In the past two weeks, the nation has been rocked by the grand jury system in Missouri and New York that failed to indict the police officers who killed Michael Brown and Eric Garner. What have the last two weeks been like for you? What was the emotion that you felt after hearing the Eric Garner decision?
The last two weeks have been a continued reminder of the African American experience in the United States of America. While slavery, Jim Crow and the like are parts of the past, it seems that the past is prologue. Here again unarmed African American men are murdered by police officers and one shooting is caught on tape. It would seem to be a no brainer that the grand juries would bring an indictment, and the officers involved could have their day in court. But as we know this would not be. More black bodies are disposed of unceremoniously and the powder keg of emotion and historic imposition is yet again on display. The callous manner in which Eric Garner’s body was left to be seen by the community is a throwback to how Africans on plantations, in America, would be left to be an example to those who would step out of line. Ferguson is a plantation of sorts that has been exposed for the antiquated manner in which it sees and treats it citizens! So these last two weeks have been a reminder to me of from where “we,” this country and our community, have come and how far we have to go. As far as it pertains to the emotion that was felt when hearing the grand jury decision, I felt as I always do — numb. Justice in America, for African American men, is similar to when Charlie Brown goes to kick the ball that Lucy holds for him. You hope that Charlie Brown kicks the ball, but Justice Lucy never gives him a chance; she always pulls the ball back. Black male bodies in America have seemingly no value, and the makeup of the jury of our peers continues to remind us of this fact.
