Michael Brown And The Daily Violence Of Living While Black

By L. Ardor
Pride Columnist

On August 9, 2014, a few minutes after midnight, Michael Brown, an 18-year-old black man was gunned down by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. He was unarmed. As his body lay in the street, guarded by those who vowed to serve and protect, Black America received another clear message that being black is the first and sometimes only strike needed in a system of racism.

According to the reports, the suspect, Officer Darren Wilson accosted the teen and his friend Dorian Johnson. After telling them to get off the road and onto the sidewalk, Wilson then tried to drag Mike Brown through the police car’s window, where the first shot was fired. Another shot was fired, when Mike started running for his life, which brought him to his knees, arms raised in the air as a sign of surrender. Mike was shot several more times, including twice in his head. Officer Darren Wilson ended the high school graduate’s life with approximately six shots, beginning a nationwide anger and a call for justice.

As social media exploded with the news, one sentiment was tweeted, and retweeted continually with the hashtag #Ferguson,“Stop killing us.” It was not a request, this time it seemed to ring forth as a warning. We the Black community are angry. We are pissed. We are fed up. And we are no longer saying please.

A few days later on August 11, 26-year-old Armand Bennett was shot in the head at a traffic stop in New Orleans by NOPD Officer Lisa Lewis. The incident was only made public after news broke of the shooting. It was made clear however, as if to justify the brutality, that Bennett was booked on five outstanding warrants which included: possession of a weapon, resisting an officer, possession of marijuana and criminal damage to property. It was also later made clear that Mike Brown was allegedly involved in a strong arm robbery minutes before he was murdered. Both Bennett and Brown were unarmed.

So were: 16-year-old Kimani Gray, gunned down after leaving a friend’s birthday party in Brooklyn, New York March 9, 2013; 23-year-old Amadou Diallo, shot 19 times in 1999 while on the stoop of his home; 26-year-old Tarika Wilson, shot and killed by police shooting into her home while holding her 1-year-old baby in her arms on January 4, 2008; and 7-year-old Aiyana Jones, killed by a police flash grenade while sleeping on the couch in her home May 16, 2010; to name a few of the many killed by America’s Finest.

Yet, it is a system of racism that will coddle White suspects and criminals while seeking to criminalize Black victims at all costs; offering the sympathy of mental illness, and other factors that will humanize them to one, while making full use of the thesaurus to demonize the other.

Headline! “Santa Barbara Shooting: Suspect was ‘soft-spoken, polite, a gentleman’, ex-principal says.” The killer was White 22-year-old Elliot Rodger, responsible for a mass shooting in Santa Barbara on May 23 of this year. Headline! “Trayvon Martin was suspended three times from school.” The victim was the Black 17-year-old shot to death by George Zimmerman on February 26, 2012.

It is a system of racism that allows for Whites to protest, rally, and bear arms in a standoff with little to no repercussions, while Blacks are transported back to the height of the civil rights movement with the use of teargas, smoke bombs, and military tactics.

It is a system of racism that will use distractions such as the introduction of Highway Patrol Captain Ron Johnson, a Black man, to placate the demand for change, and to skillfully remind us that prayer and passivity is the course of action; or demeaning Mike Brown’s murder with a rebuttal: “So what about black on black crime?”

Is this where we as Canadians collectively place our right hand over our hearts and belt out “Oh Canada”? Among the numerous incidents on our “True North strong and Free”, have we so quickly forgotten about 26-year-old Eric Osawe, killed by Toronto Police Officer David Cavanagh, September 29, 2010? Have we forgotten 18-year-old Alexander Manon who died in police custody as a result of physical force on May 5 of the same year? Yes, we are not being hunted and gunned down in the streets, yet we are daily reminded that our existence in the great White North is, and will always be less than.

As Mike Brown’s body lay uncovered in the street, on August 9, the luxury men’s wear line Eton Of Sweden, amidst cries of racism and insensitivity offered up an apology for the noose and unpicked cotton they so “whimsically” displayed in the storefront window of their Yorkville location.

The common theme in these occurrences, both across the border and in our own backyards simply declare that we as Black people do not matter. As long as our money remains green, and our places remains remembered, our bodies, histories and pains serve no purpose outside of its apparently inherent exploitation.

And We, as the Black community, are becoming more aware. Every day we gather in groups either online using hashtags, the most recent being #Iftheygunnedmedown, or in a community circle, and we discuss racism, we discuss the system that has been for our detriment and never for our good, and incident by incident we are learning how to defeat that system.

Although the larger protest stemming from Ferguson, Missouri may be dying down, the protest continues everyday of our lives. Until there is a breakdown in the Systematic Racism we as Black people face daily, the daily protest should not stop. Build back our communities. We need strong leaders, elders, men and women who will hug, nourish and strengthen the spirits of our nations. See colour, every single drop of it, and acknowledge the ignorance and violence of white privilege. I’m confused by people who say they don’t “see” colour. Good intentions and ignorance are often  the same thing, and we cannot address racism with our eyes wide shut, we cannot  work towards a solution if we intentionally deny the problem. I am black, see me, and let’s work to fix the brokenness.

Invest in the black community financially; boycott those that do not stand with, and for your right to be recognized as fully human. If time is money, and money is power, invest your time and your money back into your community and take your power back. Know your rights and freedoms, consult lawyers, read, and  seek knowledge, because your life may one day depend on these things.

Teach your children. There is a quote rumored to be by Carter G. Woodson that says: “Blacks are the only group of people who take their most prized possessions, their children, and ask their oppressors to educate them, and to mold and shape their minds.” Understand that the [public] educational system  is not designed to break the system of racism, it works to maintain it. If you cannot  home school your legacies, Africentric schools such as The Leonard Braithwaite program at Winston Churchill Collegiate Institute are available.

Expect more from your spiritual leaders, if they have been silent on matters of race and its violence, or have no opinion, they are part of the problem. How much pain must our knees endure before we put actions to our prayers and our faith?

A white friend once said to me, “If we stop talking about it (racism), it will go away,” and I remembered  when a white man called my beautiful  mom a “nigger”, it was my birthday party, I was no more than 8, my ball had rolled onto his driveway hitting against his car, and my God fearing mom had rushed to retrieve it. I remembered the first time a black person called me a nigger, I was in the third grade, and a little black boy running with his white friends freely tossed the word in the air as he ran passed me. I daily remember that I and the ones that I love are not safe, and as I look at my brown skinned daughter, I shed tears for Aiyana Jones, and I remember that neither is she.

Just because we are no longer hanging from the branches of trees, does not mean the times have changed. Nothing has changed. Everything is still the same.

Rest well Mike Brown, we will continue and your death will not be in vain.

L. Ardor is a writer who believes that everything in life stems from love. Her mission is to spread her philosophy to all brave enough to embrace. You can find Ms. Ardor on twitter: @LaLaArdor.