Black-on-Black racism takes a toll on Black men

10th February 2020   ·   0 Comments

By Frederick Lowe
BlackmansStreet.Today

This week Black men were victims of explicit Black- on-Black racism, a contributing cause of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Two recent events stand out. One involves Erika Mack, a Black woman assistant TCF branch manager, who called the police on Sauntore Thomas, a bank customer. Thomas wanted to cash and deposit settlement checks he received resulting from a discrimination lawsuit.

The second instance involved a Black Prince George’s County, Maryland, cop, who shot to death a handcuffed Black prisoner seated in the police officer’s patrol car.

Police charged Corporal Michael Owen Jr., a 10-year department veteran, with second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter, first degree assault and use of a firearm in the commission of a crime in the shooting death of William Howard Green.

Green, 43, a resident of Southeast, Washington, D.C., was shot to death January 27 in Temple Hills, Prince George’s County. Owen and an unnamed officer arrested Green following a traffic accident. They handcuffed Green and placed him in the front seat next Owen, following procedure.

“A short time later, for reasons that are now at the center of the investigation, Green was shot seven times,” police said. Owen’s service weapon was fired repeatedly during the shooting.

“I have concluded that what happened last night was a crime,” Chief Henry P. Stawinski III of the Prince George’s County Police, said during a news conference.

It turns out that Owen already has one notch on his gun for killing another man in the line of duty. He remained on the job after that deadly shooting.

In Livonia, Michigan, Sauntore Thomas attempted to deposit two of three settlement checks at TCF Bank where he had an account. One of the checks was for $59,000. Another was for $27,000 and third one was for $13,000. He wanted to cash the $13,000 check and deposit the others.

He was awarded the money after winning a lawsuit from his former employer Enterprise Leasing Company, which is based in Detroit, according to several newspaper accounts.

Ericka Mack, the assistant bank branch manager, became suspicious, believing the checks were fraudulent and called the police on Thomas.

Four cops showed up at the bank. Thomas contacted his lawyer, Deborah Gordon, who called the bank to tell Mack the checks were legitimate. Mack did not believe Gordon.

Gordon said she believes her client was questioned because he was a Black man.

Thomas closed his account at TCF and opened a new one at a Chase Bank branch. The checks cleared 12 hours later without any problems.

A TCF spokesman apologized to Thomas, saying the police should never have been called. He added racism didn’t figure into Mack’s decision to call the police because she is also Black.

He doesn’t get it. Blacks are racist against other Blacks. It’s internalized oppression which makes Black women immediately suspicious of Black men.

I have experienced this myself many times.

One incident that is etched in my memory occurred at the Art Institute of Chicago, where I was a member. I was strolling through the galleries looking at the paintings, photographs and drawings.

A Black woman security guard told her white female partner she wanted to know what I was up to?

What am up to? I am looking at art. Is that so far out of your experience that you can’t believe a Black man can enjoy art?

She stood threatening close to me with an angry stare. I said nothing. My wife and my son walked up to join me. The guard and her partner then walked away.

I didn’t get angry or cause a scene. I believed the guard expected me to get angry. Instead, I wrote a letter to the president of the Art Institute, explaining what happened. I had previously written about an exhibit at the Art Institute, so he had an inkling of who I was. He wrote me back and apologized.

Thomas said he also remained cool. “I feel very intimidated because I knew that if I would have gotten loud, they [the police] would have had me on the ground for disturbance of the peace. But I didn’t get loud. I didn’t get confrontational. I did nothing,” he said.

Thomas has sued the bank for unspecified damages. He also wants the bank officials to apologize.

He also closed his account at TCF. I didn’t renew my membership at the Art Institute.

This article originally published in the February 10, 2019 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.