Racial Literacies: Just Reading and Writing is Deadly in America
In my home state, a local police officer in Charlotte killed a disabled American citizen. The Charlotte-Mecklenberg District Attorney has reported how Mr. Keith Lamont Scott went from waiting in his car to dead on the street (http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/special-reports/charlotte-shooting-protests/article117921218.html). Initially, some witnesses steadfastly reported that Mr. Scott was reading a book as he waited for his child to return from an ordinary school day. Now, these claims have been reported as rumor. Nonetheless, investigators are still sorting out this troubling case (http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article 118553283.html).
I first heard about Mr. Scott’s death through Facebook. As I meandered through my feed, I was tagged into a Facebook live stream protesting the killing. After watching the raw video and scanning the swell of outraged posts, it struck me that many of the comments repeatedly urged that Mr. Scott, a Black man, had been killed by Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police when he was just reading a book.
I was jarred by imagining this juxtaposition: a book and a Black body both laying on blacktop. Eventually, I publicly posted the following link and comment on my Facebook wall:
While we know more about what lead to the fatal shooting of Mr. Scott by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police — who approached Mr. Scott while trying to serve a warrant for someone else — I still puzzle over what occurred as Mr. Scott waited for his child to return from school.
My analysis of Mr. Scott’s death isn’t going where you might expect. Certainly, I was initially struck by the claim that Mr. Scott, a Black man, was killed when he was just reading a book in his parked car. Later, as I kept rolling this case over in my mind, the literacies of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police officers became important too.
I thought of the situation this way: Do we have any reason to doubt that both Mr. Scott and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police officers, one who killed him on that fateful day, were all able to read and write? Did these particular literacies — print literacies — even matter as Mr. Scott’s Black life came to its end?
No, I am not aware of any reason to doubt that all of these Black and White American citizens could read and write. And no, despite all parties being able to read and write, these print literacies were just not enough to save Mr. Scott’s life that day. Mr. Scott died as a reader and writer. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police, including a Black officer who killed Mr. Scott, descended on this citizen as readers and writers. To whatever extent race was a factor in the killing of Mr. Scott, perhaps racial literacies — in addition to the literate practices of reading and writing — were necessary.
My naked argument: Just reading and writing is deadly in America. Every person in the U.S. must also develop racial literacies.
At this point, it’s worth mentioning that I think you’re pretty good at reading and writing too. Check out www.racialliteracies.org to learn more about developing racial literacies.