…But does my Black Life Matter?
Yes, #BlackLivesMatter — but does MY Black Life Matter? Before you comment, reply, repost, or share, please read this entire piece — it’s brief.
I’m not asking if you care about me, respect me, like me, or value my life and want me to live. I’m asking if you see me, if you hear me, and if you value me and my life without thinking about what it means for and about you.
A few days ago, here in Cambridge just a couple of blocks from my house, I walked past a white family (two parents, two children) who were writing “Black Lives Matter” in multicolored chalk in the street and on the sidewalk, including one parent artfully and carefully placing those three words in big, bold letters between the crosswalk lines — quite dramatic. They were wearing masks, but I could still see their smiles and they were clearly enjoying their activity — which is fine. As I walked around and by them (since they were in the street and on the sidewalk), I tried to make eye contact with each of them, even slowing down to admire their work hoping to catch someone’s eye. Not a single one made eye contact — they basically looked right through me.
Steps from my house in liberal Cambridge, Massachusetts I remain an #InvisibleMan
#BlackLivesMatter, but #DoesMyBlackLifeMatter?
I see a lot of emails, articles, and posts about the need to #FollowBlackLeadership, and I don’t know if I count as a “Black leader” in Cambridge or in anything or anywhere else, but here’s what I need you to hear — and I’m going to speak plainly and be blunt:
• Don’t strategize about how you can identify and choose Black people and organizations to bring in so that they can help you build a stronger movement. Acknowledge your privilege — and we all have privilege — and take a stand and speak your truth from where you are as who you are.
• If you are White, you will get criticized for having mostly liberal White people doing whatever it is you are doing, but that is far better than being seen as White people who want to make their own well-meaning plans and then have lots of diversity and more numbers by “inviting” Black folks in.
• Case in point: A White friend reached out to me — as a friend and fellow traveler in work for justice — to ask my thoughts and advice earlier this week. He didn’t come up with a list of Black people “who would be great to get if we can figure out who knows them.” I appreciate being asked and was happy to be of support.
• The last point and most important thing I’ll say on this: a related issue is that there’s a lot of talk in general right now about following Black leadership, which is good in the abstract. That starts by showing up in allyship for what others are doing. But always beware the temptation to choose which Black people to follow and then using your privilege to promote them. I saw that increasingly when the Black Lives Matter movement started locally, and many privileged people — including people I know well — chose to support and elevate them OVER other voices and other Black people because BLM had the “right message” — often without even realizing that they were using their privilege to validate and support the people that they thought were “right.”
So — I need to say this again, and I need you to hear me in the context of what I have just shared: Black Lives Matter, but does my Black life matter?
I am being very direct here because the times we are in demand it. The deeper issue here is one that I have been experiencing intensely over the last few years as a Black man living and working in Cambridge — which I love and where I know that I am lucky and very privileged to live. I don’t intend to be targeting anyone here, but I need you to hear my experience and my truth.
In Peace and Solidarity — and with Love
Brian Corr
Brian Corr is the immediate past president of the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement (NACOLE), a nonprofit organization that works to: enhance fair and professional law enforcement responsive to community needs; increase accountability and transparency in policing; and build community trust through civilian oversight. Brian has worked as Executive Director of the Peace Commission for the City of Cambridge, Massachusetts since April 2008, and since September 2010 has also been director of the city’s Police Review & Advisory Board, which conducts civilian oversight of the Cambridge Police Department.
