Dr King said the question is not only who killed him, but also what killed him? > Those of us who have faced the lethal force of systemic racism have also learned something else in the American story. Even still, dealing with who did the killing is not all that justice demands.
Weak and unacceptable charges have been brought against the officer whose knee choked George Floyd, staying on his neck for three minutes after he went unconscious, but no charges have been filed against the other officers who stood by and watched. At the funeral for James Reed, Dr King said it is not enough to ask who killed the victim in a case like the murder of George Floyd. But I have been reflecting on the eulogy he offered when another man – a white man who came to Selma, Alabama, to work for voting rights – was brutally murdered by racist violence in 1965. We understand that the same mentality that will accept and defend the violence of armed officers against unarmed black people will also send black, brown and poor people into harm’s way during a pandemic in the name of “liberty” and “the economy”. Many have cited Dr King to remind Americans that a riot is the language of the unheard. This is but a reflection of the fissures of inequality that run through every institution in our public life, where the black wealth gap, education gap and healthcare gap have persisted despite the civil rights movement, legal desegregation and symbolic affirmative action. The percentage of black children suffering from asthma is nearly double that of white people, and the death rate is 10 times higher. In some cities where racial data is available, we know that black people are six times as likely to die from the virus as their white counterparts. Even before Covid, large numbers of black Americans died because of the racial disparities in healthcare, which are systemic and not unintentional.African Americans are three times more likely to die from particulate air pollution than our fellow Americans.
In the midst of the current pandemic we are painfully aware that our families bear a disproportionate burden of Covid-19 deaths. Deadly racism is always with us, and not only through police brutality. We often turn racism into a spectacle, only considering the cruel legacy of racism when an egregious action escalates outrage to this level. Black Americans have rarely been able to sustain such illusions. Too many want to believe racism is merely caused by a few bad actors. No one knows who and what is behind the violence, but we do know that countless activists, grassroots leaders and preachers were screaming non-violently long before now: “Change, America! Change, Minneapolis!” Rather than listen, many of those in power saw even their non-violent protest as an unwelcome development.This is so often the case because many Americans struggle to imagine that our government’s policies and its long train of abuses demand radical transformation. But they have also shared how their non-violent pleas and protests have gone unnoticed for years as the situation has gotten out of hand. But the fires burning in Minneapolis, just like the fire burning in the spirits of so many marginalized Americans today, are a natural response to the trauma black communities have experienced, generation after generation.No one wants the fires – even activists on the ground have said this. Only if the screams and tears and protests shake the very conscience of this nation can we hope for a better society on the other side of thisNo one wants to see their community burn.
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