Does this work in reverse? Can I care about Justine Damond (who, for the record, I didn’t even know her name before reading this article. She was just another woman killed by a cop to me.) precisely because I cared about Aiyana Stanley-Jones (whose name I did know!) and Tamir Rice and a list far too long to name of other victims of police brutality? Can I say that the issue is that Black Lives Matter — but, more importantly, that cops need to be trained so that ‘kill’ isn’t the default, isn’t okay, whether the other end is a white woman, a black man, a yellow child, a red teenager, or a polka-dotted hermaphrodite?
Because I get your point. I really do. And I agree with it. And perhaps it’s just the frustration of the situation, but it felt as those there was a bit too much vitriol at Justine Damond. It is not her fault that she happened to be a white woman killed by a cop. It is not her fault that she trusted the police to be a help rather than a harm — how many women of colour have made the same fatal mistake?
I agree. Tamir Rice was told he shouldn’t be playing with a toy. This lady is told look at these vicious Muslims, out to kill us and look at these black men, preying on white women. I get it. And as a society we enable it, even if people like you (and I, on good days) speak out against it.
But I respectfully disagree. I have to care about this death, especially because black lives matter. Because if I can use this to change just one white person’s mind, to realize that the issue is police and not melanin, then that’s one closer to fixing the problem. I have to care about this death because cops must be held accountable. If it matters when the victim is black, Hispanic, male, female, young, old, then it must also matter when the victim is white. If it is a matter of principle, if it is a matter of ethics that we cannot let up and the issue is the utter lack of responsibility faced by police officers, then this must matter. It must matter because if I, as a minority myself, stand up and say that it mattered for Sandra Bland and Eric Garner and Philando Castile, it matters now. It matter for everyone precisely because Black Lives Matter. I will not denigrate the lives of the black men, women, and children who have been killed by compromising on that principle when the victim is white, Indian, Asian, or anything else.
Are there good cops? Yes. But they all must be held accountable. And that means for every life — regardless of gender or colour. So tell me, does it work in reverse? Can I care precisely because I believe, with every fibre of my being, in what Black Lives Matter preaches and stands for?