Mike Brown: Hands up? Too late!

Mike Brown in better days

The murder of Mike Brown has thrown me into deep emotional waters. I am drowning. I think about this tragedy day and night. My grief is endless. I cannot begin to imagine what Mike Brown's parents and other loved ones endure. Peace is elusive, insomnia a constant battle. I feel angry. I feel sad. I feel helpless.

Here is the ugly truth. Black males have been targets for police brutality and legal extermination since time immemorial. We know this. The murder of Oscar Grant, caught on video, caused a national awakening. The murder of Trayvon Martin by a racist, psychopathic vigilante, made us collectively take further notice. The execution of Mike Brown and refusal of the justice system to be perform justice, brought the issue of legalized extermination of young black males to the eyes of the world.

One of my friends wrote, “…there is no doubt that Michael Brown attacked this officer.” Not true. There is plenty of doubt. Darren Wilson claims he was punched twice in the face, hard, by Mike Brown -- a hulk-like, demon-like figure -- yet Wilson sustained no serious visible injuries, no broken skin, no contusions. Darren Wilson enjoyed full medical examination, even as Mike Brown bled out to his death on a scorching pavement in the hot Missouri sun for four hours without any medical attention. Eyewitness testimonies regarding the altercation offered immediately after the murder never changed in six months, yet those testimonies were dismissed or ignored by the ADA in the grand jury process. The judicial process in St Louis is not trustworthy.

That same friend wrote, “Whoever you are...it is not going to be a good outcome if you attack a cop...you will most likely wind up dead or injured.” Absolutely untrue! There are several videos that show inebriated white males cursing cops, resisting arrest, and attempting to attack police officers. Those suspects are alive. If they had been black, they would be dead! The white man who shot 12 people in Aurora, CO, was taken peacefully into custody. If well-armed cops become "scared" when confronted with stressful situations and automatically respond with lethal force, their badges and guns should be revoked. Obviously, they are not equipped to handle the job.

For those who care to see, it has long been evident that cops employ double-standards according to race – one procedure for whites, another procedure for blacks. This is why a black man holding a fake gun in a store that carries that very product, would be shot dead as a possible threat. This is why a 12 year old with a fake gun in a playground in an open-carry state would be shot dead without questions asked, even as the 911 caller reiterated that the gun was probably a toy. This is why no one was held accountable in the murder of Amadou Diallo, an innocent man who was shot to death -- one cop reloaded! -- as he reached for his ID. He was Mrs. Diallo's son. He did nothing wrong. But he is very dead.

While we mourned the executions of Amadou Diallo, Sean Bell, Oscar Grant, Trayvon Martin, and Mike Brown, there is no mention in mainstream media outlets of hundreds of other unjustifiable murders by law enforcement personnel. I read somewhere that Innocent black males are murdered by cops on the average of two per week. Who cares?

Why don’t blacks exhibit more patience? How much is enough? It will never be enough to appease purveyors of systemic racism. The powers-that-be want black folks to go home, sing a sad negro spiritual, mourn their loss, and shut up about it already! 

White folks inevitably sing the same song: “Returning violence is not the answer!” as they invoke the name of MLK, Jr., our assassinated ambassador of peaceful protest. We understand that. But when we see our loved ones executed time and again without cause and without justice, we yield to frustration, helplessness and rage, and we react. We are human, after all. We are aggrieved. We are persecuted. And we are terrified.

The mainstream public – of every race – continuously reacts to a snapshot in time. This case, right now – the one in front of our faces -- is no exception. Many on the other side react to pain and grief this event with burden of history. What we see, which white folks don't see, is that the standard of response always differs when race is a factor. 

As if to bolster their denial, clueless white people offensively cite lists of good negroes, as if black folks are unaware of that list, as if asking "Where are the good negroes today?" is their battle cry. We know that list very well. These martyrs are our heroes -- assassinated peacenicks, forgotten, and often misrepresented in white media reports. We remember well the sacrifices of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Robert Kennedy, Patrice Lumumba, Steven Biko, Paul Wellstone, among too many others. Still, they are dead -- assassinated for their cause. Nelson Mandela was eventually freed for political reasons, but only because the corrupt, racist government of white South Africa finally realized illegal incarceration of Mandela was attracting negative scrutiny. They freed him because the world was rallying against their brutal apartheid policies. 

In this moment, I am fighting a difficult battle against hate of white folks who remain silent -- many of them "friends" -- and who refuse to acknowledge racist policies that govern our lives and continuously disenfranchise the most vulnerable among us. 

I am committed to not embracing hate. But if these folks do not get on board soon, add their voices and votes against brutal policies that ravage people of color, it will not bode well for any of us. They may believe they are immune to the backlash. They are mistaken. When any among us is disenfranchised and persecuted for long enough, we all suffer.