The Lies I Believed
My mother, of beloved memory, lied to me. Growing up in Nigeria in the mid-nineteen sixties, my mother always taught me that I could trust the "real" white people because they were loving, kind, honest, loyal, respectful, humble, compassionate, fair, forgiving, authentic, generous, polite, reliable, conscientious, self-disciplined, and considerate. She lied to me because I have since discovered that this is not the case. Even as a child, I always wondered why the United States of America, the United Kingdom, and so forth, had a need for police officers and God if the people were perfect. What moral code drives such a country?
How was I to know that I had been lied to by my mother and her generation? I had my first experience of racism when I relocated to the United States. I have since seen and heard numerous accounts of people who are – and continue to be – dehumanized simply because they look a certain way. I have encountered people with different and sometimes dangerous cognitive frames who believe in using their natural attributes to suppress others. I must hasten to add that being black transcends the superficial construct of mere skin pigmentation; rather, it is a matter of experiential thought pigmentation.
There is no denying the fact that the present social unrest has racial undertones. The black man in the U.S. is in danger of becoming extinct. The history of police brutality in the United States has its origins in the slave patrols of the 1700s in South Carolina. Other subjugation attempts, which sought to legalize, among other things, the indentured servitude of blacks included the Black Codes (sometimes called Black Laws) and the Jim Crow Laws. The plight of many blacks in the United States of America should be cause for concern to every right-thinking individual. It is particularly disheartening to see how some individuals in the present day U.S.A. have constituted themselves into a band of marauding beasts in a war of attrition and annihilation against the black populace. We also have black Trojan horses like Keisha Lance Bottoms, Mayor of Atlanta, who sanction the protest marchers while advising them to register to vote instead. Dr. King once pointed out that "It's alright to tell a man to lift himself by his own bootstraps, but it is cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps."
People like Mayor Bottoms are too far removed from reality to appreciate the reality that has impoverished and left many bootless. If the argument against the protest marches is the accompanying loss of property belonging to innocent people, what about the superior argument that the loss of innocent lives precipitating the crises could have been avoided and prevented? An African proverb says that the child who is not embraced by the village will one day burn it down to feel its warmth.
Correlation does not imply causation. The issue at hand is not necessarily a black versus white conflict like most people would like to believe. I think most people default to this premise probably because it is more convenient to do so. The settings for the incidents have the following in common: occur during the day, involve a minor infraction (if any), a fiery absence of love, and an abundance of hatred accompanied by a desire to eliminate. The threat in most, if not all the cases flows from the direction of the armed individual (power differential). Concerning the characters, all the police officers (and civilians) involved in lethal force against unarmed black citizens have the following in common: white, more than one (like a hit squad), armed, male, and a premeditated desire to kill. On the other hand, the victims are usually black (or belong to other minority groups), underprivileged, unarmed, legal residents, predominantly male, and possess little or no formal education.
The Washington Post also confirms that black Africans are disproportionately impacted by police violence in the United States. The conclusion is based on data involving police shootings since the start of 2015: 2,385 (approximately half) of the 4,728 killed were white (I wonder if any of these was unarmed or killed by a black police officer), 1,252 were blacks, 877 were Hispanic, with other racial groups accounting for the remaining 214. Since black Americans account for less than 13% of the population, it stands to reason that they are shot and killed at almost double the rate of white Americans. Another data source revealed that unarmed black people were killed at 5 times the rate of unarmed whites in 2015. This is why there is a problem, especially as federal law prohibits governmental organizations from engaging in a pattern or practice of conduct that deprives persons of their constitutional rights. George Floyd, the most recent victim, was dehumanized and assassinated for allegedly trying to pass a counterfeit $20 bill. One of his assailants had a knee on George's neck for eight minutes and forty-six seconds while he lay subdued on the ground. Perhaps the $20 bill he was accused of trying to pass was as fake as the promissory note that the U.S. has issued to some minorities.
Many black people walk around with high levels of Pre- (yet to be articulated by psychologists) and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders (PTSDs). I propose that Pre-Traumatic Stress Disorder be considered a mental health disorder triggered by anticipation or premonition of a terrifying event. This is what my children and other well-meaning people are subjected to as they wonder who the next victim is likely to be. This is why people take to the streets; this is why my children and other children cry themselves to sleep; this is why, as parents, you worry whenever your child takes a walk down the street. My children look to me for reassurance that their lives will not be truncated like those of Keith Childress, Bettie Jones, Kevin Matthews, Michael Noel, Tiara Thomas, Cornelius Brown, Dominic Hutchinson, and others.
George Bush aptly noted during his tenure as president that if evil is left unchallenged, it grows in audacity and comes back to haunt us. As a pacifist, I do not subscribe to the wanton destruction of property, but if I have to choose between the destruction of human lives and property, like all well-meaning people, I will opt for the preservation of human lives. The sense of outrage felt by some over the killing of an animal is sometimes a lot more than the reaction they show when another unarmed citizen is slain. Whenever a defenseless citizen is assassinated, the response from all well-meaning people must be robust. For example, concerned citizens should immediately form a resistance band or circle around the perpetrator(s) to prevent them from leaving the scene of the crime (citizen's arrest); run a live broadcast on social media, create a running record of all police departments where lethal force was employed against unarmed citizens (mapping police violence); put perpetrators on trial for hate crime with the possibility of the death penalty, if found guilty. An extreme measure such as swift retaliation against the aggressor(s) and their interests might also be needed.
According to the Police Use of Force Project, police departments that have adopted the following policies have reported a marked reduction in the number of deaths arising from the use of lethal force: requiring officers to use all other means before shooting, requiring all use of force be reported, banning chokeholds and strangleholds, use of force on a continuum, de-escalation, duty to intervene if another officer uses excessive force, restricting shooting at moving vehicles, and requiring warning before shooting. Other possible solutions include
- proper hiring,
- implicit bias training,
- better police supervision,
- better management of police departments, and
- holding officers accountable
Qui tacet consentire. Plato once said that silence gives consent. The government, religious organizations, and individuals who have refused to condemn these dastardly acts consent to the death of innocent civilians. They are the young, misguided Saul (Acts 8:1) who offered to hold the garments of the people destroying innocent lives. By their silence and disingenuousness, they lend their support to evil. But GOD is saying, "What have you done? Listen; your brother's blood is crying out to me from the ground" (Gen. 4:10). In a sermon delivered in 1853, the abolitionist minister, Theodore Parker, opined that he did "…not pretend to understand the moral universe. The arc is a long one. My eye reaches but little ways. I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight. I can divine it by conscience. And from what I see, I am sure it bends toward justice." Justice comes eventually.
To those who continue to take a stance against the shedding of innocent blood, a heart of solidarity is shared, and a hand of partnership is extended. Conversely, the time has come to vehemently oppose all those who have chosen to continue to perpetuate a legacy of hate while maintaining an infrastructure of injustice - including those who passively hit the "record" button on their cell phones believing that to be the extent of their due diligence as their brother's keeper.
Although my mother did not tell me the truth, I have since forgiven her. I have concluded that it really doesn't matter. I have come to the age of discernment and the realization that it is nurture rather than nature, which more determines how people turn out. Your skin color does not necessarily predispose you to be good or bad behavior patterns. Neither is criminality genetically coded into the psyche of a particular race. Come to think of it. Perhaps my mother never lied to me. Perhaps I deluded myself into believing that one race held a moral superiority over another when, in fact, a person's race is not a determinant of their moral rectitude - or the lack thereof. Perhaps love can be weaponized to convert hearts of stone into hearts of flesh. Perhaps a pro-life stance has to do with both the prevention of the killing of babies before they are born and the fiduciary responsibility to nurture, protect and celebrate the sanctity of human life - any life - after birth. Perhaps the right training can reset a person's cognitive frame. Finally, perhaps the system can be reformed to stop the self-destructive habit of devouring its own helpless citizens.
My mother, after all, did not lie to me.