Marching, protesting, and speaking out are one thing. Rioting, looting, and violence are another altogether. But if the dissatisfied recent echo that blasted through yet another U.S. city is any indicator of how people are feeling about the status quo, it’s explicitly clear: They’re unhappy, and they want things to change.
Racism: It can be defined as nonexistent by one side and completely rampant by another. It’s touchy. It affects everyone differently, but it affects everyone.
Racism. It exists.
Read it again: It exists!
If you’re someone who hasn’t personally experienced it wielded against you, someone who hasn’t personally felt what it means to be stereotyped or what it feels like to be eyed because of the color of your skin, that doesn’t mean other people don’t or haven’t or won’t. Remember that when you sling your comments on those articles, videos, and social media posts about what’s happening in Baltimore—you know, the ones that have essentially taken over the Interwebs.
Now, whether that existing racism actually played a role in any of the recent, crazy, police-involved shootings, injuries, or deaths of black males is only known by the people who participated in those tragic events. The motives behind them are not for me to say. But it’s obvious that there are people out there who believe that something nefarious is the case, and it’s also obvious that past experiences with law enforcement personnel played into those beliefs.
People demonstrating in Baltimore believe that the death of Freddie Gray, as mysterious and un-pieced together as it might be, was the result of racist police officers. Gray was arrested on April 12 after police said he made eye contact with officers and proceeded to run away.
“He was held down, handcuffed, and loaded into a van without a seat belt. Leg cuffs were put on him when he became irate inside,” according to The Australian. (Yes, this story is an international story. The race issues in the United States have been making headlines all over the world.) “He asked for medical help several times even before being put in the van, but medics were not called until after a 30-minute ride.”
After that 30-minute ride, the story goes, officers realized Gray had a nearly severed spinal column, although they haven’t said how his spine was injured. He died on April 19. The case is still being investigated.
Although police haven’t yet released the races of the six officers involved in his arrest, we do know that Gray is a black man. The riots following the incident were so bad that the Maryland governor declared a state of emergency on April 29 and called in the National Guard to help restore order.
A week-long daily curfew was imposed from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m., and Baltimore public schools closed for the day. The Australian reported that at least 15 police officers were hurt, and two dozen people were arrested. A photo-journalist was allegedly beaten by police.
To put it rather simply: It got crazy. It got so crazy, it became reminiscent of the violent riots that took over the city of Ferguson, Mo., in August 2014.
If you really think about it, it got crazy for a reason. People feel slighted, picked on, bullied by police. And those people believe it’s because of their race. People believe that a man shouldn’t die at the hands of police simply because of the color of his skin. They believe that men do die persecuted by law enforcement because of that same skin color. It’s not a belief you can dismiss. It’s not something you can claim doesn’t exist. It’s a feeling of persecution that we can’t tell somebody they’re reading into.
I don’t condone the violent behavior that’s resulted from that belief, but I can understand the angry, hurt place it comes from. I think the riots in Ferguson last year sparked a conversation that needs to continue. It’s a conversation that we won’t soon forget, because cell phone videos, social unrest, Facebook, and the Internet won’t let us.
Social movements can be a powerful thing: think Civil War, Civil Rights, Women’s Rights, Gay Rights. But just because social unrest has pushed some things to change, maybe those things haven’t changed enough. Change isn’t something that should ever stop.
Maybe it’s time to look deep into the way that initial change turned into the status quo and change again.
The Canary likes to change things on a whim. Send comments and tips to canary@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Apr 30 – May 7, 2015.
