“No moment is ever eternity, but it has its right to weep.”
Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God
Anyone naïve enough to be hopeful the video of the killing of 12-year-old Tamir Rice in a westside Cleveland playground will shed enough light on the tragedy to put the incident to rest should quickly disabuse themselves of that notion. All the airing of the video will do is to further entrench individuals into their already preconceived positions in regards to police shootings. No one will change his or her mind … no matter what images flicker on the TV screen.
The question of course will be, “Did the officer fear for his life?” and the answer from the right will be “yes,” of course he did … after all, there was a black male, armed with what was perceived to be a firearm, standing right in front of him. What else was he to do but protect his right to safely go home that night to his family — a right no sane person would deny him?
But there will be repercussions; punishment will be meted out. The police dispatcher who failed to relay the entire message in full that the supposedly concerned citizen left … that he thought the gun was a toy in the hands of a child … will probably receive a two-week suspension. That’s about all a young black life is worth in America. Case closed.
Nonetheless, that still leaves us with the question of why young black males — granted, a demographic that, due to poverty, commits more crimes proportionately than their white counterparts — is so demonized in America. And until we face that question head on and devise methods of policing to counteract that flawed imagery, the body count will continue to rise. Another notion we need to disabuse ourselves of is that — absent some form of decisive intervention by a greater and more powerful force — police in America (white officers in particular) will somehow become less trigger-happy. Too many of them won’t.
And here’s why: Our beloved country is freighted down with its own history. While conservatives continually cry, “Just let the past go,” persons of color simply can’t because the ugliness of it still so negatively impacts our present, as manifested in the plethora of police shootings of young black males with only the slightest of provocation.
As Bob Dylan sang, “The past is never far behind.”
Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice put it so succinctly: “America was born with a birth defect: Slavery.” And that defect hobbles our nation, causes us to limp, a limp that is increasingly becoming more pronounced day after day … year after year. While we, on one hand, attempt to create a truly colorblind, post-racial society, those who are sworn to protect said society are — in too many instances, in too many places — all too willing to pull us backwards … back to that ugly past most of us would rather not think about.
However, as painful as it is to recount, we simply must examine our history if we want to better understand and overcome it.
A nation that was built on chattel slavery had to, in order to support such a diabolical system, demonize those whom it enslaved. At no other time in the history of mankind were people bred like cattle to be sold on the auction block … this only happened in America, and it happened for hundreds and hundreds of uninterrupted years. Why then does anyone think we can overcome such a past quickly and without sincere effort? It’s proving to take more work than we as Americans are willing to do.
To further their horrific enterprise, slave owners created the myth of the “big black buck,” that strong back, weak mind and compliant will that brought a premium price on the auction block. This was about wealth building.
However, one of the unintended consequences of the creation of this myth was to cause curiosity in the minds of the mistresses of the plantations, who in many cases harbored resentment over the fact their husbands were sneaking down to the slave quarters at night to have their way with the women they owned. Some of them felt “What’s good for the goose is good for the gander,” and they too wanted a taste of “dark meat” … sometimes in retribution, sometimes just for the thrill of it.
In order to counteract and control this, the black male had to be portrayed as devious, dangerous and deranged; a threat to “civilized” (i.e. white) way of life and the public order. A myth so strong, that it’s still all too prevalent to this very day, and, in large part, is what’s responsible for the deaths of so many young black males.
And police across the country operate on this unsaid but clearly understood premise: “You citizens had better allow us (and support us in our efforts) to carry out our jobs in any manner we see fit, because we’re the only ones standing between you and that horde of black animals that will enter your house at night, bludgeon you in your bed, and then proceed to rape your wife and slaughter your children.” Put that way, selling that kind of fear, what white person — who believes this sick back story — wouldn’t sign off on any behavior, including murder, as long as it’s carried out with a badge, under color of authority, and in the name of law and order?
But what if police were ordered out of their squad cars and forced to do real community policing? Could such a move have resulted in the officer that shot Tamir actually knowing the boy as a human being (rather than just a threat to his safety), and thus have made him less inclined to quickly shoot first, and ask questions later? In this case, we’ll never know.
From Cool Cleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available again in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author by visiting http://NeighborhoodSolutionsInc.com.
2 Responses to “MANSFIELD: See Black, Think Danger”
Denise
That play area is known for gun violence it is a high crime area. It is sad a 12 year old boy was shot dead. Blame starts in the home with the parents and that gun looked real this is not video games this is real life, His actions unfortunately lead to his death by not following the cops instructions. I personally don’t like guns just for that reason people get killed. I had a gun pulled on me as a kid and it scares a person against guns.
Bill Wiltrack
Mansfield, you are a voice of clarity and wisdom, reason and empathy.
…and, you are brave enough to speak.
I wish the world could hear you.
I wish we lived in your world.