Investigator? Is it because Gregory McMichael has a cozy relationship with the local police brass? Or is it because the District Attorney and local police brass share like-minded racist worldviews with the McMichaels and see no wrong doing or injustice in what the McMichaels did? Why weren’t the McMichaels arrested?

I flood my pillow with tears of anger when I recall the truth spoken by Harry Belafonte, “In the gun game, we are the most hunted. The river of blood that washes the streets of our nation flows mostly from the bodies of our black children.”

I love how our beloved sister Angela Davis flipped the script in stating, “I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept!”

Right now, the words of Huey P. Newton ring loudly from the past, “Sometimes if you want to get rid of the gun, you have to pick the gun up.”

Gil Scot Heron, one of Black America’s most iconic urban poets/lyricists, challenges us to action, “The revolution that takes place in your head, nobody will ever see that.”

I identify with the swagger and pride of Marcus Garvey when he boldly proclaimed, “Look for me in the whirlwind or the storm!”

I cling to the words of Octavius Catto when he said, “There must come a change!”

I truly understand the radicalism of Malcolm X when he said, “Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if someone puts his hand on you, send him to the cemetery.”

Please sign the petition!

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