Whom Shall I Still Fear
No Me Digas. Op-Ed: Keith Price
Like many people last week and this week, I spent time glued to the trial of Derek Chauvin. Most of the time I could not help but just weep along with so many of the witnesses who testified. Like many folks I screamed at that defense attorney, because it does not take Perry Mason to see what the defense is doing to win this case, or at the very least get a mistrial. Since the city of Minneapolis has awarded the family a large amount of money as a settlement BEFORE there is any verdict, it already smells like they are going to circumvent putting the police officer with the homicidal trick knee in jail.
Sadly, the American justice system is fraught with many, many, many tales of its inequities to people of color. There are even many more tales of injustice to black men by police officers. However, it seems that only with the murder of George Floyd has this entire country FINALLY gotten a chance to unequivocally watch the brutality and then spring into global activism. The Central Park Karen foolishness was happening on the same day as the atrocity that had befallen George Floyd, and that in of itself is a beginning and ending on race commentary in America.
As a black man, you can be accused of a crime that you did not commit because a white woman tells the police that you threatened her. As in my own experience, you may never even actually see or speak to the person that you may have allegedly threatened. Luckily there was a camera. Sadly, the police were called on a black man who really wasn’t a big threat. He was killed by the police. Luckily, there was a camera.
As I watched the tears of so many witnesses, I could not help but think that this was happening in the same week that people were calling the Georgia legislature’s most recent swat at voter suppression, JIM CROW 2.0.
I realized that every BIPOC in America needs to take note because the legacy of those dead Jim Crow loving white people are reaching into this century like the movie, CARRIE, and dragging us back to having fear of them. It is no wonder that in today’s Georgia legislature, perverting the power of the black vote is happening, yet again in another century. The famous runoff election that turned Georgia blue nationally is a remnant of the state’s own historic racist attempts to keep black people from voting after Reconstruction. How ironic is that?
Since the days of slavery, black people have been conditioned to be afraid of white authority. Slaveholders, whipping men, and law enforcement was used to keep black people in constant fear. At the end of the Civil War, instead of recognizing the Reconstruction plan to bestow the hard won freedom on slaves everywhere, the plan was not only undermined, but legislation, intimidation, and continued savagery kept winning out at every turn.
From Plessy v. Ferguson to Brown v. Board of Education, from Juneteenth to Rosewood, Florida and the Tulsa Oklahoma Massacre, the Scottsboro Boys, the Civil Rights movement, the church bombings, to the constant lynchings the denial of any sense of fairness to black people is clear, and so exhausting to argue with anyone who wants to deny systemic racism by legislative and physical intimidation.
We are all sitting through a murder trial in which a police officer is really being brought to task in front of the world. This presents an enormous opportunity to begin moving in a direction that would help diminish the power of fear of questionable authority figures like Officer Chauvin. When you listen to the testimonies of the black men on the stand and see their tears, please know that those are the tears of our ancestors who are STILL crying at the inhumanity that is happening to black people today.
Many of those people wanted to do something, but deep down that fear of authority kept everyone paralyzed. The fears of taking a fake $20 bill, losing a job, and later being held responsible for starting a chain of events that NO ONE saw coming, are going to haunt that young man forever. The fear of being manhandled by the toxic male energy of a policeman kept a female firefighter/ems worker from rendering aid and will haunt her forever.
As I re-live the “woulda, coulda, shoulda” testimonies of the witnesses followed by their tears, I would argue the underlying reason of why every person did not just pull Office Chauvin off of Mr. Floyd, is the fear of being a victim of the same brutality that they were witnessing. Thank God for camera phones. We can now add the plights of women, other people of color, most notably our Asian brothers and sisters, the poor, and so many others to this growing list.
It is clear that over generations of reinvention the same fear of the police by people will continue to happen and just have a new look, like Madonna. This trial however has the potential of changing that dynamic. The most talked about moment that could prove to be damaging so far is the testimony of the Minneapolis Police Chief, Medaria Arradondo. His position is very clear, and his disdain over this entire act is very public. As a man of color, moving through the ranks of the police department to become Chief is the progress that our forefathers suffered and died to see happen. I am damn sure that HIS journey to the top was not easy, nor was it met with open arms among the ranks of officers he represents. Perhaps his words on the stand may be the start of ending the fear of police authority for all of us in this country. Until then, I think that I am going to tell my niece, nephews, and their peer group to always keep a side eye with the law but keep fighting against the fear. Keep those cameras on and ready.
Wear a mask. Wash your hands. Stay Distanced.
