All was supposed to be right when President Obama was elected in 2008. The racial problems of America had finally been resolved. Some in America breathed a sigh of relief; finally “we can move on.” I silently wished that this sentiment was true. But I knew in my heart that “moving on” was so far from reality that it was almost laughable, if it wasn’t so tragic that many thought we had traveled through the looking glass to post-racial America.
You see, I am one of those lucky citizens who get to see America from both sides now. I know all too well what it is like to be a black, gay man in America, just as well as I know the privileges granted to those who have attended the best schools in this country. It is two vastly different Americas, divided not only by race, but also by class, sexual orientation and gender.
Over the last several weeks, the pot has finally boiled over with anger and indignation about the continued harassment and killing of young black men in this country. I have had several conversations about Ferguson, Mo. and the death of Michael Brown. What I am always struck by is how misinformed and prejudiced many so-called liberal individuals can be about the black experience in America today.
Talk show host Joe Scarborough referred to the 18-year-old Michael Brown as a “thug.” That is a racially charged term that is meant to conjure up the image of a young, black man with gold teeth, wielding a nine millimeter handgun turned on its side as he shoots and kills someone. All while wearing excessive amounts of thick gold jewelry, and a do-rag under a cock-eyed baseball cap. What image does the word thug conjure up in your mind? Did I leave anything out?
Several of the conversations I’ve had about the Ferguson incident, or the murder of Eric Garner in New York, just make me angry. It is extremely difficult to sit across from people who think that an 18-year-old unarmed man is somehow a deadly threat to a police officer wielding a gun. “The police officer did not know if he had a gun,” some say. They never say, “Why did the police officer stop the young black man for jaywalking,” which is what started the tragic turn of events.
I know very well what it is like to be stopped for driving while black, or being followed in a high end store for shopping while black. That is the anger that every black man, and I mean every black man, carries. No matter what I have achieved, no matter how much money I may have, no matter where I went to college, in the end on a dark street I’m just another thug. That makes me angry.
That is the anger that young black men often bring into confrontations with the police. While Michael Brown may have stolen cigars from a convenience store earlier that fateful day, at the time he was shot, he simply was not walking on the sidewalk when the police decided to harass him. So when Brown was stopped, I can imagine that he might have had righteous indignation. After all, he was being stopped for walking in the street, that’s right walking in the street. Based upon the conflicting stories of the tragedy in Ferguson, President Obama has called for police to wear body cameras.
A grand jury in New York refused to indict a police officer for killing Eric Garner who reputedly was illegally selling loose cigarettes. A black man reputedly selling loose cigarettes was stopped by four police officers. Mr. Garner was eventually wrestled to the ground with one officer using an illegal chokehold. As Garner lay on the ground wailing “I can’t breathe,” one police officer held his face to the ground while Garner slowly died. President Obama, now we know a camera makes absolutely no difference to the end result. I can’t breathe.
The saying goes that the grand jury standard for indictment is so low, you can indict a ham sandwich. Yet in both the Ferguson and New York cases, the life of a black man seemed equivalent to that of a ham sandwich. Neither grand jury could muster the intestinal fortitude to let the families have their day in court to examine why unarmed black men were killed by those who are meant to serve and protect. Even with video evidence to the contrary, Garner was seen as just another thug.
After the death of Garner, the NYPD announced that every officer will undergo retraining on the use of violence. Really. It makes you wonder what kind of training they received in the first place.
In Cleveland, Ohio Nov. 22, 12-year-old Tamir Rice was gunned down by a police officer who responded to a 911 call about a young black man in a park wielding a gun. Rice was dead two seconds after the police arrived on the scene. Two seconds. The caller to 911 said it looked like an adolescent and even postulated that the gun might be fake. That information did not make it to the police officer who shot Tamir, not that I am sure it would have made any difference. I can’t breathe.
Unfortunately, Tamir probably did not see the news story about John Crawford who was gunned down by police in a Wal-Mart in Beavercreek, Ohio. Crawford was on his cell phone carrying a rifle that he was purchasing from Wal-Mart. Simply by picking the gun off the shelf and getting engrossed in his phone conversation, Crawford lost his life. The 911 caller said Crawford was pointing the gun at shoppers which the video evidence clearly shows is not true. But we all know that a black man with a gun is dangerous, even an unloaded one that he just took off a shelf to buy. A grand jury decided not to indict the police officer who shot Crawford. I can’t breathe.
While many want to look at each of these as independent events, I can tell you that the African American community and young black men do not feel that way. Why must I be on alert if approached by the police, yet my white peers who went to Harvard and Stanford don’t have to worry in the same situation? Why am I out of place in a high end neighborhood where I live yet non-minority folks are not? When was the last time you heard of a white person being stopped for walking in a black neighborhood?
I have been stopped in Beverly Hills, Newport Beach, Boston and Chicago. So I know how these young men feel, “Back the fuck up, I’m minding my own business.” What’s sad is that I am more likely to get stopped by the police than a white thug. Oh yea, white thugs exist too. They just aren’t as likely as me to be stopped or killed by the police. I have seen America from both sides now, on one side it is hard for me to be seen as anything but a thug. I can’t breathe.
Stampp Corbin
Publisher
San Diego LGBT Weekly
Preach! Write on, Mr. Corbin.
About those cigars
We’ve all seen the convenience store video which “allegedly” shows Michael Brown in a strong arm robbery taking a box of cigars worth $48.99. Few of us took time to see if the allegation is true.
The crucial part begins when a store clerk gives Brown a box of cigars, which he hands to his friend, Dorian Johnson. From the incident report we learn that the clerk then tells Brown he will have to pay for that first box before he will give him a second box.
Brown became offended and to make a point he grabbed that second box from the clerk. Apparently the clerk thought the first box, because Brown took the second box without paying for the first, was stolen property. He then acts on that premise.
Having made his point Brown walked forward and put the second box on the counter. Following his lead Johnson put the first box on the counter. Moments later the clerk removed both boxes. Here it becomes obvious Michael Brown did not steal a box of cigars!
Brown and Johnson start to leave when Brown noticed some pouches on the floor that fell out of the second box during the struggle with the manager. He stooped down twice trying to recover them. Had the clerk not proceeded as though Brown stole a box of cigars, Brown would have put those pouches on the counter as well.
While Brown was trying to recover those cigar pouches from the floor – a twelve second interval – the clerk gets his keys to the door, comes from behind the counter, passes by Brown on the floor, and positions himself between Brown and the door.
When Brown stood up he was confronted by manager in his face along with a fast developing possibility of being locked in the store. The clerk created, considering Brown had not stolen anything, an illegal situation called “false imprisonment.”
That meant, while Brown hurried toward the door, it was illegal for the clerk to hinder his efforts to leave. Again, Brown had not stolen anything! Putting his left hand on Browns chest constituted an assault.
Two more assault charges occurred when the clerk touched Browns left hand on the door and grabbing Browns right elbow while he was leaving. Browns move toward the clerk when he was leaving was an obvious warning – “don’t touch me again!”
Less than two seconds lapse during the confrontation between Brown and the clerk. The physical contact being initiated by the clerk. Someone edited the video – added eight seconds – to make Browns push to the clerk look unprovoked.
Seeing the reflection of Brown pushing the clerk in a glass door at back of store and then seeing the event occur again eight seconds later proves the video was edited.