If I’m Next…
Now more than ever, I know that tomorrow I could be “next”.
The next hashtag, the next story, the next black boy to lose his joy, his life, and his future all too soon.
If I’m next
…there are a few things I need you to know:
I had never been as scared to be a black man in America than I have been in recent weeks. To even begin to imagine what must have been running through George Floyd’s mind as his life was viciously squeezed from him brings pain to my heart and tears to my eyes. However, to know that his story is one shared by countless others who look like me makes me tremble with rage.
We’re told to work hard, vote, and peacefully protest and are ensured that over time, change will come our way. We’ve been sold a lie. We’ve been forced to play a game where the rules have been rigged to keep us from truly making any discernible change. The rules to even change the rules are meant to stifle progress! Did you know that nearly 1 in 13 Black American’s have lost the right to vote due to felony convictions? We’ve been told time and time again to seek evolution and not revolution — to take our energy to the polls and to get out of the streets. I don’t buy it.
If I’m next
…know that I thought that change doesn’t come because we ask for it, it comes because we demand it. It comes because we march in the streets and raise hell until we get what we deserve.
Speaking of what we deserve, I think we must think outside of the box and redefine the system as a whole. Yes changing one law at a time might be beneficial but that will take too long, at least in my eyes. Too many lives will be lost. What we must do, however, is fundamentally rethink policing and the systems that feed into it.
Let’s be clear. George Floyd was not killed because the police were abusing their power, he was killed because they were using it.
As a society, we have given law enforcement far too much authority in our communities. We give them too much money, too few standards, and too little oversight. We don’t require that they even live in the communities that they are supposed to serve and we allow them to receive military training and weaponry.
I have had many conversations over the past week and I have begun to form the view that we can’t wait for the “bad apples” to become good. We can’t wait for racist, bigoted, or indifferent police officers to wake up one day and love us, value us, and serve us like anyone else. What we can, do however is create a system where a Trayvon Martin, Eric Gardner, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, or George Floyd can obtain real justice.
To be clear, justice is not simply having the men who killed these beautiful black souls arrested. No, to take nearly a week and initially charge the officer that killed George Floyd with third-degree murder and manslaughter is a slap in the very face of justice. Even upgrading his charge to second-degree murder a week later and charging the other officers involved in Killing Mr. Floyd week is unacceptable. What took so long?
Police officers will always push the boundaries of their power if they face no opposing force. Newton discovered that an object in motion stays in motion, and I would like to add that the same is true for police misconduct. It won’t stop until it is met with an equal and opposite force.
If I’m next
…know that I think the concept of justice we’ve been sold in the U.S. is a lie that does nothing more than benefit those who defined it in the first place. Yes, I know justice is an abstract concept that can be interpreted myriad ways, but as long as we’re tricked into thinking justice is simply an officer getting arrested for killing an unarmed black man, we’re going to get nowhere. That should be a given.
A friend of mine said something profound the other day:
“I will not applaud a fish for swimming, so why am I going to applaud a white person for not being racist”? — Tylik McMillan
This sort of thinking strikes at the core of what I am trying to articulate. Even if the officer who killed George Floyd was charged with first-degree murder and convicted, we should not rejoice and sing in the streets and go home happy and content. After all, shouldn't we expect that to begin with? The next question and perhaps the more challenging one is how to overhaul the system that even allowed for someone to do such a thing in broad daylight, on camera, with the help of other law enforcement?
If I’m next
… know that I believe that those who benefit the most from the law, and historically have had the greatest opportunity to shape it should be punished more harshly when they break it.
If you have benefited socioeconomically, racially, professionally or otherwise from the American “systems” in place, and have had the political or financial capital to change laws you thought were unjust, I contend that you have the least valid excuse to break the law. Law enforcement of all people should be held to the highest bar in society, right up there with elected officials who put pen to paper and write our laws.
How is it, that our justice system allows those who have had the greatest influence shaping the law to be the least accountable to it and those who have had the least impact in the law’s formation to be held the most accountable? Make it make sense to me, please.
Many, like those incarcerated or previously incarcerated for certain crimes, are not even given the right to vote to begin with. Those with money, influence, and power are able to write the rules and avoid consequences when they break the very laws they helped to create. On the other hand, those who have never been fully enfranchised and have been negatively impacted by the laws and actions of the privileged time and time again face the fullest extent of the law.
Unjustly locking up a black man for using an illicit drug doesn’t truly serve as a deterrent for other behavior. Convicting a police officer for murdering an innocent man in broad daylight, to the fullest extent of the law, on the other hand, will certainly deter similar conduct in a heartbeat. It is an essential first step.
So what is a more just system?
Following from everything I’ve outlined above, I can imagine a system in which a black woman whose net worth is $10,000 found guilty of theft should have a lesser sentence and degree of blame than her white male counterpart found guilty of the same crime whose net worth was $3 million. Yes, I concede that this is an oversimplification of a complex topic, but a reasonable person can assume that in many, if not most cases, a white millionaire is likely the beneficiary of a wider degree of privilege and opportunity to influence public policy than a black person living under the poverty line. I might sound crazy, but that’s fine with me. We need more good “crazy” people to challenge the status quo. Even if we don’t fundamentally alter the system, what’s the harm in at least envisioning something new? The same-old-same-old simply isn’t working. We require a radical paradigm shift to break the mold and progress as a people.
If I’m next
… know that I don’t have “faith in the system”. I’ve seen first hand how “rules dictate results” and until we write them (and enforce them) ourselves, we simply cannot and will not win. I’ll have faith in the system when I am able to influence the rules, enforce them, and ensure that the system is one that prioritizes equity over equality.
We can’t play by a set of rules designed to be unfair.
Yes, representation is essential, but we can’t become complicit in believing that black CEOs, politicians, and celebrities alone will bring the change we so desperately desire. A professor at Howard once warned me of the trap of believing that “a black face in a high place will always do what is best for his or her race”. While we certainly need more representation in board rooms, courtrooms, legislative bodies, and fortune 500 companies nationwide, we must still continue to hold our leaders accountable and push them to fight against the norms created by those around them. After all, a game is only as fair as the rules that regulate it. We must push and empower our leaders to write the rules — bold rules that expand the universe of what we have even conceived as possible in this country.
To enact real change, we cannot continue to play by someone else's rules. We won’t win.
We need all hands on deck.
Importantly, we need allies to support us and our movement with their voices, their networks, their votes, and their wallets if we are to build a brighter tomorrow.
If I’m next
… know that I worked hard and fought harder. I spoke and I listened. I cried. I laughed. I prayed.
If I’m next
… know that I wasn’t “going to do big things one day”. Know that I was trying to do them now.
If I’m next
… promise me one thing. Promise me you will work to rid us of this American Nightmare and create a system that doesn’t result in modern-day lynching in our courtrooms and on our streets.
If I’m next
… let me be the last.
