‘Once again, police get away with murder.’ 

Those are the words Julia Wallace used to begin this article she wrote about the murder of Philandro Castile and the subsequent “Not Guilty” acquittal of Jeromino Yanez, the police offer who clearly panicked [if you have watched the horrific video of the shooting], killing him in front of his girlfriend and four year old daughter in a car.

Everything in the incident seems to give unequivocal evidence as to what went down and yet somehow the verdict comes back that the cop did no wrong. That would be enough in and of itself, but it rides on the back of similar cases involving names like Erika Boyd, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice and Kimani Grey.

Out of choices

Yesterday i wrote a little bit about one of the significant differences between the rich and the poor is that the rich have more choices. In some cases and in many contexts, the poor have very little choice at all.

When yet another incident like this happens in the States [and at one point they were alarmingly happening at almost one or more per week] and people point to race, there is always a huge swell of backlash against that, trying to paint it simply as an act of injustice and completely removed from the race scenario.

But for me it’s always easier to see through the lens of a simple role reversal. There is no universe in which i see that incident not play out differently if the family in the car is white. Whiteness carries power. For no reason beyond the fact that it has been engineered to be that way for centuries. And so once again it is about race.

To many people, both black and white, it seems like Philandro Castile’s predominant ‘crime’ was being black. If he had been white, the story would surely have played out differently. And this time it didn’t even matter that the policeman was not white. Because it is systems and structures that lean heavily one way over another.

Imizamo Yethu

My friend Megan wrote a piece related to the continuing protests of the residents of Imizamo Yethu, who were displaced by a fire and have been waiting a long time to get back to be able to start rebuilding their places of residence.

But then Megan had to write a followup piece called ‘A reply to the comments’ in which she contrasted the lives of these Imizamo Yethu residents with the dogs that rich people have as pets. i didn’t see the comments in question, but Megan makes it quite obvious that the reason for her followup post was that the people protesting [as is often the case] were being dehumanised in the comments of clearly wealthy people who have quite possibly never been truly cold or hungry a day in their lives.

When we dehumanise people we make our lack of love for them easier to justify. In fact, we don’t even have to justify it because it’s not like we’re talking about people who have the same value as us, right?

When we other people with phrases like “those people” or “the blacks” or “the gays” we do the same thing. We make the associated statements and actions we say and do palatable to us, because once again, we are not talking about real people who matter the way we matter. Or a family member or friend matters.

i become angry and verbally belligerent and spew out my hate because my driving has been interrupted or because i have to hear about another violent incident or because i have to drive a different route… while there are people almost literally living in water.

When does that moment happen as we grow up when suddenly these people count more than those people? When my animals count more than those people? When those people just stop being people at all?

Dehumanising makes me sick. And i have to constantly be on the look out for when do my thoughts, words or actions contribute to that.

Othering, particularly when it comes to race or the poor, leaves me angry and frustrated and losing hope in huge parts of humanity. When do i other people in my day to day?

Entitlement makes me want to puke. Yet it is so subtle and ingrained that i have to stand in front of the mirror and have a long dark look at my own self before i go looking for specks in other people’s eyes.

Before you leave

Maybe stop for a second and think of your hopes and dreams. What are you wanting to see happen in your life? If you have children, what would you like to see them achieve or accomplish? Are you thinking of or planning a trip overseas? Or a camping trip somewhere a little closer? What about that new car you are thinking of getting or that expensive new board game? The next upgrade to your phone and whether you should splurge a little to get the one with all the things? What restaurant are you going to celebrate your anniversary at?

A lot of questions, and i imagine there are many more. But for Philandro Castile and for the residents of Imizamo Yethu, i imagine that first and foremost what they are [or were] thinking is, “I just want to survive!” Any of those other questions is a luxury so many other people don’t have. Be grateful for the choices you have. But we definitely need to be thinking deeply about how we can work together to help extend the choices of others.