By Kia Washington and Keandre Williams-Chambers
Contributors
Living as a black individual in America is not an easy thing.
As events in the present and recent history have shown, those responsible for public safety often present life and death fear in many non-white individuals. Those who cause the fear are sworn to protect the general public fin instances that can be both domestic and foreign. Yes, we are talking about the police.
Recent events ranging from the Ferguson events still fresh in everyone’s minds to the infamous Los Angeles Riots that rocked not only southern California but the rest of the nation, have the common theme of police brutality. Such repeated incidents have left a sting of heavy and legitimate fear in the black community for the intents behind many officers’ desires to protect. Many ask, “from what?”
Growing up as black individuals, we have been instilled a code of conduct around officers, passed down throughout the generations. We are told to uphold as much forward respect as we can and not give any officer any reason to assume we are doing anything wrong. As “ThisIsACommentary” YouTube channel star Tre Melvin notes in his social analysis of the invasion of the “BlackLivesMatter” hashtag by the “AllLivesMatter” hashtag, black individuals do not even have to commit a crime to be labeled by many as criminals, when our crime is simply being black.
Furthermore, Melvin notes that two things commonly occur when black individuals take a stand for themselves and try to get their message heard. He notes that black people are more often than not painted as savages by the media and then, when any sort of truth is heard by the general public, it is somehow assimilated into a general message that robs the original movement of its meaning. While “AllLivesMatter” is a valid hashtag that people should live by, it overshadows how much “BlackLivesMatter” strives to achieve. It erases the visibility that black people try to reach on the scale of life and death in the eyes of the law enforcement that has made habits of trying to victimize black people and pass it off as the inevitable end “black-on-black crime” would bring.
Not all police officers are bad. Many do their job with the sole intent of serving and protecting the public from harm. While we do sincerely respect that, it is those few who abuse the power that leave us wary, and the lack of visible punishment for those who abuse that power that leaves us afraid. Inaction has been shown in history to be taken as a sign of consent in this day and age, and isn’t much of a leap to believe that the absence of punishment is encouragement of this behavior. Otherwise, history would not continue to repeat itself.
“If you have done nothing wrong, what do you have to hide?” remains as valid justification for many ethically, morally and legally wrong actions taken by law enforcement towards not only black individuals but all people of color. This causes us to believe this era of fear is far from over.