Set racism, brutality on fire — not buildings
Incidents of police brutality have followed me from city to city. I’m enraged and exhausted.
I have lived in Atlanta and remain a homeowner in Georgia, where Ahmaud Arbery was killed by a former police detective. I have lived in Dallas, where a police officer killed Botham Jean in his own apartment. I have lived in Charlotte, where former Florida A&M University football player Jonathan Ferrell sought help after a car accident and ended up being killed by a police officer. I’ve lived in Minneapolis, where life was choked out of George Floyd by a police officer, and in nearby St. Paul, where Philando Castile was gunned down by an officer during a traffic stop.
I’m from Sanford, Florida, where vigilante George Zimmerman killed Trayvon Martin. I now live in Louisville, where Breonna Taylor was shot eight times and killed by police in March after they entered her residence on a noknock warrant at 12:40 a.m.
I am exhausted. I am enraged. I’m fed up and I’m hurting. I am afraid for black men and women. I am afraid for this country.
I am disturbed and disappointed by the burning buildings and destroyed communities.
But I am not distracted. These fires weren’t sparked out of thin air.
The anguish of racism, the pain of inequity and the absence of justice are the agents of outrage.
Shattered storefronts represent shattered communities. Looting is inexcusable. So, too, is the theft of hopes and dreams and futures of people snuffed out by police brutality.
Burning down buildings solves absolutely nothing. Instead, set aflame the systems that set the stage for economic imbalance, health disparities exacerbated by COVID-19, educational gaps, and a criminal justice structure that has a stranglehold on black and brown people.
Buildings will be restored, but jobs will be lost and lives will be changed beyond the damage already dealt by the coronavirus. And while violence has too often been the answer for police, it is not the answer for those demanding justice reform and an overhaul of practices and policies that have disenfranchised black lives.
The work of eradicating 400 years of racism is harder. The work of eliminating police brutality is harder. The path to healing from trauma induced by videos on a loop of murdered black bodies is treacherous.
It’s much easier to condemn violent riots and call for peace than it is to fix a system that isn’t broken but is doing exactly what it was built to do. Alas, this is the work of creating from the ground up a new, fair and just system for all.