Tag: police

Your Privilege Allows You To Turn a Blind Eye to Our Treatment

Posted in Life, Social Justice, SportsTagged , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

In all honesty, I am not sure what I expected from Drew Brees. He is an amazing quarter back for the New Orleans Saints. But what I was clear on years ago when he initially responded to Colin Kaepernick’s peaceful protest is he was determined misunderstand him.

Drew Brees is the perfect example of a person choosing to misunderstand you because their privilege won’t let them hear you.

Colin Kaepernick and countless other NFL, NBA and NCAA players stated the way in which taking a knee was a peaceful protest for injustice at the hands of police targeting Black people. Interview after interview black person after black person said we are peacefully protesting the disproportionate murders of unarmed black men and women by police with no justice resulting from “investigations” and trials. And in fairness, to the backlash in the last 24 hours Drew is only doubling down on his comments made at the time.

Drew doubled down on those comments almost 2.5 years later knowing these facts:

⁃ George Floyd was murdered in what could have been a simple arrest.

⁃ Since Colin started his peaceful protest, we’ve seen at least 20 incidents in the news reflecting the reason why he protested.

⁃ International protests were taking place and protests in all 50 states in the country he lives in with the focus on murder at the hands of the police. You cannot turn on a news channel or scroll social media without seeing a brand, public figure, or athlete sharing the why.

⁃ He lives and works in a city with one of the highest populations in terms of the percentage of black people. A town that would not be the same without black culture.

⁃ He works with a large group of black people.

Drew Brees values black contributions, black culture, but he does not love the black experience. He gets to grow and he gets to change, but if you can watch countless people be murdered on tv with no justice and then tell people how they should protest, you are part of THE problem. At this point, it is ok for everyone who enjoys the NFL to say they like the NFL so much that there isn’t much they can do that would stop them from watching.

Colin and the numerous others did not loot; they respectfully explained their position and they did not burn down a thing. Yet they’ve all been slandered, riddled with death threats and in Colin’s case denied employment. Black Lives do not Matter to Drew Brees because HE thinks his privilege trumps (no pun intended) black humanity.

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It Starts Early

Posted in communication, equality, Family, friendship, Humanity, Life, Social JusticeTagged , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

This is not a ranting blog post, nor is it an I hate white people post. My little brother is biracial as a bit of context; some of my good friends are white. This is a real brain dump. A friend of mine, the father to two young black boys, posed this question to me and it sparked this post. His questions, “…how do we individually or collectively minimize the immediate fear to shoot brown skin? I still have to teach them (his sons) how to interact safely with the blue… (posture, responses, hand gestures, etc.), which is stressful.”

Here is what I offer. We have to start to have honest conversations with one another and make a choice to connect with people who do not look like us. I can recall growing up in the south, Houston, TX, to be exact. Despite growing up in the south, I can remember my classes always being diverse. I had middle eastern friends, Vietnamese friends, black friends, white friends, Latino friends, biracial friends. All found a way to coexist and I can recall us all spending the night at each other’s home and hanging out as kids do. To the point that even when I was called a “nigger” on the playground around the age of 7 or 8, everyone knew it was wrong and went to tell the teacher. I can recall that even throughout high school, the group was reasonably close.

When everyone went to college, things began to shift. People migrated to schools or experiences that no longer challenged them. We all migrated to our comfort zones. The ones that looked like our homes. I give that back story to take us to this point. We are not honest about our differences, our similarities and are not honest about right and wrong. Honestly, for many years I thought that people got what they deserved for getting in trouble. As I have gotten older, my eyes got wider, my ears opened up, my heart softened and I began to look deeper. Here are a few truths:

  1. Black men are sentenced to more extended and harsher penalties. Here is one example per The Sarasota Herald-Tribune (Florida), with the same drug offense and same circumstances black men are sentenced to nearly triple the time as white men for the same crime.

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This is not to say drug crimes are not detrimental, but equal punishment should be the bare minimum for cases.  

2. It starts young. Minority groups are punished harsher earlier. The Sentencing Project, a non-profit who studies and advocates for equal justice, found that American Indian (Indigenous) youth are three times as likely to be held in a juvenile detention center than white youth.

“According to a Department of Education report, black students nationally were three times more likely to be suspended than whites in 2012. Suspensions occur most commonly in secondary schools, but black children were more than twice as likely to be suspended from preschool as well. Harsher discipline for black students is not just a Southern or state-level problem. It is a national crisis.” – NY Times, September 2017

Vox had disparities broken down in 7 charts to discuss hidden racism and racial bias as it relates to kids. I won’t bore you with more charts, but the link is here: https://www.vox.com/2015/10/31/9646504/discipline-race-charts.

3. It is reasonable black, white, Asian, Hispanic and Latino, and biracial individual’s responsibility to not only challenge but to hold those accountable for biases and abuse accountable. That means we have to do more than share a post via social media. We have to do more than a retweet. We have to vote for diverse leadership, advocate for better rules and laws while checking our own biases. As a person of color in certain parts, I have been complicit. Not that I said this black or brown person was guilty or deserved their punishment, but I did not speak up when someone portrayed a black or brown person as more dangerous or insert the adjective.

4. We need to retrain police and civic officials on how to interact with diverse groups of people. They are not allowed to bring their biases to work. Period. We need cognitive gun reform. That way, there is much less threat of someone using a weapon against police officers who risk their lives. Officers also need to exercise common sense. That means a gun should be the last resort for non-violent SUSPECTS. For instance, a burglary or a loitering call should lead to an arrest, not a dead body. Period.

To close…

If our country is going to move things forward, we need more individuals who speak up loudly. That does not have to be a fight or an argument, but a conversation challenging the individuals who are being painted with a broad stroke.

When we do not challenge the things we know to be inherently wrong, then we raise young kids who become police officers, judges, Starbucks Managers, teachers, principals, school administrators, school board members and elected officials who do not advocate for true and equal justice.

BE SAFE!

Posted in Humanity, Life, Politics, Social Justice, TravelingTagged , , , , 2 Comments

Be Safe! I heard this while out and about the other day. As I traveled to foreign countries, I consistently heard the statement, “Be Safe!” The thought that many Americans have about other countries is that they are all “more dangerous” than we are. That somehow traveling abroad would make one more susceptible to violence.

It made me think back to my own travels and experiences. Traveling to Norway and Brazil several times was quite an experience. I made work trips alone. Yet, I never felt unsafe. I can recall going for a jog in Stavanger relatively late several nights and never feeling like I would have to worry about being robbed or kidnapped. In fact, Norway is one of the safest places in the world. They have some pretty unique benefits of being a native or resident. College students attend state schools for free. Norwegians have a healthy work-life balance, and fathers receive a considerable amount of paternity leave when having children.

All that said, one thing I learned was about how safe the country of Norway was. You rarely see police; in fact, police issue more parking tickets than anything else. What struck me most about my time there is I never felt harassed by police or felt targeted. The gun laws are relatively strict there as well. You cannot obtain a gun license until 18 and you cannot receive a handgun until the age of 21. To get a gun, you have to even write a letter explaining why. Guns are required to be locked in a gun case and police have the right to inspect homes where guns are thought to be improperly secured. The statistics as of 2012 showed at 1.75/ 100,000 people died as a result of gun violence. That statistic is unheard of.

It made me think of how often before traveling, family and people who haven’t had the opportunity to travel abroad automatically assumed the places I visited were dramatically more dangerous. They uttered similar words to the man I overheard earlier this week.

However, when I look at my experiences in America, my experiences have been far more dangerous, or maybe it feels that way. I can recall being a 20-year-old attending a pool party and exiting the car and walking to the pool meeting with a gunman who mistook me for someone else. Thank God he took the opportunity to speak to me and realize I was not the one he had a previous altercation with. In that instance, I realized my safety, or so I thought I had was relatively non-existent. He was carrying a semi-automatic handgun. Something you would need if going to war, not protecting yourself or your home.

On a work trip in 2014, a UK colleague shared his last US trip, I was shocked. He was actually quite nervous about returning. He mentioned that on his first visit while doing what I had done in Europe (going for a late-night run), he was pistol-whipped and robbed. It was so disheartening to hear this story. I can’t imagine his experience and the difficulty he had in the remainder of his first trip. Losing your wallet, means of payment, and identification while traveling abroad is not a fun experience, let alone being assaulted with a weapon and having to make a hospital visit.

I still recall the night I was walking down the street after parking near a local bar I was meeting friends at. A cop rounded the block, lights flashing and randomly stops me. “Put your hands up!” he yells as his hand is on his gun and he and his partner approach me. “Put your hands on the car!” he says and I comply. I am searched and as I am searched, I nervously ask, “Officer, what am I being stopped for?” He replied, “You are in a high prostitution and drug trafficking area!” Those words still burn me to this day. I’ve worked my entire life to contribute to my community and to uplift those around me so I would not participate in either of those professions (they demean, degrade, deflate, and murder communities). It is in that instance I felt unsafe in a city, in a state, and in a country I have lived in from birth. I have never committed a crime. I have never succumbed to being a stereotype and I have never disrespected an officer of the law. It is at that moment that I did question what I should do after his response. My pride and integrity were hurt, battered, and I felt like someone had spat in my face.

What does this have to do with safety, one might ask? In America, we have a view of the world that is relatively different from others who live across the globe. I would encourage those concerned or overly concerned with things like gay marriage, women’s right to choose what they do with their body, and whether or not Nene will leave RHOA to pick a cause that impacts more of us. Take up a cause on education, a cause on better gun laws, and/or legislation that protect citizens no matter their race or culture.

I’m incredibly thankful for the opportunities I have had in life to be able to travel and explore different parts of the world and different cultures and, most importantly, to learn. In America, we like to think we have a considerably “better” standard of living! We are a blessed nation, but we could certainly be better. Be Safe!