Hey Everybody!

The purpose of this guide is to help people navigate fighting racism and police brutality in America. I’ll address some of the most common questions that I get asked, answering with my personal beliefs. Please understand that racial topics are extremely complex, and at the end of the day I can only speak to my experiences and perspective on life. I’ll be answering one question per week. I’d suggest subscribing to the blog in order to stay updated. If you have questions you’d like to ask or comments you’d like to share please feel free to shoot me an email: contact@jywrrn.com.

I’m very glad the country is starting to have these discussions. They are so important and have already helped many people to better understand the world around them. Throughout the coming weeks and months we will all be forced to address some difficult realities about ourselves and the world around us. An important thing to remember will be that we are all growing, and growth cannot happen without first being uncomfortable. Thanks for tuning in, and hopefully you gain something of value from the coming posts. 

Question 1: I think saying Black Lives Matter excludes other people. Isn’t All Lives Matter a better phrase? 

A: This is easily one of the top 5 questions I’ve been asked since 2016, and in order to really understand the concept we must understand the history of the Black Lives Matter movement. 

Black Lives Matter was founded in 2013 in response to the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s murderer. The Trayvon Martin case was certainly not the first time black Americans have been let down by the criminal justice system, but it would mark the beginning of a more conscious movement to seek change as to how black Americans are treated in society. After the murder of Trayvon Martin and subsequent aquittal of his killer, many black Americans felt as though our lives didn’t seem to matter as much in American society. It felt all too reminiscent of George Stinney (14), Emmett Till (14), The Central Park 5 (14-16), and Latasha Harlins (15). These cases represent scars in the flesh of Black America that have never truly healed. They taught us that the color of our skin was seen as a threat to white Americans and any attempt to seek justice for our own was always going to be an uphill battle. Black Lives Matter is a distress call, a cry for help, an attempt to be seen as equal in the eyes of our society. It is not meant to say that black lives matter more than other lives, or that other races do not have their own difficulties and hardships. It is a call to focus on the needs of Black America. 

Throughout the following years, multiple cases of police officers shooting unarmed or innocent Black Americans were thrust into the national spotlight creating a specific point of focus for the Black Lives Matter movement. Again, Black Lives Matter is a specific movement with goals of eradicating white supremacy and building local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes. It does not attempt to try and fix all issues within the black community, which it shouldn’t. 

To illustrate the oddity of replying “All Lives Matter” to a Black Lives Matter supporter I often use the analogy of running for a charity. Every year over 1 million people participate in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. Proceeds of the race are donated to help find the cure for breast cancer. No one has ever held signs at the finish line that read, “All Cancers Matter!” That is obvious. No one wants people to die from any type of cancer, and cures are always being researched. However, this race is to benefit breast cancer research specifically. 

It is a universal truth that all lives matter. The Black Lives Matter movement has never disputed that. We are specifically advocating for the lives of black people in America. When someone retorts “All Lives Matter” in response to “Black Lives Matter” they become the person at the end of a breast cancer run holding the “All Cancers Matter” sign. What is even more depressing about the All Live Matter campaign is that it fails to offer any help to anyone. All Lives Matter is not a movement advocating for a specific cause. There is no official website, no mission statement, no goal. It is a generic phrase that people say to make themselves feel as though they are contributing to society in some meaningful way. Who has All Lives Matter helped since the inception of the phrase in 2013? What aid have they offered to anyone? Replying “All Lives Matter”, as some sort of counterclaim, is to hear a cry for help, deny it, and then offer no assistance. 

Hopefully this has been a helpful answer. I encourage you to do a bit of research on George Stinney, Emmett Till, The Central Park 5, and Latasha Harlins. They offer a contextual framework for how we as Black Americans view the criminal justice system. Thank you again for reading!

Question 2: Why do Black Lives Matter supporters call out white people so much? I’m not a cop and I’ve never killed a black person.

A: If you would have asked me this question a few weeks ago I would’ve only had one answer, but the more people (white and black) that I’ve spoken to I’ve discovered another reason. Let’s break them both down. One of the reasons Black Lives Matter supporters seem to call out white people so much is because we need your numbers. I’ve mentioned this before, that in order for policymakers to make changes to the current system they need to feel pressure from their constituents. A politicians job is to stay elected, and you stay elected by keeping the majority of your constituency happy. In America, the majority of voters are white. Black Americans are quite literally the minority. That may seem redundant but there’s a point to be made here. If the minority of a population has a specific issue that requires attention from a political leader, but that minority does not hold enough voting power to garner that political leader's attention it is unlikely the politician will focus on that issue. If a minority group doesn’t have the voting power the other option to gain attention is financial pressure. If that minority group does not have the financial power to gain the attention of that politician they are, once again, likely ignored. This is where the majority comes in. It is the obligation of the majority (white Americans) to advocate for the minority (black Americans). Unless White America helps to bring Black issues to the political foreground they continue to take a metaphorical back seat. So, the Black Lives Matter Movement has been so critical of white people, in part, because we quite literally need your support in order for these issues to become a priority to American policymakers. We’ve started to see this happen over the last week especially. Cities that have continually held protests are starting to see policy changes from their local and state officials. This is only because enough voting pressure has been applied to those legislators. They know unless they change something they won’t be re-elected. 

The second reason is much more personal. Over the course of the last two weeks I have learned that the discussions surrounding race and racism in white homes and black homes have been very different. From what has been explained to me by my white friends and associates, I gather that many white people believe Abraham Lincoln ended slavery, and Martin Luther King Jr. ended racism in the 1960’s. That has been a hard pill for me to swallow. I mentioned in an Instagram Live post that my current struggle is giving white people the benefit of the doubt when they explain, “We didn’t know these things were happening.” I’ve been told that in many white homes the conversation surrounding race was either non-existent or very brief. “We treat everyone the same, and everyone is equal.” That was it! That genuinely blows my mind. No conversations surrounding George Stinney, Emmett Till, Rodney King, The Central Park 5, Latasha Harlins, or Trayvon Martin, just to name a few. Growing up black, these were household names. Our conversations about police were typically not positive. 

My very first memory of police was at the age of 6. In 1997, Haitian-American, Abner Louima was arrested outside of Club Rendez-Vous in Brooklyn, NY by NYPD. On the ride to the station, the 4 arresting officers beat Louima with their fists, nightsticks, and hand-held police radios. On arriving at the station house, they had Louima strip-searched and put in a holding cell. The beating continued later, culminating with Louima being sexually assaulted in a bathroom at the 70th Precinct station house in Brooklyn. Volpe kicked Louima in the testicles, and while Louima's hands were cuffed behind his back, he first grabbed onto and squeezed his testicles and then sexually assaulted him with a broken broomstick. According to trial testimony, Volpe walked through the precinct holding the bloody, excrement-stained instrument in his hand, bragging to a police sergeant that he "took a man down tonight." Louima's teeth were also badly damaged in the attack when the broom handle was jammed into his mouth. The day after the incident, police took Louima to the emergency department at Coney Island Hospital. Escorting officers explained away his serious injuries, saying they were the result of "abnormal homosexual activities." An ER nurse, Magalie Laurent, suspecting that Louima's extreme injuries were not the result of consensual sex, notified Louima's family and the Police Department's Internal Affairs Bureau of the likelihood that he had been sexually assaulted and beaten in custody. Louima suffered severe internal damage to his colon and bladder in the attack, which required three major operations to repair. He was hospitalized for two months after the incident. This is my first conscious memory involving police. At the age of 6 this is what I knew police did. I remember my mother explaining to me that police in this country were not our friends, and I should avoid contact with them if possible. I remember before every road trip, my dad always prayed for “no altercations with police.” It eventually felt like a vain repetition, but I knew why he did it. My next conscious memory of police came in the 4th or 5th grade. My elementary school was instituting a program that was meant to help find students in the event that they were kidnapped. All of the students were to be fingerprinted and entered into a database, so that if they were taken, but managed to leave behind fingerprints, investigators would be able to match their prints and positively identify where the child had been. I came home with the permission slip to be signed by parents, and my mother’s response was a harsh no. I was told that under no circumstances was I to allow any police officers to take my fingerprints. I would not be the poor little black boy whose fingerprints got taken from the database and planted on a crime scene in order to close a case with no leads. From elementary school I knew that the police were not my friends. 

What I’ve learned over the last few weeks is that my white friends have never heard of Abner Louima, and had no to little idea that the history between black people and police has been far less than ideal. To be completely honest, I’ve been shocked to hear that so many white people thought racism was over or that equality is more than a theoretical ideal. On paper, we’ve been equal only since Barbara Walters was 39 years old. In real world application we are still fighting for those equalities. I suppose white people can’t be completely blamed for their ignorance to the issues facing Black America. Our public schooling education has failed to educate our children on the history of Black Americans. If my parents hadn't taught me more than what I learned in history class all I would know is that black people were slaves, and then they weren’t. Black people couldn’t vote, and then they could. If you took Humanities I suppose you would’ve also learned about Langston Hughes. That’s really it though. To learn about black history, black trials, black successes you have to look elsewhere. It’s quite sad. I encourage everyone to watch the Netflix documentary, 13th. It details the history of slavery, and how it is still legal under today’s Constitution. 

Following the murder of Trayvon Martin in 2013, Black Lives Matter started as organization to eradicate white supremacy in all forms. The mission has never changed. In 2016, the movement again caught national attention when Colin Kaepernick began kneeling during the National Anthem. The reason many of us have become so frustrated with white people is because we have been trying to bring attention to these issues for years, long before Black Lives Matter. We asked for help reaching equality with a movement called Black Lives Matter, and we were met with, “No, all lives matter.” We tried to peacefully protest, and instead of asking, “Why are they kneeling? Why are they protesting?” We were met with, “You’re disrespectful to the country and the military.” Finally, when the country has been literally set on fire people are asking “What’s been going on?” I have been personally frustrated because it took this to get the attention of my white friends and associates. Please know that the help and support that the movement is experiencing now is much needed and certainly appreciated, but when you encounter people who are frustrated, upset, or even angry with white people you’ll have a glimpse into why.