Yesterday while I was reading an article about Mike Brown, I remembered something.

This happened at my high school.

He was a sophomore, and so was I. What was his name?

I searched “Wheeler High School student killed by police Marietta” on google. Nothing. Why can’t I remember his name?

After trying different keywords and combinations I finally found a cached copy of a newspaper article. Rafael Christian. Was that really his name? Why doesn’t it sound familiar?

One other student from my high school also died that year. He died in a car accident. The administrators brought in grief counselors. Students made memorial t-shirts and facebook events. There was an entire spread dedicated to him in the yearbook. I didn’t know him, and I don’t remember ever hearing his name before he died. And yet today I still recall his name.

He was white. I remember his name and he was white.

Rafael Christian was black.

He was showing off his new pellet gun to his friends in the parking lot of his apartment complex, when two police officers suddenly showed up with guns drawn. The boys scattered.

You’re not supposed to run away from the police, but why wouldn’t a black teenager’s first reaction be to run away?

Mike Brown ran away. Why wouldn’t he?

Rafael Christian ran away. Why wouldn’t he?

Mike Brown said, “I don’t have a gun, stop shooting!”

Rafael Christian said, “The gun is fake, don’t shoot!”

And they were both killed.

I want to remember Rafael Christian’s name. I want to remember teachers helping us make sense of what happened. I want to remember grief counselors helping us grieve. I want to remember protests and riots when those two police officers were cleared by a grand jury.

But the truth is I don’t remember any of those things.

I had to search to find a single news article about his death. Meanwhile, I stumbled across several news articles about that white student who died in a car accident.

Rafael Christian deserves to be a part of Wheeler’s institutional memory, just like the white student who died the same year. Rafael Christian’s death was equally important and equally tragic.

Rafael Christian was was killed and no one remembers.

My younger sister is currently a senior at Wheeler. She has also been keeping up with the events in Ferguson surrounding Mike Brown’s death. When I remembered Rafael Christian’s murder, I told her about it.

She responded, “Apparently someone died over the summer. I think his friend accidentally shot him. The school hasn’t said anything about it.”

Last summer, a white girl died in an accident. Grief counselors came at the beginning of the school year, my sister said. Everyone remembers her name. I bet she even had an entire spread in the yearbook too.

“But this guy died over the summer and nobody hears about it ever.”

He was black.