Oscar and Johannes: Loss and Lies

Oscar Grant is dead.

As most see it, Oscar Grant, subdued with his hands behind his back and face down on the ground, was brutally murdered in cold blood by Johannes Mehserle. Oscar Grant’s soul will find no peace any time soon. Oscar Grant’s family, friends, and supporters will find no peace any time soon. For Oscar Grant, there is only death--and injustice.

Johannes Mehserle, a police officer, walked away with a slap on the wrist for the brutal, cold-blooded killing of Oscar Grant, an unarmed young man from the city of Oakland, California. Johannes Mehserle mistook his gun for his tazer, and shot Oscar Grant in the back as he lay, restrained, on the cold tile floor of a B.A.R.T. station. A simple mistake. Johannes Mehserle’s family, friends and supporters will celebrate his life. For Johannes Mehserle, there is reprieve--two years jail time and double credit for time served--and a chance at redemption.

This story should surprise no-one. It is old as Methuselah. It is business as usual.

Black Folks: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

One Thanksgiving Eve, I stopped at a neighborhood store to buy dessert for a party. A black woman in the back of the store offered gourmet ice cream samples. After passing twice, I relented, as did a white woman. She was a middle school teacher from Harlem coming off of a pretty rough workday. We exchanged small talk. 

When the teacher began to complain about her tough day with the schoolchildren in Harlem, the sample lady snorted, and scoffed, “Well, when your mother is on drugs and your father isn’t around and…” I interrupted before she could finish the sentence to ask why she would make such a broad, ugly statement. She muttered some inanity about black folks and drugs and gangs, so I cut her off again. I know that was rude, but I couldn’t stop myself.