It’s Past Time for Black Lives to Matter

The savage killing of young Emmett Till is a constant reminder of America’s failings at racial equality. The recent killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer is a continuation of the same amoral behavior: the centuries-old, unrepentant cruelty of America pressing its knee on the necks of its black citizens so they cannot breathe. It is the horror of living black in a nation that disregards black lives.

Before sunrise on August 28, 1955 in Money, Mississippi, Roy Brant and J. W. Milan kidnapped Till, a black teenager who had whistled at Brant’s white wife. They dragged him from his family to the banks of the Tallahatchie River where they brutalized young Emmett beyond recognition with pounding fists, then they gouged out his eye and shot him in the head. After slipping the youngster’s weighted body into the river’s shallow waters, they went home knowing they would not pay for their dreadful crime. Brant and Milan would never have gone on trial except that Emmett’s mother demanded news coverage and an open coffin at his funeral to share with the world her son’s disfigured remains. Under pressure, authorities convened a trial. Brant and Millan were quickly acquitted by the white jury, because in their America a young, black life like Emmett’s did not matter.

Black lives not mattering in America traces back to colonists and the early enslaving of Africans. It persisted as Jim Crow laws after the Civil War. From the war’s end until the mid- 1960s, upright white citizens lynched over five thousand people; hanging them like strange fruit  from the trees, because dark-skinned citizens did not matter in white eyes. These wanton killings  were done with impunity, inflicted mostly on young men when whites decided they had stepped out of bounds. Lynching was the great threat for blacks who strayed from their place of oppression. Their place was defined by the laws and practices established to separate them from their rights as Americans. Under Jim Crow, all manner of rules and mores subjugated blacks, not allowing them to live healthy, thriving lives as integrated citizens.

Despite current civil rights laws to free blacks from the bondage of segregation and violence, black lives still do not matter in America like white lives matter. Young people continue to be killed for little reason. Just a few years ago, George Zimmerman killed Trayvon Martin because he looked suspicious with his dark skin and hooded sweatshirt in a neighborhood which had been experiencing a rash of burglaries. Zimmerman, a neighborhood-watch citizen, dogged Trayvon and shot him dead. Zimmerman said he felt threatened. Martin’s body gave up a bag of candy, an iced tea drink, and a cell phone as weapons. The protests which followed re-exposed the underlying tension white America displays around black people.

This tension intensifies white confrontation of blacks, whether by the police or individuals on their own. Oscar Grant died from being shot in the back by an officer after being forced to the ground as police confronted a group of black men fighting on a BART train in Oakland. In Jacksonville, Jordan Davis died in a parked car from shots fired by Michael Dunn, who was irate over the music Dunn was playing too loudly for Dunn’s ear. Recently, Breonna Taylor, a young woman who worked as an emergency room technician, was killed in her bed at midnight by Louisville police officers firing multiple shots into her after bursting into her apartment with a warrant to search for drugs that someone else might have left there. Her boyfriend had drawn a gun on the unknown intruders to defend Breonna and himself and the situation left Breonna dead for little, if any, reason. Now, its George Floyd. He died under the knee of oppression that has lasted too long. These people did not deserve their fate. The list of unwarranted deaths because of mindless discrimination is endless and frightening.

Along with the threat of brutal death, blacks daily face a senseless callousness from fellow white Americans. Injustices persisting from Jim Crow segregation are exposed in the high rates of abject poverty and imprisonment found among blacks, due to discrimination in education, housing, employment, and incarceration. Black lives not mattering in America is revealed by the harsh difficulties of receiving a good education, finding a decent home, gaining employment, and avoiding prison. Whites may have similar issues, but not to the same degree. Any comparison is meaningless given the horrors of American racism.

With blacks, the haunting subtleties of segregation make it tiringly difficult to gain footing on the rungs of opportunity. The almost imperceptible discrimination that lingers from oppression denies those in black neighborhoods full access to opportunities that most whites take for granted. For example, such practices as school districts allocating fewer resources to predominately black schools, businesses not calling applicants for job interviews because they have black sounding names, and real estate agents limiting the number and kinds of rental properties shown to blacks are among the myriad ways those who still do not matter are kept down and away from white society.

Housing offers a prime example of whites keeping blacks in their place. It is understood in America, that blacks are to live in their own areas. However, if that neighborhood becomes desirable to whites, they move in with ease and blacks must find a way to leave (gentrification). If too many blacks move into a white area, property values start falling (devaluation) and whites leave (white flight). Discrimination like this weakens the hold blacks have on their own future and lessens the moral strength of America.

The methodical discrimination against blacks is failing America’s claims to be inclusive in promoting the general welfare of its citizenry. Even though the nation’s tolerance of racism has waned, the narratives around blacks that hold them in a position of less-than are stubborn in disappearing. Children who come from poverty enter school with fewer abilities needed for success. Their schools mostly do not have the same resources as those in more affluent communities, so they fall further behind. From there, far too many drop into despair and end up unjustly in prison. There have been vast improvements since young Emmett died, but subtle discrimination persists because remnants of black lives not mattering in America remain embedded in the nation’s culture despite its good words about equality.

There is within the whole of America concerted efforts toward equal justice and opportunity, but fear soils those attempts. Whites often consider blacks dangerous. Their fear of blacks rises from their own moral transgressions and leads ultimately to the terror that blacks will come to oppress them. And blacks fear they can never lead a free and open life because they have to be cautious at every turn to not provoke the man. To do so means exclusion from available housing, expulsion from even the substandard school they must attend, denial of employment, undue imprisonment, and harassment or death at the hands of a police officer or others who fear their blackness.

There is some consolation in knowing that young Emmett did not completely die in vain. The Civil Rights movement arose from his tragic story to end Jim Crow segregation and its vicious treatment of blacks. That attempt continues with laws to eliminate the subtle discriminations which followed. But laws are not enough to end the persistence of the moral failings of racism which lead to injustice. An uproar continues for equitable public education, full access to the housing market, sustainable jobs, and a color-blind criminal justice system. The stench of bigotry chokes our freedom, and more and more citizens are searching their hearts for the fresh air of compassion needed to stop the veiled mistreatments and needless killings of black Americans.

The Black Lives Matter movement is today’s hue and cry for justice. Recent mass demonstrations in cities and rural towns of America protest the unjust death of George Floyd under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer. These demonstrations represent the overwhelming desire to be, at last, a free nation for all. The America of its founding documents continues to call for justice. Most Americans do believe that heart-felt, cultural disownment of Jim Crow discrimination must happen now. There is an oft used retort to Black Lives Matter which claims that all lives matter. This claim will not hold true in America until the value of black lives is on par with white lives.

Every day, racism is reflected in the mirror of white America. This face of injustice is why citizens of all colors are crying out that black lives matter. Recent shootings have pierced our conscience again, reviving screams for action against the inhumanities inflicted on those who are made expendable. In our hearts we know that fear must deny justice no longer and that our indomitable faith in democratic principles can find ways of ending the prolonged oppression of millions of Americans. How citizens treat each other stands as the character of a nation, and this young country has much to overcome to be the land of opportunity it claims to be. We are all the same children of creation with differences that make for rich and rewarding relationships in the communities of this great land.

Let us now, out of human decency, end the horror of living black in America by stepping away from systemic racism and embracing America’s promise of shared equality. The dream of liberty and justice for all will be realized when the oppression of black citizens ends and America at last heeds its founders’ call for all people to live free. The time has come for black lives to matter in America.

@ 2020 Darrell Clukey