TO BE YOUNG, BLACK, AND DANGEROUS
Tamir Rice and Emmett Till — Modern-Day Lynchings Explained
Yesterday I woke up and opened Facebook to read ten consecutive posts about Tamir Rice’s recent verdict.
If you don’t know about Tamir Rice, then chances are you have never heard of Emmett Till. What do both boys have in common? Their murders happened almost 60 years apart, but they were both lynched by White men. Their killers were never charged with any crimes.
In 1955, Emmett Till was lynched by a White man after Till allegedly whistled at his wife. Four days later, two White men — the husband and brother-in-law — kidnapped Till, beat him until he fell unconscious and shot him in the head. Then they tied him with barbed wire to a large metal fan and shoved his mutilated body into water. The men were tried for murder, but were acquitted by an all-White, male jury. Till’s murder and his open casket funeral galvanized the Civil Rights Movement.
In 2014, Tamir Rice was shot and killed by a White man who saw him playing with a black BB gun in broad daylight. Once the police arrived, they claimed that Rice refused to cooperate, and reached for his BB gun. This story is in stark contrast to the 45-year-old White man, Lance Tamayo, who went to a playground and pulled out a real gun, and waved it at some women, men and children. Police attempted to negotiate with him for an hour before finally shooting Tamayo in the stomach. Rice was in proximity to far fewer people, by the way. After being shot, Tamayo reached for his gun, and refused to comply. Police personnel were able to take Tamayo into custody after subduing him with non-lethal rounds. Tamayo is alive and well today, and Rice has since died. Rice did not get a chance to explain himself; Tamayo did.
Till and Rice were both perceived as dangerous individuals first, humans second. No one bothered to think that these young people were boys who hadn’t even finished puberty. Emmett Till was only 14 at the time of his passing; Tamir Rice was 12. Their untimely deaths were a result of cruelty, hatred, and mostly a deep fear of Blackness.
There is a deep fear of Blackness, and it’s not up to Black people to fix it.
Coincidentally, the first time I read about Emmett Till was also on Facebook. I follow different pages like Africa History Network , Son of Baldwin, and Black Lives Matter (BLM Brandeis).
Here’s the thing about following so many activist-run online spaces:
You start to grow.
You start to develop the language and vocabulary needed to understand racial injustice in the United States. This doesn’t stop the questions. “What’s so dangerous about Black folk?” you ask.
If you’re Black, what you’re really asking is, “What’s so dangerous about me?”
You think to yourself, “How do I contribute to this notion of danger? Why did these White men think these boys were dangerous? How can a person who killed another human being not face any charges? What is wrong with the criminal justice system? Am I responsible for how my Blackness is interpreted?” The answer is:
No.
You are not responsible for a flawed criminal justice system. You are not responsible for all the dehumanizing characteristics of White supremacy. Your role is to stop feeling these things. You don’t need to be respectable enough, educated enough, or nicely clothed to be worthy of life. You are a human being, and that is enough.
Black Mourning and Rage
“To be black and conscious in America is to be in a constant state of rage.” — James Baldwin
The mourning of Black folk is what deeply upsets me. As I read another article about another Black man lynched, I can feel my anger building up. I think of his family, and their mourning — a deep kind of mourning that reflects racial injustice in America as we know it. I feel it deep in my bones. This is a mourning that started many years ago. This is a mourning for stolen Black lives, for injustice that spans centuries. This is a mourning for our loss of human dignity.
It is for these reasons that Black rage should be acknowledged. Why do we make jokes about angry Black people? Any self-respecting White ally should know not to fall into this trap. Black people have earned the right to be angry at the state of affairs in this country. This anger is deeply rooted in fear that history might yet again repeat itself. This anger is a legitimate and appropriate reaction to immeasurable pain and suffering.
In a time of great mourning and rage, Emmett Till’s mother opted for an open-casket funeral service. Even in her deepest mourning, she understood that her son’s loss was the result of a larger system of white supremacy. Till’s mother said that, despite the enormous pain it caused her to see her son’s dead body on display, she opted for an open-casket funeral in an effort to shed light on the hate crime that took his life.
“Let the world see what has happened, because there is no way I could describe this. And I needed somebody to help me tell what it was like.”~ Mamie Till
Prominent Civil Rights Activists also remarked on the effect Till’s gruesome murder had on them. Till’s open casket was on display for five days. Thousands of people showed up to the Roberts Temple Church of God to witness the result of the brutal hate crime.
“It would appear that the state of Mississippi has decided to maintain white supremacy by murdering children.” — Roy Wilkins, head of the NAACP, 1955
“With his body water-soaked and defaced, most people would have kept the casket covered. [His mother] let the body be exposed. More than 100,000 people saw his body lying in that casket here in Chicago. That must have been at that time the largest single civil rights demonstration in American history.” — Jesse Jackson, 1955
“I thought about Emmett Till, and I couldn’t go back [to the back of the bus].” — Rosa Parks, 1955
I can’t help but see so many similarities between Emmett and Tamir. A statement from Samaria Rice, Tamir Rice’s mother, below encapsulates what Mamie Till must have felt after her son’s legal proceedings were finalized.
“Prosecutor (Tim) McGinty deliberately sabotaged the case, never advocating for my son, and acting instead like the police officers’ defense attorney. In a time in which a non-indictment for two police officers who have killed an unarmed black child is business as usual, we mourn for Tamir, and for all the black people who have been killed by the police without justice. In our view, this process demonstrates that race is still an extremely troubling and serious problem in our country and the criminal justice system.” ~December 201
#BlackLivesMatter
When we say #BlackLivesMatter we are speaking to the disproportionate amount of Black lives lost to police brutality. We are fighting for the next wave of the Civil Rights Movement. We are trying to challenge a system of White supremacy that allows modern lynchings to occur. We are asking police officers to protect us and not kill us because they fear our Blackness. We are demanding to be treated as humans.
Social Media can be a triggering space for Black people. Here’s a self-care list to help you get through it.
- Do detach from your Facebook news feed from time to time. It’s not healthy to be bombarded constantly.
- Do delete that app from your phone if you find yourself being distracted.
- Do a social media detox by deleting and un-following trolls who post triggering commentary.
- Do find the time to write down your thoughts. You might find that you have a lot to say. And, who knows, you can publish an article and share your thoughts with the world.
- Don’t be afraid to block people who harass you online and send you uncomfortable messages. Your mental well-being comes first.
- Don’t feel that you have to engage in a public debate with someone who comments on your status updates/articles. If you feel that the conversation is disrespectful, accusatory, and draining, leave the conversation. Don’t feel the need to explain yourself.
It’s simple as that.
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