My nephew's name is Jalen. He's 16 years old. Just like any 16-year-old, he likes hanging out with his friends and is looking forward to getting his driver's license. He likes skateboarding and his favorite season is summer. There's something special about my nephew though. He is actually quite the little rapper and producer. He is creative and could give a lot of up and coming emcees a run for their money. Just like he is anxious to get that driver's license, he is excited that one day he may be able to settle into the driver's seat, turn on the radio and hear his own music come through the speakers. And since he loves summer so much, he will surely love those summers when he can scoop up a few of his friends and drive to the mall with the windows down and the sun on his face. My nephew is like any 16-year-old, right? But what if I told you he is different simply because he is Black?
Thoughts of Jalen, his little brother Jordan, my own brothers, cousins and future sons weighed heavily on my mind as the verdict was read in what has been deemed "The Loud Music Murder Trial". On trial, was Micheal Dunn, the 47-year-old accused of killing 17-year-old Jordan Davis at a Jacksonville, Florida gas station on November 23, 2012. On this day, Dunn pulled up next to an SUV filled with Jordan Davis and his friends. The teens were blasting loud rap music and Dunn voiced his aversion. Davis and Dunn exchanged words and Dunn opened fire on the vehicle, leaving Davis dead. Dunn stated that the reason for opening fire was that he saw a gun in the vehicle and felt threatened. Police searched the vehicle. The teenagers were unarmed. On Saturday, February 15th, the eve of Jordan Davis' 19th birthday, a jury found Michael Dunn guilty of three counts of attempted second-degree murder for the shots fired at the other three teens in the vehicle. On the first count, first-degree murder, a mistrial was declared.
I did take to Twitter to express a bit of what I felt about this case. But there is only so much I can do in 140 characters. It was very difficult not to think of Trayvon Martin and his family during this trial. These cases occurred so close to each other and so many elements overlapped. I am the last one to pull the race card. But I have to call it out if it shows up in the game. So, even though the cases are both just about two children who are gone too soon, the subject of race is at the forefront and it is a fact that cannot be denied. Here you have two young Black boys who are deceased by the actions of two non-Black individuals whom the courts have not seen fit to pay for taking their lives. Both were unarmed. Both were exhibiting behavior only indicative if the fact that they were teenagers. (As @ItsRamel said "Trayvon Martin was followed. Jordan Davis was approached. Seems to me Florida needs a "Mind Your Business" law.) And no matter what either of them might have said to the grown men who shot them, they were unarmed and if the adults had retreated (as Zimmerman was instructed to), both boys would have escaped with their lives. Neither adult would have been in a situation where they "thought they saw a weapon" or had to "fight for his life" if they had just minded their own business. But there are so many layers to this.
Dunn said that when he pulled up to the vehicle, Davis and his friends were playing that "thug music" or "rap crap". In a letter to his girlfriend from prison, he stated, “I just got off the phone with you and we were talking about how
racist the blacks are up here. The more time I am exposed to these
people, the more prejudiced against them I become.” Then as though that side of his neck hadn't done enough talking, from the other side, he let spew “I’m not really prejudiced against race, but I have no use for
certain cultures. This gangster-rap, ghetto talking thug ‘culture’ that
certain segments of society flock to is intolerable" and said that Davis and his friends should "“take the hint and change their behavior.” The first comment pretty much speaks for itself. So, let's move on to the second. To say that he is "not really prejudiced against race" is already a folly. This indicates that the prejudice he spoke about in the previous statement is evident. Then to say that you have no "use" for "certain cultures" dehumanizes them. It makes them objects that are only here for your amusement or gain. It may not be all that far-fetched to liken that to slavery. It may very well be a news flash, but you should not be granted the right to eliminate those that you feel you have "no use for". And the fact that he changes the word "race" from the first half of his statement to "cultures" in the second half was a nice try, but I am unmoved. And Mr. Dunn, like it or not, the "gangster-rap, ghetto talking thug ‘culture’" of which you speak is a part of MY culture and it is a part of MY culture that many people who lay claim to YOUR culture have tried to adapt for years. You cannot talk about MY people without rap music coming up. And you cannot talk about rap music without talking about the way it has been embraced by White people. So, YOUR people are included in the "certain segments of society". The fact that this letter and at least one other one was written, gives you a little insight to the type of individual Michael Dunn is. To look more carefully at the situation, Dunn was not committing any crime by pulling up next to the SUV at the gas station. But on that day, no one else at the gas station said anything to the teens about the volume of their music. Yet Dunn saw this as his duty. If he did not intend to kill but just HAD to fire his gun, why couldn't he fire one warning shot in the air? It is true that the bullet could have possibly come down and hit someone. But that would have made it more believable that he did not have the intent to kill. (And he would not likely have to go through half of what Marissa Alexander had to.) Then after the incident he did not call the police, but returned to his hotel room, ordered pizza, slept and drove two-and-a-half hours home the next morning. Had this been an act of self-defense as Dunn claimed, he would have called the police to report the incident in which he claimed to have feared for his life. (By the way, no witnesses reported seeing anything that resembled a gun in the vehicle and Dunn's own fiance said she was never told that Davis was armed.) He showed no concern for the fact that he could possible have ended four young lives. He was prepared to go on with his life as though nothing happened.
Just as George Zimmerman, Dunn was protected by Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law. This is a law that I am henceforth calling "The Mirage Law". I am calling it this because under this law, the suspect does not have to actually see a weapon. He only has to believe or be convinced of the fact that the weapon was present.Therefore, the entire case becomes based on the suspect's imagination and all about what he thought he saw. And who in their right mind would not say that they THOUGHT their life was in danger when faced with the certainty of spending the rest of it in jail? Why it is that everyone in the state of Florida does not see the absurdity of this law is beyond me. Regardless to what lies in the remainder of this law's language, it is flawed at the very core. After all, it is the argument of the presence of the mirage that has saved George Zimmerman and at least for the moment, Michael Dunn. But I ask the question, who is the man that relishes in the comfort of his own home to tell the man who crawls in the desert that the oasis he sees is not what he really sees? No matter how much evidence we present to the contrary, there will never be a valid argument to tell Dunn and Zimmerman they did not see what they have told the world they saw. So, did we really ever tell the people hoping for justice that this was a case they could really win? Even though the first count will be retried, what we have is a man who has been convicted of the murders he ATTEMPTED and has received no punishment at all for the fact that there is a teenager who is dead because of an older man who played God and decided it was his time to go. The fact of the matter is, Jordan Davis, an unarmed teenager now ceases to exist because Michael Dunn fired shots into a vehicle and took his life. These are the facts, yet this is what goes unpunished. This says that if Jordan Davis had been alone in the vehicle, Dunn would not even be receiving the current 75 year sentence (each count carries 20 years and the last, an extra 15 years). Had his friends not been there, Dunn would walk free just as Zimmerman is.
Though in the past, it has been a fleeting insult, let's talk about the word "thug" for a moment. As my eloquent and intelligent fraternity brother Richard Sherman
pointed out as 'Merica reacted to his passionate post-game speech as he
was on his way to the Super Bowl, it is almost as though "thug" is the
new, I'll say it, "nigger" nowadays. Case and point, Richard Sherman was
born and raised in a city that is notorious for violence and
mortality.But he managed to grow up, never join a gang, graduate high
school with a 4.1 GPA, go on to attend and graduate from the prestigious
Stanford University, become a mentor to our youth and to become a Super
Bowl winner. And might I add that this man has never once been in
trouble with the law? So, why is it that this young man is labeled a
"thug" whereas Justin Bieber, who has been caught vandalizing a
neighbor's home, is known to grown his own stash of marijuana, has
racked up speeding tickets while drunk and under the influence of drugs
and alcohol, been photographed joining his friend in a good ol' tit lick
on a stripper, assaulted paparazzi and been seen peeing in a bucket at a
club while yelling "Fuck Bill Clinton" seen as just a "misguided" teen?
How exactly is it that Sherman becomes a thug by making a passionate,
non-violent speech about his competition that lasted a little over two
minutes when the recklessness that The Biebs has shown over the course
of the last few months gets him classified as a misguided youth?
For reasons other than the fact that I have young Black nephews, young Black cousins, young Black brothers, young Black friends and regardless of the nationality of my future husband, will have sons that are at least half Black, these cases are sensitive subjects for me. The first reason is the fact that my best friend Samantha and I are of obviously different races, but she and I have grown up as closely as any sisters I know. She and I have always made it a point to discuss current events. And since we have been blessed with the souls at HLN, she and I have an even more awesome way in which we stay connected to these things. Cases like this pull us out of our world in which we never have to see race when it comes to the way we are treated by each other's families and were never at any point told that we could not be friends because of our skin colors. It lets us see that racism is very real and every now and then it is going to hit us in the faces. Because cases like this are the truth, not discussing them is not an option. I hear the pain in Sam's voice when something like this happens. And because of the fact that the men who committed these crimes look more like her than me, it is only natural for her to want to apologize on behalf of the entire race. She both realizes and respects my anger on the situations. But I know that she would like nothing more than to travel to that point in time and make it not happen, not because of the racial element but because of the fact that she has a kind heart that does not see color and hates that innocent lives were taken. She is just as angry as I am, but while we carry the same torches, she knows that there are extra embers that burn in my pockets, the pains of which, she can never know. The second reason cases like this are so sensitive is that I am an aspiring media mogul and the subject of race is often one that cannot be at the forefront of discussion. While I am not a lawyer, I do believe it is my duty to know a bit about the laws that affect the things I state my opinion on. The fact of the matter is, sometimes you have to just talk about the law and you cannot talk about the black and white elephant in the room. I felt the internal tears from Don Lemon and Sunny Hostin this weekend as they had to stick to the issues, but at the same time, had to speak on the issue as a Black woman and a Black man who had experienced racial injustices. In their voices, I heard trembles of anger and all the pains carried to picket lines that were formed to fight such things.As they told of their own struggles and as Sunny Hostin said "Justice took the day off", I could hear the question of why and the wrestling match with how to explain this to her sons. Don even said a few times, "I am going to say something I probably shouldn't say on television" but as he charged on, I heard, 'You know what? WHY shouldn't I be allowed to say these things? They are the things that need to be said.' Just as I am sure the two of them do, I work along side those of other races daily and not until someone throws it in my face do I focus on the color of my skin. But when you can find no other explanation for the differences in the way people are treated, what do you do? As I stated on Twitter "We are not angry at White people. Our anger is at the system that reminds us daily that the Constitution does not apply to us". So, while we are not walking around with pitchforks, we are angry and we have every right to be.
So if you, like guy on Twitter who actually happened to be a Marine (which after I saw the racist statements and his retweets calling President Obama a "piece of shit", I understood his position and am even more glad that I don't respond to ignorance with ignorance), want to argue that justice has been done, I beg of you to please tell me how. How is it that I should tell my nephews, cousins and my future sons that they could be killed if they are wearing a hoodie while walking home from a convenient store? How should I tell them that they may not make it to see their 18th birthdays and that the American justice system will not care? How should I break it to them that they can be killed if they play their music loudly? How can I tell them that trip to the gas station will likely be their last? How can I tell them that the people who do these things to them will sit in court and hear their children cry but that their own parents can cry as much as they like, but they will never again see the light of day? How can I tell them that because their skin is a dark cloak they can never remove and the blood of Mother Africa runs through their veins, they have received a death sentence before their lives can begin? If you can tell me a way to have that conversation with them and to give them logical answers to the questions that follow, maybe I will believe justice has been served. But until then......
TK
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