Why Black Lives Still Matter

I grew up in a racist society. I had the opportunity to move to a somewhat less racist place where people keep their prejudices to themselves. Many people aren’t so privileged. I spent two decades of my life being verbally attacked or treated negatively because of the color of my skin so I know what it’s like when the shoe is on the other foot. I empathize with the centuries of slavery and psychological internalization that makes Jamaicans and African-Americans hate themselves and hate anybody looking even remotely like the people they despise. Not all Jamaicans are racist, maybe not even the majority are but enough of them are to know that there is a serious problem with that society. Jamaicans murder each other regularly and Jamaican police, who are also black, murder Jamaican men in extrajudicial killings. This is unjust and wrong. The cops are not killing blacks because the cops are racist, they are killing black because the society and culture is racist.

America is a macrocosm of what happens in Jamaica because Americans are more resentful, more violent, more well armed and they have to interact on a regular basis with the people that they despise. American police are predominantly from white backgrounds so it adds a racial element to what is an unjust cop killing. It’s volatile and painful and I’m glad that I don’t live in that society either. In a white society, mixed race kids fall on the black side of racial divide so maybe they aren’t treated as badly by their fellow blacks but they will be treated with fear and suspicion by the police and with disregard and hate by racists on the white side of the divide.

It’s complex and unfair because America’s entire society is built on and bent towards dehumanizing and disenfranchising black human beings. When I saw both Alton Sterling and Philando Castile I saw two men who were so disenfranchised so dehumanized and so much like the people who hated me, I can’t properly empathize with them. Knowing what I know, and even without experiencing the daily fight that the cops do, I would have approached them with weapon drawn and I probably would have killed them if they had fought me or made a sudden and suspicious move. Both of these men were armed and preconditioned to be resistant towards police and at the same time they were wrongfully killed by frightened, trigger nervous law enforcement officers. Every time a police officer approaches a certain type of black person they know that this person will act hatefully and may kill them. It’s a horrific cycle of tit for tat violence that sucks in everyone into a vortex of mistrust and mutual destruction. And it’s all because too many black people can not break free from the centuries of enslavement and the continued racist societal constructs that exist. It is a crime and a continuation of a crime that american society is designed to turn black people into the dregs of society. Everyone should have opportunities and environments to better themselves. A traditionally successful black person should not be an exceptional event it should be as natural as it is for someone with blue grey or green eyes.

I can see it in the types of blacks being killed by American cops. It’s not the Barak Obamas, not the Bryant Gumbels, not the Jamie Foxes, not the Oprah Winferys. Look how they dress and deport themselves compared to the people that end up being shot. It’s a statistical lie to draw a line between black people and white people and say that the dregs of society (composed mostly of black people) are being killed by police and therefore the upstanding black people are also in danger from police. In truth in Jamaica and in America the threat to my life comes from the dregs of society than from a policeman and I am more likely to end up a victim of “black on black” than blue on black crime.

I won’t be killed by a cop. I wont be killed by an enfranchised confident contributing black person. I’ll be killed by someone who hates them self almost as much as they hate me. I’ll be killed by someone who had little to no opportunities to be a fully realized human being. I will be killed by someone who disregards the law and resents the men who try to enforce it.

Anyone saying #alllivesmatter doesn’t get the point. The #blacklivesmatter hashtag is pointing out that something is still very wrong with the American society as far as blacks are concerned. North America and the Caribbean was built on criminal and unjust exploitation of human beings. Every one knows that life matters. Everyone knows that black lives matter. But for hundreds of years black lives didn’t matter. And when slavery ended there was segregation and then when segregation ended there was incarceration and ghetto-isation. That’s the burden that all Americans of all backgrounds have to continue to bear. Even if the society was not designed to create distinct winners and losers. the post traumatic stress of those centuries of crime will take a long time to recover from. America is still a sick and ugly place as far as race is concerned. That sickness makes life dangerous for police officers who try to enforce the law, for individuals who find themselves involved with firearms and for innocents who could end up being killed by either frightened police or angry individuals. The first thing we as individuals can do to cure the sickness is admit that there is a sickness.