Black Lives Have Not Mattered — Dr. Sel Harris

DALLAS, MINNEAPOLIS, AND BATON ROUGE…it has been a tough week. For too long black lives have not mattered. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of the African Americans and Police Officers who lost their lives this week.

I would like to believe that we could start a serious dialogue on violence and how it relates to guns, but I will not waste your time. That dialogue probably will not happen in my lifetime!

The violence and loss of lives in the three cities above reminds me of the year 1968. I was 10 years old at the time.

I am white and was growing up in the American South where the “ghost of Jim Crow” was still strong. I remember the confusion I felt when the news of Martin Luther King’s assassination broke out.

I recall how sad my parents were and how we as Americans lost a great man. I was sad too. But I saw on the news many people cheering at his death. I was utterly confused.

I later learned that the FBI had for many years attempted to ruin Dr. King’s credibility by phone tapping him to search for a possible affair or anything else that could discredit him. Not only did they actively monitor him but engaged in covert operations to destroy his image. None of which were very successful in the long run.

Later that summer, Bobby Kennedy was murdered by Sirhan Bashir Sirhan, who the news only identified as a Palestinian sympathizer living in Jordan. What the news neglected to tell us was that Sirhan was a Christian. He was NOT a Muslim! You see, Christians too have been guilty of extremism.

But then this week occurred. My fear is that again, the loss of African American life may get buried. A Congressman from Texas this morning “criticized” President Obama for being in Poland when the tragedy occurred. PLEASE!!

As I was watching the news this week, I was struck by the fact that “News” these days is NOT broken by the National Media; rather, it is broken by Social Media. The network folks, now , are just as much bystanders as we are. They, as we, are at ends how to interpret.

And yes, social media only confirms what African Americans have been telling us for decades — that their community has been victimized. We are seeing it now.

Many have commented how “calm” the African American woman (in Minneapolis) was as she sat in her car, boyfriend beside her dying, child in the backseat, as she was calmly obeying the officer. As Chris Jansing of NBC NEWS told us, “….she was responding in the manner that she was taught in order that she too may not suffer…..!”

About that……..

I am 58 years old. In the past 7 years, I have had the best education about the African American experience from two African America institutions. One is Norfolk State University and the other is Masjiid William Salaam — a vibrant and progressive African American Mosque in Norfolk. I taught at the Mosque on Sunday afternoons. The sisters and brothers there welcomed this white, middle aged man as one of their “Brothers in Ibrahim.” They taught me way more than I taught them.

At the Mosque, I asked the younger men (who I consider my brothers) about this whole notion about the “talk their fathers had with them.” They laughed and smiled as they told me, yes, they had the talk indeed. And it was not about them “birds and the bees.” The talk was how to stay alive. And it was not just about the police. It was about any situation in which they may find themselves vulnerable. I was in shock. But of course, I am white and I love them for sharing this deep experience with me.

At that point, they told me something else I will never forget. They remembered the pain and sadness their fathers experienced as they gave them the talk. One of my brothers in the Mosque told me that what was making him sad was that he too knew that he would have to go the same with his son.

Norfolk State University taught me something very important. The legacy of slavery lives on. And it does. Slavery may have ended in 1865, but African Americans still live the same African American experience that their ancestors experienced as slaves.

Today, African American parents have the talk because they tell their kids “….I do not want for you to not come home today and DISAPPEAR forever. “

You see, this disappearing is very real to them.

About 400 years ago, in West African villages of Gambia, village communities discovered at the end of the day that parts of their communities “disappeared” to the hell that was the Middle Passage of the Atlantic Slave Trade.

By the way. These “stolen West Africans” we’re Muslims. They enjoyed a wonderful quality of life — until they “disappeared!”

In the ante-bellum South, mothers and fathers came from a long day of working in the fields to discover that 3 or 4 of their children “disappeared.” They were “sold down the river” for breeding purposes.

That is why, for ALL OF US, “Black Lives HAVE TO Matter.” This phrase has its genesis in the living hell that was the experience of slavery.

For most of African American history, “Black Lives” have not mattered. The legacy of slavery was and is that during that time, African Americans were WRONGLY the property of others.

If you do not believe me, go to the Archives Room on the second floor of the Norfolk a State Library. It is named for a very popular NSU President named Dr. Harrison Wilson. Now Dr. Wilson would tell you that his claim to fame is his very famous grandson — Russell Wilson of the Seattle Seahawks!

On that floor, you will find history books which were taught in Virginia for the past 100 years. I remember these textbooks. Go there and read them. You will find such “false information” as “…..slaves were generally happy people….” NO THEY WEREN’T. THEY WERE SLAVES!!

I am grateful for the education that both Norfolk State and the Mosque gave me as we work through the events of this week. If you are upset by my article because I did not talk about the police, I am sorry to offend you. I pray for them as well. They matter too.

I do not know if I am going to vote this year it not. Lately, I have not felt like it. I do not give a damn about Hillary’s special privilege as I do not give a damn about Trump’s money, golf courses, walks, and Islamophobia!! I care about lives and a candidate who will make this country a better place.

President Lyndon B. Johnson, in his commencement address at Howard University in 1965 said:

“You do not wipe away the scars of centuries by saying: Now you are free to go where you want, and do as you desire, and choose the leaders you please.

You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and then say, “you are free to compete with all the others,” and still justly believe that you have been completely fair.

Thus it is not enough just to open the gates of opportunity. All our citizens must have the ability to walk through those gates.”

A final thought.

We hear the words “Civilization and Culture” thrown about. They are two inter related but very different concepts. “Civilization” is what we do and “Culture” is who we are.We are one Civilization — “the American Civilization.” That is what we do.

But we are many cultures — Native American, African American, European, African, Pacific Islanders, Hispanic, Muslim, Arab, Asian, etc. These are WHO WE ALL ARE!

Ask yourselves honestly. Outside of my own culture, how many do I really know?!

Contact: DrSelHarris@gmail.com