White America’s ‘sundown town’ mentality almost claims another Black teen’s life
Ralph Yarl wasn’t shot because he rang the wrong doorbell. What almost cost the Black teenager his life are racist “Stand your ground” laws that validate white fear in a nation with more guns than people. On April 13, Yarl, 16, arrived at a Kansas City, Mo., home to pick up his two younger brothers. The correct house was on 115th Terrace, but Yarl mistakenly went to 115th Street. When he rang the bell, Andrew Lester, an 84-year-old white man, reportedly shot through a glass storm door, hitting Yarl in the head. After the boy was already on the ground, Lester then shot Yarl in the arm.
After being questioned and released by police last week — followed by public outrage — Lester was charged Monday with assault in the first degree and armed criminal action, both felonies. Without offering details, Zachary Thompson, Clay County’s prosecuting attorney, said, “I can tell you there was a racial component.”
Released from the hospital, Yarl is now recovering at home. “He continues to improve,” said Paul Yarl, his father. “He’s responsive and he’s making good progress.”
The same can’t be said of America, a place where being Black means your very presence in any circumstance can be seen as an imminent threat that might portend a call to police or vigilante violence. Even after years of talking and writing about these cases, I still struggle to explain the daily mental gymnastics Black people must endure merely to exist and keep ourselves alive.
How do we function and what toll does it take knowing that even when engaged in mundane tasks you can be seen as a threat? Walking while Black. Shopping while Black. Jogging while Black. Driving while Black. Spraying lanternflies while Black. Golfing while
Black. Sitting in Starbucks while Black. Birdwatching while Black. Minding your own damn business while Black.
Years ago during a rehearsal at Boston Symphony Hall, a white man offered me his extra ticket since my view of the stage was obstructed. Believing he was setting me up for trouble — I seemed to be the only Black person in attendance — I initially resisted. But even after moving to the better seat, I kept my head on swivel waiting for an usher to make me leave.
Paranoid? Sure. But not if you’re Black in a country where a teenager gets shot for the mistake of ringing a doorbell at the wrong house.
Yarl survived. Nearly 10 years ago in Dearborn Heights, Mich., another Black teenager did not. After a car accident, Renisha McBride knocked on Ted Wafer’s door seeking help. He did not offer assistance. Instead, the white man shot the 19-year-old woman in the head. At his sentencing for murder, Wafer said, “From my fear, I caused the loss of a life that was too young to leave this world.”
In 2018, Brennan Walker missed the bus and got lost walking to school. Looking for directions, he knocked on the door of a Rochester Hills, Mich., home where a white woman accused him of trying to break in. As he tried to explain that he was lost, a white man came toward him with a gun. Even after the Black teenager turned and ran, Jeffrey Zeigler fired at him. Walker was unharmed.
Wafer said he was afraid. Zeigler said he and his wife were afraid. And when Lester was first questioned after Yarl was shot, he said he was “scared to death.” These are people who act with the same mentality that fostered sundown towns for decades. Under threat of violence, Black people could not travel in certain towns or cities after dusk. (And yes, sundown towns still exist.) This is the redundancy of this nation’s racist violence where irrational white fears endanger Black lives.
Many Black parents have “the talk” with their children about what to do if they’re stopped by a police officer. Must there now be a companion piece where parents warn their kids about how to survive getting lost, seeking help, or knocking on the wrong door in a white neighborhood?
During an interview Tuesday with CNN, Faith Spoonmore, Yarl’s aunt, said her nephew “lost a part of himself that day. A lot has changed since that happened. The way in which he’s going to walk through this world is going to be totally different because of what happened.”
Of course, Spoonmore is right. It’s a tragic fact that even if Yarl fully recovers from his physical wounds, he will be forever changed. But history has repeatedly shown that the greater tragedy is that for Black people, America will remain exactly the same.