Losing and finding ourselves
2nd November 2015 · 0 Comments
By Edmund W. Lewis
Editor
There was a time when Black people used to form a protective circle around Black children.
I thought about that after viewing footage of the white police officer in South Carolina who saw nothing wrong with manhandling a Black teenage girl who reportedly was “disrupting” a class at Spring Valley High School. In spite of everything that I have seen over the course of my life and the brutality and callousness exhibited by cops over the past few years, I was taken aback by this officer’s obvious rage and total disregard for the human rights and dignity of this young woman.
No one who respected himself or the rights of any human being would have behaved in such a manner.
I was also taken aback by the lack of a reaction to the violent encounter by others in the classroom. It was as if they had witnessed this brand of brutality and rage countless times and had become numb to it. That probably explains why the kids at that school had dubbed the girl’s attacker “Officer Slam.”
Thank God for Niya Kenny, the young woman who intervened on the attacked student’s behalf and stood up to this bully with a badge. For her part, she was arrested and treated like a criminal herself.
If there was ever a time for young people to challenge authority, it is when authority figures — be they cops, teachers or some other adult — attack a child and violate his or her rights.
And if there was ever a time for all of us to stand up to authority figures or someone in a position of power, it is when they attack our children and treat them as if they have no rights or value as human beings.
But sadly, for the most part we haven’t stood up to those who would attack or murder our children.
We have also failed to intervene when we see young people going down the wrong path and getting into trouble.
There was a time when we would move heaven and earth to make sure that our children — whether they were our biological offspring, lived in our neighborhood or simply crossed our path — had everything that they needed to be safe, healthy and successful.
Some of us have grown fearful of our children, some of whom have become understandably confused and angry because they see how fearful many of us have become in our dealings with elected officials, schools and law enforcement agencies. Some of them have not been taught to respect all adults and others feel abandoned and resentful because we do not do everything in our power to keep them safe from harm.
Some of us who have been fortunate enough to get a college education and move into a higher tax bracket have bought into the notion that children from low-income families are somehow defective and destined for failure.
It is a message that is reinforced daily by mainstream media outlets and one that Black people were once insightful enough to dismiss as a tactic used by white supremacists to attack our collective dignity and keep us in “our place.”
This is a new low for us, descendants of proud people who once lived our lives with an understanding and reverence for the African adage that says “I am because we are.”
Nowadays, it’s every man, woman and child for himself.
The officer who behaved like an animal deserves to be terminated and prosecuted to the full extent of the law, but beyond that we have to stand up for ourselves and our children.
It’s not enough to get upset for a little while about the murder of Trayvon Martin, Jordan Davis, Michael Brown or any of the unarmed Black men, women or children who have been gunned down, tasered or choked to death by agents of white supremacy.
We have to push away from Facebook, “Empire,” “Scandal,” “The Tom Joyner Morning Show” and reality TV long enough to build a movement that will ensure that agents of white supremacy can no longer get away with treating us like we are three-fifths human or like we have no constitutional rights that whites are “bound by law to respect.”
As sad as it is, cops and agents of white supremacy keep slaughtering us and treating us like we are beneath them because we let them. When we stand up and say” No more,” and mean it, we will have taken a critical step toward becoming the people we were before we lost our African minds. A step that will not allow us to tolerate disrespect, oppression or third-class citizenship in a nation we played a pivotal role in building.
We owe that to our children and we owe that to ourselves.
We’ve got to get back to being us. And get back to raising, disciplining, protecting and loving our children and ourselves.
Our survival hangs in the balance.
Harambee.
This article originally published in the November 2, 2015 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
