Do Black Lives Matter?

I’m exhausted from traveling the past two days, but had to write this quick post. 

So once again, this time in New York, a grand jury returned a decision not to indict a police officer for killing a black man.  You will recall only a week ago, a grand jury in Missouri returned a decision not to indict a police officer for killing Michael Brown. 

In New York Eric Garner was selling loose cigarettes, a crime.  There is some video (that I'm sure you can find on your own) of the ensuing altercation between Eric Garner and the police officers, one of whom placed Garner in a choke hold - a move that has been banned by the NYPD because it has been proven to cause serious injuries and even death.  

If the transcripts of the NY grand jury have been released, I have not read them, nor will I.  The Missouri grand jury transcripts have been released and you can read a comparison of some testimony in a piece in the Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/national/ferguson-grand-jury-chart/). 

I have been pleased to see the level of engagement by people all across the country, mourning the death of an 18 year old killed by a (now former) police officer. I can certainly understand the anger (though I don’t understand the looting and burning).  I should note, though, that Black people don’t have a monopoly on destructive rioting (https://storify.com/betakateenin/white-people-riots).  I would argue, however, that there is more meaning, and more reason for the anger than in any of the cases cited there. Just think pumpkins! 

I am left wondering if there is any truth to the slogan that has been widely adopted in the protests and marches, "Black Lives Matter."  Well, I think many of my friends and colleagues would say that the statement is true; perhaps many people actually believe that Black lives matter.  I certainly do! In fact, I believe that *all* lives matter.  

However, it doesn’t seem that certain lives matter in America. 

Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Kimani Gray, Kendrec McDade, Ervin Jefferson, and Tamir Rice are just some of the people of color killed by police. 

By contrast, Eric Frein, James Eagan Holmes, and Timothy McVeigh are examples of White suspects (who killed others, including police) who were apprehended (not killed) by police. 

FBI data (though there is some question about its accuracy) does show that, in absolute numbers, more whites are killed by police than are blacks.  However, as a percentage of the population, blacks are three times more likely than whites to be killed by police (http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2014/aug/21/michael-medved/talk-show-host-police-kill-more-whites-blacks/). What does this say about perceptions of blacks by police officers? about perceptions of blacks by society at large?  I’d like to think that blacks are not targets (as it may seem to some) and that our lives *do* matter. I’m trying to be hopeful that I’ll see some proof. 

Do Black Lives Matter?

"Unrest" in Saint Louis

I have intentionally not posted anything about Ferguson, Michael Brown, or Darren Wilson.  I believe that there is no shortage of information (from whatever perspective) on Facebook and all over the media.  But being in St. Louis at this time is particularly troubling for me.  We are preparing for the “unrest” expected when the Grand Jury delivers a decision on whether or not to indict Darren Wilson.  The preparations include the Governor of Missouri declaring a state of emergency in preparation for whatever will happen.  I guess he, and everyone else, already knows what the decision will be.  Even on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis, where we have some employees who work at our campus located in very close proximity to the courthouse where the Grand Jury deliberates, we have been preparing for the decision by bolting outdoor furniture in place, and ensuring that we are prepared to “manage staff during times of unrest” (there we go with that word, “unrest” again).  An email message from our Vice Chancellor for Human Resources on November 17, reads, in part: 

     “As you learned from the Chancellor earlier today, the University is prepared to respond in the event of unrest within our community during the weeks ahead. The Office of Human Resources wants to ensure that managers are empowered to lead and support their employees during a time when their work environment may be impacted.”

We’ve set up a website with information about the campus preparation: http://voices.wustl.edu/grand-jury-announcement/. 

I was never a Boy Scout, but I certainly believe in being prepared.   But what does the level of preparation we’re taking here in the city - in the state, and even across the country - say to you?  To me these preparations mean that Darren Wilson will not be indicted for the murder of Michael Brown, and that there is a belief that the city will then be overrun by black people out to wreak havoc on the city, and perhaps more importantly, on the white people. I wasn’t sure how to react to a recent story about a woman who, in her attempt to be prepared for the “unrest,” allegedly shot herself (or, so says her boyfriend - http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/23/us/ferguson-woman-kills-herself/index.html). Local businesses in St. Louis are boarding up their windows and I’m sure companies like American Board Up (http://www.americanboardupstlouis.com/board-up-service) are quite profitable these days. If, in fact, Darren Wilson is indicted (a possibility for which no-one seems prepared) are we expecting that the white people will cause the unrest for which we are preparing? Or perhaps the black people, not understanding what the indictment means, will still riot! 

The Ferguson Police Chief has already stated that if there is no indictment, Darren Wilson will be back on the job at the Ferguson Police Department.  Sure, he (the Police Chief) has tried to backtrack on that statement now, but why would Darren Wilson not be back on the force if he has been cleared of any wrongdoing - or at least of not having sufficient evidence to support a claim of any wrongdoing? Darren Wilson is allegedly negotiating his resignation, however (http://www.salon.com/2014/11/21/ferguson_officer_darren_wilson_is_negotiating_his_resignation/) 

The topic of “Ferguson” or “unrest” or “Michael Brown” or simply, “the Grand Jury” are now all synonymous with Saint Louis.  And there is no shortage of opinion about any topic related to the August 9th shooting and subsequent events.  Unrelated cases are being compared (or not) to “Ferguson.”  For example, a 12-year old boy in Cleveland was shot by police and we are not to draw any comparisons to Ferguson (http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/23/justice/cleveland-police-shooting/index.html).  A man in a stairwell of his apartment building was shot by a police officer in Brooklyn, NY, but we are not to compare that to Ferguson (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/22/nyregion/new-york-police-officer-fatally-shoots-brooklyn-man.html).  And these are just two of the stories from this week (week of November 17, 2014) where police officers - white police officers - have shot black men.  

Why did I decide now to “break my silence” and write about “Ferguson?” Rudolph Giuliani! He, in an interview, said we need to stop focusing on the white cops that are killing black people or the fact that white police are found more often than not in predominantly black neighborhoods, and instead should focus on the black people who are killing other black people  (http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/rudy-giuliani-former-mayor-black-violence-reason-white-cops-ferguson). No-one will deny that black-on-black crime exists and needs to stop.  However, that he would think the conversations about Ferguson are about black-on black crime is simply reprehensible.  We can say the circumstances are different, but the Brooklyn and Cleveland examples cited above are about white law enforcement officers killing black men.  We also read this week about a Kentucky Fire Chief who refused to assist a black family involved in an accident (http://www.salon.com/2014/11/20/kentucky_fire_chief_refuses_to_help_black_family_after_traffic_accident_we_aint_taking_no_n_gers_here/).  So I ask you, Rudolph Giuliani, why I - as a black man - should not be concerned about the treatment of black people by people in positions that we should trust?  Why should I not feel as though I need to walk down the street with my hands up (not that doing so will necessarily prevent me from being shot anyway)?  Why should I not feel terrified of the people whose job it is to “serve and protect?” The messages I am getting from the preparations here in St. Louis certainly don’t instill any confidence that I should do or feel otherwise.  

"Unrest" in Saint Louis

Ebola in America / Freedom

Note: I wrote this on October 9 just because I was feeling the need to express myself in writing.  Some friends suggested I send it on to a newspaper as an op-ed or something like that, but it was written for me, not necessarily for the public.  However, as I continue reading news bits about the Ebola outbreak (though I guess we aren't yet calling it an outbreak in the US) I began to rethink making this public.  You'll notice this is my first blog post in years.  Perhaps...perhaps...I will write more regularly. 

Here we are, living in “post-racial America.”  This is a phrase, which thankfully, people have not been using as much as it was being used in the years immediately following the election of Barack Obama as president of the United States of America.   There was a belief, I guess, that since a black man can now be president of arguably the greatest country in the “free world” we have moved well beyond the racial segregation that has divided this country for a long time.  This couldn’t be farther from the truth!

Look no further than Ferguson, Missouri, where an unarmed black teenager was shot and killed by a white police officer, to see an example of continued racial injustice.  This incident, unfortunately, is not atypical of what happens in many cities across the country.  One has only to pick up the newspaper or watch the news in almost any American city to hear or read reports of violence against black people – black men especially.  Michelle Alexander, in a speech at Ohio Dominican University in September 2014, quotes from Isabel Wilkerson’s book The Warmth of Other Suns, that “the rate of police killings of Black Americans is nearly the same as the rate of lynchings in the early Twentieth Century.”[1]  This is certainly chilling information.  However, rather than focusing on this sort of overt violence against people of color, I have been thinking a lot about Mr. Thomas Eric Duncan, a man who traveled from Liberia to Dallas, TX and who died October 8, 2014 as a result of having contracted the Ebola virus. 

It is important to note that the Ebola virus has been widespread in several African countries for approximately a year.  The virus seemed to be contained in those countries (Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea) and so it seemed that we – Americans – didn’t need to pay attention.  Sure there may have been an occasional news story about the death toll that is in the thousands, but those were not Americans who were dying.  There were a few Americans (and people of other nationalities) who have been in Africa trying to help those with the virus and to help prevent its spread.  But the situation hardly gained the type of national – or worldwide – attention until the summer of 2014.

Mr. Duncan, a Liberian national, arrived in Dallas, TX on September 20.  Showing symptoms of what might have been Ebola, he visited a hospital in Dallas.  He was examined and released.  He later returned to the hospital where it was confirmed he had contracted Ebola; he was admitted, and later died. 

I’ve been asking myself, why did Mr. Duncan die?  Since the news broke of his hospitalization and the fact that he had the Ebola virus, I was praying that he wouldn’t die, even though I had a sneaking suspicion that he would.  And I had every reason to be suspicious.  From a CNN news report, “Unlike the American patients, who were quickly tested and quarantined at the first sign of Ebola, Duncan wasn't.”[2]  That same report continues:

                 

Duncan received experimental medicine on October 4 -- six days after admission to the hospital. It was a far longer wait than four other Ebola patients treated in the United States. Those patients -- two each at Atlanta's Emory University Hospital and the University of Nebraska Medical Center -- got experimental medicine immediately. They're all U.S. citizens; Duncan was a Liberian.

Did his citizenship have anything to do with his treatment – or lack thereof?  When discussing Mr. Duncan’s condition, Thomas Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, noted that the use of experimental drugs "can be quite difficult for patients to take and may transiently worsen their condition."[3] I was left wondering why these experimental treatments wouldn’t “transiently worsen” the condition of the others who have been flown to the U.S. specifically to be treated in this manner.  Why would the treatment have any more, or less, adverse effect on Mr. Duncan than it would have had on these other people?  I, of course, am no doctor and therefore cannot make a statement as to why this might be the case.  But on the face of things, it would appear that the only difference in the ways in which the patients have all been treated is one of skin color.  They were in Western Africa.  They contracted the Ebola virus.  They came to the US.  They were hospitalized.  All but one survived.  The only patient who was not immediately diagnosed, and the only patient who has, so far, died in the U.S., happens to be the only patient who a) is not American and b) who happens to be a black man.

So who are the Americans that have contracted the Ebola virus and what is their status? A report from CNN[4] identifies the Americans with Ebola as:

•        Patrick Sawyer died in Liberia as a result of contracting the Ebola virus.  July 2014.
•        Kent Brantley, treated at Emory University Hospital in August 2014. Received experimental drug.  Survived.
•        Nancy Writebol, treated at Emory University Hospital in August 2014 with experimental drug.  Survived
•        Rick Sacra, treated at Nebraska Medical Center in September 2014. Received blood transfusion.  Weakened immune system, but survived.
•        Ashoka Mukpo arrived in Nebraska on Monday, October 6 and has already received a blood transfusion as of October 8.  As of this writing it is too soon to determine his prognosis, but it is likely that he will survive. 

Patrick Sawyer, who died in Liberia, happens to be of African descent.  He was in Liberia caring for a relative.  But he is also American.  Was it not worth it to fly this American back to the U.S. for appropriate treatment?  I can’t say.  I can’t say because I don’t know at what point he discovered his infection and with whom he was in contact to disclose his illness and if there was enough time to get him to the US to possibly save his life.  But I can’t help but notice the difference between those who survive and those who die and what the commonalities are in those groups – or at least what one, perhaps significant, commonality is.   

The issue of racial injustice in America continues to be prevalent.  Was the treatment of these various people different because of their race/ethnicity?  Can we say that with certainty?  I can’t.  But I can certainly look at the facts such as they are reported, and draw some conclusions.  Sadly, the only conclusion I can draw is a poor indictment of our “post-racial” society.  I am aware it seems idyllic to want to live in a world free of racism and, what Michelle Alexander calls, “legal segregation.”  But when faced with news stories like those about the incidents in Ferguson, or the fact that only black Americans or black people in America have died from Ebola I do have to wonder if we will ever live in an America that is truly free for all. 
 

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[1] “Ohio Dominican University - Michelle Alexander - "The New Jim Crow.” YouTube (minute 16:00 - )  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezhKlD1gx5k.  Accessed October 9, 2014.

[2] ”Thomas Eric Duncan: 6 ways his case differs from other U.S. Ebola cases.” CNN http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/09/health/ebola-duncan-death-cause/index.html. Accessed October 9, 2014.

[3] “Dallas Ebola patient ‘fighting for his life’ CDC head says” Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2014/10/05/dallas-ebola-patient-fighting-for-his-life-cdc-head-says/. Accessed October 9, 2014.

[4] “Who are the American Ebola patients?” CNN http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/06/health/american-ebola-patients/.  Accessed October 9, 2014.

Ebola in America / Freedom