Most of my life I have lived by Maya Angelou’s words, “If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude”. Raised in Hertfordshire, a county in the UK, by parents who still have a clear memory of their struggles in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, my siblings and I have always been encouraged to imagine the kind of future we want, so we can figure out what we need to do to get there. Having this mindset has helped me not choose the “safer” option, instead I base my life decisions on self-care strategies that I have learnt from those before me. I grab opportunities that allow me to stay courageous, strategic, positive and culturally grounded.
Not Exactly A Conversation Starter
This week, I was invited to be part of a conversation about diversity and race. Just like “the sex talk” with your kids, having a ‘real’ discussion about racial issues can sometimes be uncomfortable for some. Luckily, this time that was not the case. No one shied away from the difficult questions, and most importantly, everyone listened.
Following the debate, I decided to educate myself further on the injustice that took place that fateful Monday 25 May 2020. I wondered, is it true that no matter what part of the world you reside in, the struggles of a black person in today’s world are real? I know that some people are lucky, they are only touched by racism, but others feel it right to their core, a truth that is articulately explained by writers Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, LZ Granderson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Their insightful articles have pushed me to put pen to paper and write about three specific talking points that have caught my attention. 1. The uproar surrounding George Floyd’s death, 2. the argument of #BlackLivesMatter versus #AllLivesMatter and 3. why African-American conservative commentator Candace Owens has become an even more controversial figure, then she already was.
We Don’t Have To Accept What Happened As The ‘New Normal.’
According to Statista, African- Americans are 2.5x more likely than whites to be killed by police. Noting that African- Americans only make up 13 per cent of the US population, the leading provider of market and consumer data also stated in their report that 99 per cent of all officers involved in all police killings had no criminal charges pressed against them. In 2018, NBC reported that police killings hit people of colour the hardest. In their story, they spoke of a study that found that African-Americans died at the hands of police at a rate of 7.2 per million, while whites were killed at a rate of 2.9 per million. Exposed by those unafraid to post police brutality to various social platforms, these numbers are becoming the reality of the new normal in America. Trained to ‘serve and protect’, police officers are gaining a reputation for having a ‘shoot first, ask later’ attitude. Many of them fail to adequately investigate the situation first. It is an approach that has led to Michelle Bachele, UN human rights chief, criticising the“structural racism” that ultimately led to the killing of George Floyd.
Just in case you have been living under a rock the last few weeks, George Floyd is a 46-year-old black man, who died in Minneapolis, Minnesota, after Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, kneeled on his neck for exactly 8 minutes and 46 seconds. Floyd was handcuffed face down in the street when it took place. Filmed by 17-year-old Darnella Frazier, the assault and murder of Floyd was shared on social media where it quickly became a talking point. I saw the video 24 hours after it was released online. It kept popping up on my news feed, and so I pressed play. I was shocked by what I saw, especially when Floyd called out “mama” before closing his eyes. So what happened next, the anger, the high emotions, was a natural reaction to the malice witnessed by many people when Floyd was murdered by Chauvin.
So it comes as no surprise, that with COVID-19 crisis still on high alert, masked young, old, black, white, took to the streets to protest. Chauvin’s conduct could not be explained away. We all saw it. He kneeled on an unarmed man in handcuffs with what looked like a calm look on his face. With his hands in his pockets, Floyd’s dying words #ICantBreathe, fell on deaf ears. In the days that followed his death, more protests have taken place, not only in the US but in cities around the world, including London.
Not long after the protests spread globally, we suddenly started hearing reports about Floyd’s criminal past in the news. What the press did not understand was that the protests were not only about what we witnessed, Floyd represented a growing number of black men being killed unnecessarily by police. He was not resisting while he was on the ground. He was handcuffed and unable to move, but still, Chauvin felt the need to use deadly force. The decision not only raised serious human rights concerns but it also backed up the report that Minneapolis police are 7 times more likely to use force against black people than white people, according to data collected by the city since 2015.
If Floyd’s criminal past distracts, it is worth noting that officer Chauvin has also been reported not to have such a clean record too- but I digress. For argument sake, disregarding Floyd because he has a criminal past does not mean that the #BlackLivesMatter movement cannot continue. It is a cause that is not short of victims, including those not readily susceptible to gaslighting tactics. They are Yvette Smith, a 47-year-old Texas-based black woman who opened the door and was shot by Bastrop County deputy Daniel Willis, in 2014. Jonathan Ferrell, who knocked on a door following a car crash and was then shot dead by officer Randall Kerrick, in North Carolina. He was a 24-year-old former football player at Florida A&M. Let us not overlook Oscar Grant, Michelle Cusseaux, Samuel Dubose, and Jordan Edwards.
Lastly, we can not forget Tamir Rice. He was a 12-year-old boy who on the 22 November 2014, was killed in Cleveland, Ohio by Timothy Loehmann, a 26-year-old police officer. Carrying a toy gun, Rice was gunned down immediately by Loehmann after he arrived on the scene. At the time of Rice’s murder, it was not uncommon, in America, for children to own a replica toy Airsoft gun so you could argue that because the look-alike weapon can be easily mistaken for a real one and therefore the officer reacted accordingly. Well, if that is the case, then why did he not give the 12-year-old a warning first? I can’t help but wonder if it is because most police officers view a black child with a gun as being scarier than a white one.
It Has Never Been About #BlackLivesMatter vs #AllLivesMatter
People who look at the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag and feel the need to push the #AllLivesMatter hashtag instead, need to understand that, of course, all lives matter, but the problems that we are addressing are unfortunately mainly happening to people of colour. On this, I think Arthur Chu said it best when he tweeted to his 41K Followers, “Do people who change #BlackLivesMatter to #AllLivesMatter run through a cancer fundraiser going, “there are other diseases too”. I think Chu made a valid point. #BlackLivesMatter speaks on the matter of avoidable deaths by police. Another explanation by an unknown source explains why shouting “All Lives Matter” is unnecessary: “Saying ‘All Lives Matter’ as a response to #BlackLivesMatter is like saying the fire department should spray down all houses in a neighbourhood even though only one house is on fire because all houses matter. Yes, your house matters too, but your house is not on fire.”
Even though there have been some people with a natural knee jerk reaction to not support #BlackLivesMatter, the campaign continues to gain momentum. The movement, founded in 2013 in response to the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s murderer, continues to be bombarded with the howlings of “but all lives matter”. The good news is that the negative response has not slowed down its mission to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities. “We are working for a world where Black lives are no longer systematically targeted for demise”, declares their website.
Whether you support #BlackLivesMatter or not, you should always remember that acknowledging that black lives matter does not insinuate that other lives don’t. Those who are offended by the hashtag need to stop focusing on “What about me?”, instead they should adjust their blinders and confront racism when they see it around them, because only then can we move towards justice for all and no longer need the hashtag because everyone is playing their part.
Candace Owens, Making A Career Out Of Controversy
No one would describe Candace Owens as a woman with her black fist raised high shouting Black Lives Matter. This is because the African- American conservative commentator and political activist is a well known Trump supporter, who was once critical of Donald Trump and the Republican Party, but has now turned her attention to criticism of the Democratic Party and Black Lives Matter movement.
I first became aware of the rather articulate Owens when I watched her delivering opening remarks at the Young Black Leadership Summit in the White House. Speaking about the senseless killings of black lives, I found myself admiring Owens’ strength. She spoke with such an air of determination that made me stop and listen. I wanted to find out more about what she stood for. I was a fan. Then she famously declared that the #Metoo was a political witch-hunt and that Ahmaud Arbery was not “just a jogger”, and from that moment I decided to take a raincheck on Owens.
With an unhidden dislike of “left-wing liberals”, Owens’, who has been encouraging African-Americans to leave the Democratic Party, recently hit the headlines when she stated that George Floyd was a “horrible human being”. In a shared 18-minute video on Facebook Live, she said that she was tired of “playing games with black America’’. Referring to statistics, she explained how the current narrative is a lie. She broke down her thoughts on ‘Black Lives Matter’, by stating that police do not racially target against black Americans. Not sharing where she was getting her stats from, Owens claimed that white people have a 25% chance of being killed compared to black people and that black people need to stop taking the victim narrative. She encouraged them to instead look at black on black crime. Hoping to wake up black America, Owens’ controversial views started an angry debate about whether she is just giving tough love or if she is another mouthpiece for white America.
The thing about the 31-year-old is that she has evolved, right before our eyes, into a woman who is in the business of being controversial. In my opinion, she went from being someone fighting the good fight for my daughters, to someone who is just fighting- case and point her video. Having listened to Owen’s ‘sermon’ twice, I felt like her message got lost. She decided to rant instead of giving an articulate summary of the current situation. Her downfall was that her points had no empathy.
I must say that it is easy to surrender to an argument when statistics start to be thrown around but the truth of the matter is that statistics can easily be manipulated and distorted, depending on the message you want to deliver. When describing the persuasive power of numbers, Mark Twain famously said: “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” Twain’s observation made it clear that it is easy to use some statistics and ignore others to strengthen your argument. Now the question is, did Owens cherry-pick statistics that reinforced her points? Where her chosen statistics put into the right context? Who knows, but I think it is best to take her commentary as an opinion rather than fact.
All in all, I think that it is okay that Owens’ doesn’t want to support the ‘career criminal’, her words not mine, but she does need to zoom out and see the entire picture rather than concentrate on one corner. The riots aren’t just about Floyd, or even about the continuous mistreatment of black men by police, but more about the underlying issue that police caught on camera (allegedly) murdering someone handcuffed are not getting charged. Also, if we were to take Floyd out of the equation, very few killings of innocent black men by police ever result in them being charged with murder. This is the problem. Owens’ does not need to show us statistics. We know that black on black crime is still an issue, we are aware that some black men turn to crime as a way to survive, these are fires that we need to put out, but at the moment we are focussing on the systematic murder of black men (and women) by police and the fact that the officers responsible are not being charged.
So to you, Ms Owens and anyone else who holds similar views, Black Lives Matter, started by Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal Tomett, has always been more of a human rights movement rather than a civil rights movement. Therefore you do not need to support George Floyd as a “hero” or “martyr” to be part of the change. You just need to understand that the end goal, after putting out this fire, is to fight for humane and fair treatment for all, including your unborn children, Candance Owens. Whether you are willing to acknowledge this fact or not, they are already statistically destined to be born into the movement that is #BlackLivesMatter.
