by De’Kendria Stamps

Special to The Dreher Report

To those who speak in disbelief saying, “This is Not America!” I offer a friendly amendment to your statement, “This Is Not America to YOU!” It has always been America to us.

This is the same America that practically wiped out the Native Americans. The same America that touted manifest destiny and enacted brutalization and terror on the Trails of Tears and the during the Middle Passage of the mid-Atlantic slave trade.

The America that enacted full on lynchings while parents held picnic baskets on one arm and the hands of their children as they sat down on blankets to watch.

The same America that forced Native children into boarding schools and Japanese families into internment camps. The same America that tricked Black men into being inoculated with syphilis known as The Tuskegee Experiment. The same America that burned down Black Wall Street, Black churches, and Black towns. The same America that allowed the burning of crosses by the Ku Klux Klan in Black yards.

This is the America that hunted down Emmett Till and allowed the murderers to walk free even after they admitted to the crime during an 1950 interview in Look magazine.

The same America denied people the right to vote, stole family land through circumvented property laws, and continues to stifle Black economic empowerment through gentrification and predatory lending practices.

The same America that hoodwinked the nation with Reconstruction only to enact grandfather laws, Jim Crow, and reading tests to compromise our ability to vote. The same America that did not allow women to vote until 1920. The same America that forced members of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. to march at the end of the Women’s Suffrage March of 1913 as to not sully the movement for white women.

The same America that necessitated the fugitive slave narratives of Henry “Box” Brown, Ellen & William Craft, Harriet Jacobs, Frederick Douglass, Olaudah Equiano, and Joseph Cinqué. The same America that celebrated the movie “Birth of Nation”; that same America whose president screened the movie in the White House.

The same America seeking to diminish any other form of beauty that steps outside of its white, blond, blue-eyed ideal.

The same America that wrote of freedom, justice, and the pursuit of happiness while simultaneously choking the life out of millions of nonwhite lives.

The same America flooded our neighborhoods with drugs, refused to enact a standard living wage, and preached bootstrap theology. The same America that decided that your sons and daughters were victims of a drug epidemic and now drug addiction should be considered a public health emergency.

The same America denied Black people the right to vote, stole family land through circumvented property laws, and continues to stifle Black economic empowerment through gentrification and predatory lending practices.

The same America that makes me cry when I look into the eyes of one of my brothers, and he tells me, ‘De’Kendrea, at least they let you in. They automatically see me as a threat’ during a conversation we had about employment.

The same America created an intricate private school system after desegregation and a corrupt public school system funded by an imbalanced property tax system.

The same America that created white flight, suburbia, and exclusive neighborhoods. The same American that created HOAs, citizens councils, public charge, COINTELPRO, and the OG labor unions.

The same America that makes me cry when I look into the eyes of one of my brothers, and he tells me, “De’Kendrea, at least they let you in. They automatically see me as a threat” during a conversation we had about employment. This America does not see his multiple college degrees, strong work ethic, or commitment to his family.

Terrorists, seditionist, and traitors have existed–always.

This is the America that killed Sandra Bland, Breonna Taylor, Rayshard Brooks, Daniel Prude, George Floyd, Atatiana Jefferson, Aura Rosser, Stephon Clark, Botham Jean, Philando Castille, Alton Sterling, Michelle Cusseaux, Freddie Gray, Janisha Fonville, Eric Garner, Akai Gurley, Tamir Rice, and countless others.

So, when you exalt, “This Is Not America.” I offer a friendly amendment, “This Is Not America to YOU.” It has been America to us–always.

Terrorists, seditionist, and traitors have existed–always. They shot James Meredith as he fought for an education in the south, placed our sons/brothers on the frontlines of wars and ripped GI Bill benefits from them upon return, and beat Fannie Lou Hamer as she battled for her right to vote.

So, now that you see it, will you decide to unsee it? Will you hide in your shroud of privilege and supremacy? Will you busy yourselves with book clubs, planning councils, and longitudinal studies? Or will you take a long, hard look inside yourself and your families to root out these seeds of injustice, bigotry, and hate? You will see, it’s the same

De’Kendrea grew up in the bustling metropolis of Crystal Springs, MS (population 4,853), in a family that truly believes in public service and social justice.

She is the FoodShare Outreach Program Director for Madison Region Economic Partnership (MadREP). While working at MadREP she was inspired by quality of life metrics. From there, De’Kendrea quickly developed a passion for issues focusing on the social determinants of health, which include access to transportation, education, and healthy food. Nearly 15 years later, De’Kendrea provides support to our SNAP Outreach team and is happy to spend her days ensuring that all Wisconsinites have access to food and benefits they need to work, learn, play, and live healthy lives.

by Luther J. Battiste, III
National President
The American Board of Trial Advocates
special to The Dreher Report

The American Board of Trial Advocates held its first meeting of 2020 in Charleston, South Carolina, in January.  The keynote speaker during the business session was Judge Richard M. Gergel, a distinguished federal judge in Charleston. He was the South Carolina ABOTA Judge of the Year in 2017 and the trial judge in the case of Dylann Roof, the young man convicted of killing nine church members at Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston.

Judge Gergel spoke about his recent book, Unexampled Courage: The Blinding of Sgt. Isaac Woodard and the Awakening of President Harry S. Truman and Judge J. Waites Waring. The book is about a young African American soldier returning home in uniform from service in the Pacific during World War II.  Sgt. Woodard was struck unlawfully with a blackjack by a white South Carolina police chief, gouging his eyes and permanently blinding him.  The horrific incident was publicized on the radio airwaves by Orson Welles and others, which resulted in a national public outcry about the inhumane actions of the police chief. It was an inflection point for President Truman and influenced his decision to issue an Executive Order integrating the armed forces.  It also inspired Judge J. Waites Waring, a federal judge and native Charlestonian, to become a champion of civil rights in his rulings.

Last week, a 17-year-old girl captured on video a white Minneapolis police officer with his knee pressed on the neck of an African American man, George Floyd, for almost nine minutes. Despite pleas from Mr. Floyd saying, “I can’t breathe,” the officer and three other officers standing by continued until there was no breath left in George Floyd’s body. This horrific event outraged the world and was an affront to the African American community, which was already grappling with the recent deaths of Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor and the disproportionate effect of COVID-19 on African American communities.

Citizens in this country and the world have exercised their First Amendment right to protest the tragic death of George Floyd.  These protests have brought together diverse groups of people of goodwill to challenge the treatment that these men and women suffered and the systemic problems with explicit bias, racism and policing in this country.

The United States of America was born from protest.  Protesters today are demanding equal justice, which is an American ideal not always practiced.  The words “Equal Justice Under Law” are carved in marble above the entrance to the United States Supreme Court. These words emphasize the Fourteenth Amendment requirement that “nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.”

The United States is at another inflection point in its history.  The people of this country are telling us that it is time, it is necessary for us to address the history of racial injustice and systemic problems with policing and the legal system. They are telling us that it is time to respect the rule of law. We, at this time, in this country, must find a way to channel protest to policy.

Protestors at the State Capital, Columbia, SC

ABOTA is an organization of members of goodwill.  It is an organization that has a respect for the Constitution and the rule of law.  ABOTA’s Code of Professionalism states that members should “encourage respect for the law, the courts and the right to trial by jury.”  We have a mandate to support change in our criminal justice system and to dismantle the systemic racism that plagues our cities and country and affects how policing is practiced.

We should actively support social justice for all. It should be a bedrock of our ideals, our mission, and our programming.  Our members should engage in dialogue that confronts the issues that divide us.  We should encourage our government leaders to address the root causes of the problems that result in the misuse of police authority. We should advocate for a legal system which ensures proper charging of offenders and a trial that is fair to the accused and the victims.

I have hope that the tremendous outpouring of peaceful resistance in our streets and the demands for changes in our legal system will serve to bend the arc of the moral universe toward justice.  We should be a country of equality where every person regardless of race, creed, color, religion or sexual orientation can have an expectation of liberty and justice for all.

I have faith that ABOTA members will not be merely observers but advocates for positive change and will seize this moment with enthusiasm, goodwill and open minds by accepting the responsibility to be leaders in creating a better world.

Finally, President Jimmy Carter provided a telling statement about the recent protests nationwide.  “People of power, privilege, and moral conscience must stand up and say ‘no more’ to a racially discriminatory police and justice system, immoral economic disparities between whites and blacks, and government actions that undermine our unified democracy,” the President said. “We are responsible for creating a world of peace and equality for ourselves and future generations.”

Abraham Lincoln knew that the nation could not afford to look away, instilling a sense of duty in all of us, when he said, “Let’s have faith that right makes might; and in that faith let us, to the end, dare to do your duty as we understand it.” He later said,“It often requires more courage to dare to do right than to fear to do wrong.”

(reprinted from the American Board of Trial Advocates newsletter June 5, 2020 with permission by the author)

Luther J. Battiste, III is a founding shareholder of Johnson, Toal & Battiste, P.A. in Columbia, South Carolina. He is a graduate of the University of South Carolina and Emory University Law School. In 1983, Luther entered the political arena and made history by becoming one of the first two African-Americans elected to Columbia City Council since Reconstruction. He served fifteen years as a member of the Columbia City Council including two terms as Mayor Pro Tempore. In 1998, the City of Columbia dedicated to Luther J. Battiste, III the Monument and Plaza in honor of his dedicated service as a public servant.

by Patrick D. Jones
special to The Dreher Report

Here is the intense power of whiteness in Omaha:

Omaha Magazine is our city’s version of that glossy local magazine every city has. The kind you find in every downtown hotel room, or on coffee tables and in waiting rooms of the high-minded and affluent community members. A lot of cool people who consider themselves liberal, or progressive-minded, work on Omaha Magazine.

Each year, Omaha Magazine puts out “The Faces of Omaha,” a slick 92-page special edition to “introduce the ‘faces’ of local industry leaders and experts”–you know, much anticipated boosterism for a certain sort of folks.

These professionalized promotional profiles in the city magazine are promised to “span across the community.” The editors emphasize that “Omaha Faces” is an “exclusive” list that “highlights Omaha’s legitimate business leaders,” who, in their opinion, after “considerable time cultivating the list,” are “truly the ‘face of their field.” They conclude, “These are the faces of people who have made Omaha the thriving metropolis that it is today.”

They call it “native advertising,” a “unique form of sponsored content produced by editorial staff in conjunction with advertisers.” So, this is all about promotion and dollars.

So, here is the thing:

In the 2020 issue, over the ninety-two pages of this purportedly prestigious promotional magazine, selected “after careful consideration” by advertisers and the editorial staff, of the roughly 400 people photographed and published in the issue, only about 32 appear to be people of color and the vast majority of those are tucked away in group shots, rather than stand-alone feature portraits. (Take a look at the issue for yourself in the attached link) Last year, if I am remembering correctly, there was a kerfuffle because no people of color were featured. Somebody can check me on that detail.

Quite literally, this magazine is demonstrating that the “face of Omaha,” in their view, is white people. The magazine is, in fact, a documentation of a portion of the white power structure in Omaha and the ways people of color are essentially and systematically invisible and marginalized in all kinds of ways in our city.

It is really pretty amazing to behold, even if at the same time boringly typical. Yet, in the context of what is currently going on in America, the white glare somehow seems even more jarring. As I flipped through, it was almost as if it was a satirical magazine.

Patrick D. Jones is Associate Professor of History and Ethnic Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He researches, writes and teaches about the civil rights and Black Power era, America in the 1960s, race relations, urban inequality, social movements, electoral politics, and post-WWII popular culture. He is particularly interested in how meaningful and lasting social change takes place at the intersections of formal politics, grassroots activism and cultural production.

Harvard University published his award-winning book, The Selma of the North: Civil Rights Insurgency in Milwaukee, in 2009. He is currently working on an article about folk singer and civil rights activist, Guy Carawan, as well as a new monograph that explores the contested meanings of Black Power in Cleveland, Ohio.

by Jordan Charlton
special to The Dreher Report

Where there is no law …
There is no need for cellphone video
There is no need for validation
There is no need for three officers
There is no need for an autopsy
There is no need for third degree
There is no need for nationwide riots
There is no need for boarded up windows
There is no need for a state of emergency
There is no need for buildings to be protected
There is no need for clouds of tear gas
There is no need for rubber bullets
There is no need for the national guard
There is no need for military presence
There is no need for all these speeches
There is no need for getting back to normal
There is no need for any memory of normal
There is no need for a right way to do or feel
There is no need for making anything of this country
There is no need for a knee on a person’s neck

Jordan Charlton is a doctoral candidate in the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He is a member of the 2020 graduating class, having received his Masters of Arts, with a specialty in Creative Writing. He composed “Where There Is No Law” after Trump’s press conference held on Monday, June 1. “The title comes from one line of his speech where he states, ‘Where there is no law, there is no justice’, says Jordan, “I wrote this poem in jest to the idea that ‘law’ must be the supreme thing we are governed by, especially when we (or at least those in elected power of the people) refuse to acknowledge that this law and its protections do not hold true for everyone.”

Frederick Douglass (c. 1818-1895)

“West India Emancipation” speech at Canandaigua, New York, 1857

by Frederick Douglass
special to The Dreher Report

The general sentiment of mankind is that a man who will not fight for himself, when he has the means of doing so, is not worth being fought for by others, and this sentiment is just. For a man who does not value freedom for himself will never value it for others, or put himself to any inconvenience to gain it for others. Such a man, the world says, may lie down until he has sense enough to stand up. It is useless and cruel to put a man on his legs, if the next moment his head is to be brought against a curbstone.

If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters.

A man of that type will never lay the world under any obligation to him, but will be a moral pauper, a drag on the wheels of society, and if he too be identified with a peculiar variety of the race he will entail disgrace upon his race as well as upon himself. The world in which we live is very accommodating to all sorts of people. It will cooperate with them in any measure which they propose; it will help those who earnestly help themselves, and will hinder those who hinder themselves. It is very polite, and never offers its services unasked. Its favors to individuals are measured by an unerring principle in this—viz., respect those who respect themselves, and despise those who despise themselves. It is not within the power of unaided human nature to persevere in pitying a people who are insensible to their own wrongs and indifferent to the attainment of their own rights. The poet was as true to common sense as to poetry when he said,

Who would be free, themselves must strike the blow.

When O’Connell, with all Ireland at his back, was supposed to be contending for the just rights and liberties of Ireland, the sympathies of mankind were with him, and even his enemies were compelled to respect his patriotism. Kossuth, fighting for Hungary with his pen long after she had fallen by the sword, commanded the sympathy and support of the liberal world till his own hopes died out. The Turks, while they fought bravely for themselves and scourged and drove back the invading legions of Russia, shared the admiration of mankind. They were standing up for their own rights against an arrogant and powerful enemy; but as soon as they let out their fighting to the Allies, admiration gave way to contempt. These are not the maxims and teachings of a coldhearted world. Christianity itself teaches that man shall provide for his own house. This covers the whole ground of nations as well as individuals. Nations no more than individuals can innocently be improvident. They should provide for all wants—mental, moral and religious—and against all evils to which they are liable as nations. In the great struggle now progressing for the freedom and elevation of our people, we should be found at work with all our might, resolved that no man or set of men shall be more abundant in labors, according to the measure of our ability, than ourselves.

I know, my friends, that in some quarters the efforts of colored people meet with very little encouragement. We may fight, but we must fight like the Sepoys of India, under white officers. This class of Abolitionists don’t like colored celebrations, they don’t like colored conventions, they don’t like colored antislavery fairs for the support of colored newspapers. They don’t like any demonstrations whatever in which colored men take a leading part. They talk of the proud Anglo-Saxon blood as flippantly as those who profess to believe in the natural inferiority of races. Your humble speaker has been branded as an ingrate, because he has ventured to stand up on his own and to plead our common cause as a colored man, rather than as a Garrisonian. I hold it to be no part of gratitude to allow our white friends to do all the work, while we merely hold their coats. Opposition of the sort now referred to is partisan position, and we need not mind it. The white people at large will not largely be influenced by it. They will see and appreciate all honest efforts on our part to improve our condition as a people.

Nations no more than individuals can innocently be improvident. They should provide for all wants—mental, moral and religious—and against all evils to which they are liable as nations.

Let me give you a word of the philosophy of reform. The whole history of the progress of human liberty shows that all concessions yet made to her august claims have been born of earnest struggle. The conflict has been exciting, agitating, all-absorbing, and for the time being, putting all other tumults to silence. It must do this or it does nothing. If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters.

This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress. In the light of these ideas, Negroes will be hunted at the North and held and flogged at the South so long as they submit to those devilish outrages and make no resistance, either moral or physical. Men may not get all they pay for in this world, but they must certainly pay for all they get. If we ever get free from the oppressions and wrongs heaped upon us, we must pay for their removal. We must do this by labor, by suffering, by sacrifice, and if needs be, by our lives and the lives of others.

Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters.

Hence, my friends, every mother who, like Margaret Garner, plunges a knife into the bosom of her infant to save it from the hell of our Christian slavery, should be held and honored as a benefactress. Every fugitive from slavery who, like the noble William Thomas at Wilkes Barre, prefers to perish in a river made red by his own blood to submission to the hell hounds who were hunting and shooting him should be esteemed as a glorious martyr, worthy to be held in grateful memory by our people. The fugitive Horace, at Mechanicsburgh, Ohio, the other day, who taught the slave catchers from Kentucky that it was safer to arrest white men than to arrest him, did a most excellent service to our cause. Parker and his noble band of fifteen at Christiana, who defended themselves from the kidnappers with prayers and pistols, are entitled to the honor of making the first successful resistance to the Fugitive Slave Bill. But for that resistance, and the rescue of Jerry and Shadrack, the man hunters would have hunted our hills and valleys here with the same freedom with which they now hunt their own dismal swamps.

Every fugitive from slavery who, like the noble William Thomas at Wilkes Barre, prefers to perish in a river made red by his own blood to submission to the hell hounds who were hunting and shooting him should be esteemed as a glorious martyr, worthy to be held in grateful memory by our people.

There was an important lesson in the conduct of that noble Krooman in New York the other day, who, supposing that the American Christians were about to enslave him, betook himself to the masthead and with knife in hand said he would cut his throat before he would be made a slave. Joseph Cinque, on the deck of the Amistad, did that which should make his name dear to us. He bore nature’s burning protest against slavery. Madison Washington who struck down his oppressor on the deck of the Creole, is more worthy to be remembered than the colored man who shot Pitcairn at Bunker Hill.

My friends, you will observe that I have taken a wide range, and you think it is about time that I should answer the special objection to this celebration. I think so too. This, then, is the truth concerning the inauguration of freedom in the British West Indies. Abolition was the act of the British government. The motive which led the government to act no doubt was mainly a philanthropic one, entitled to our highest admiration and gratitude. The national religion, the justice and humanity cried out in thunderous indignation against the foul abomination, and the government yielded to the storm. Nevertheless a share of the credit of the result falls justly to the slaves themselves. “Though slaves, they were rebellious slaves.” They bore themselves well. They did not hug their chains, but according to their opportunities, swelled the general protest against oppression. What Wilberforce was endeavoring to win from the British senate by his magic eloquence the slaves themselves were endeavoring to gain by outbreaks and violence. The combined action of one and the other wrought out the final result. While one showed that slavery was wrong, the other showed that it was dangerous as well as wrong. Mr. Wilberforce, peace man though he was, and a model of piety, availed himself of this element to strengthen his case before the British Parliament, and warned the British government of the danger of continuing slavery in the West Indies. There is no doubt that the fear of the consequences, acting with a sense of the moral evil of slavery, led to its abolition. The spirit of freedom was abroad in the Islands. Insurrection for freedom kept the planters in a constant state of alarm and trepidation. A standing army was necessary to keep the slaves in their chains. This state of facts could not be without weight in deciding the question of freedom in these countries.

The national religion, the justice and humanity cried out in thunderous indignation against the foul abomination, and the government yielded to the storm. Nevertheless a share of the credit of the result falls justly to the slaves themselves. […] They did not hug their chains, but according to their opportunities, swelled the general protest against oppression.

I am aware that the rebellious disposition of the slaves was said to arise out of the discussion which the Abolitionists were carrying on at home, and it is not necessary to refute this alleged explanation. All that I contend for is this: that the slaves of the West Indies did fight for their freedom, and that the fact of their discontent was known in England, and that it assisted in bringing about that state of public opinion which finally resulted in their emancipation. And if this be true, the objection is answered.

Again, I am aware that the insurrectionary movements of the slaves were held by many to be prejudicial to their cause. This is said now of such movements at the South. The answer is that abolition followed close on the heels of insurrection in the West Indies, and Virginia was never nearer emancipation than when General Turner kindled the fires of insurrection at Southampton.

Sir, I have now more than filled up the measure of my time. I thank you for the patient attention given to what I have had to say. I have aimed, as I said at the beginning, to express a few thoughts having some relation to the great interest of freedom both in this country and in the British West Indies, and I have said all that I mean to say, and the time will not permit me to say more.

Frederick Douglass escaped enslavement to become a prominent abolitionist, author, and public speaker. He became a leader in the abolitionist movement, which sought to end the practice of enslavement before and during the Civil War.

by Casey Merie
special to The Dreher Report

Casey Merie reflects on a casual afternoon experience in Greensboro, North Carolina.

While walking with my Rocky, my 65 pound pit bull the other day, I stopped on the corner of Oak and Glenwood to allow a man on a moped to keep going after I saw he had his turn signal on; but for some odd reason, he just sat there, staring at me. I again motioned for him to go. Eventually, after a weird amount of time, instead of turning he continued straight instead, and then yelled “Fucking n*gger”. This made me wonder if he was planning to try to run me over.

It was a bizarre and scary moment for me because it happened so quickly. Usually on my walk, I encounter people on foot, and nobody on foot messes with you when you are walking a 65 pound pit bull.

I reflected on this casual afternoon.  Just who is this grungy guy zipping around on a moped? I sensed he was the type of man President Lyndon B. Johnson referred to as “the lowest white man” (probably around the time LBJ was busy calling us n*ggers too). He’s too old to be riding it for fun, I thought. Maybe he has a Johnny Reb flag hanging on his wall at home. If he voted in the last general election, it was probably for Trump. Maybe he would have hurt me, if something hadn’t told me to stay put until he passed me. He called me a n*gger.

This is the practice of white supremacy that we all know to be disgusted about.
It’s direct.
It’s abrasive.
It’s to the point.

It’s the other kind of practice of white supremacy, however, that is really scary to me right now. It’s the kind that is pervasive. Even as the tide of popular opinion turns, and people are coming out to condemn the killing of George Floyd, we still have not developed enough political power to hold the police accountable and make them face consequences regularly when they kill us.

It’s the kind of white supremacy that makes people look at our City Council’s decision to fight tooth and nail to dodge accountability for the murder of Marcus Deon Smith by the [Greensboro, North Carolina] police in 2018, and when reasonable people defend limited public resources. Smith was choked in the street by police officers who used a RIPP Hobble device–a restraint the equivalent of being hooked and hogtied. 

I am scared of the white supremacy that confuses far too many of us into thinking that representation is power.

It’s the type of white supremacy that makes it “reasonable” that when an unarmed Black man is murdered after begging for his life, “protecting the public” means saving a budget from having to shell out money to pay restitution to his family.

I am scared, too. I am scared of the white supremacy that has taken hold in so many minds–liberal and conservative–that says Black people cannot get justice if it costs money.

I am scared of the white supremacy that confuses far too many of us into thinking that representation is power. People applaud, for instance, our Black police chief who, I believe, uses his Blackness as a shield to sidestep dialogues on law enforcement oversight and police accountability in Smith’s death.

I am scared of what this will mean for the safety of the protestors on the highway who, in their righteous anger, are sick of this …

… because if the man who called me a n*gger on his moped had been a cop and had decided to escalate this situation, I know I would have gotten no justice from this city.

Casey Merie lives in the Glenwood neighborhood of Greensboro with her husband and dog. She has organized around food, immigration, policing, and against anti-LGBTQ discrimination. With roots in New York, South Carolina, Tortola, and Virginia, she made Greensboro her home in 2006. She graduated from Guilford College (BA, Sociology & Anthropology) and UNC-Greensboro (Masters in Public Health). She is the Development Manager at People’s Action, a national network of community organizations.

by Dr. Stefanie K. Dunning

(special to The Dreher Report)

I was settling pretty nicely into my self-chosen cloister when the news of George Floyd’s murder came to me and then the uprisings across the country. And then, the director on Twitter that “if there is looking, there will be shooting.”

Do I need to tell adult human beings that the destruction of property isn’t violence in this case?

Do I need to say that violence is the murder of people and that murder of people is the real crisis–not what happens to some resource-depleting crap in Target that will end up in a landfill and only worsen our climate crisis?

Do we need a lesson in the difference between a chair and a human being?

I keep coming back to this quote from James Baldwin, that writer, prophet, and seer who has never left my mind and heart once I cracked open Go Tell it On the Mountain all those years ago:

Life is tragic simply because the earth turns and the sun inexorably rises and sets, and one day, for each of us, the sun will go down for the last, last time. Perhaps the whole root of our trouble, the human trouble, is that we will sacrifice all the beauty of our lives, will imprison ourselves in totems, taboos, crosses, blood sacrifices, steeples, mosques, races, armies, flags, nations, in order to deny the fact of death, the only fact we have. It seems to me that one ought to rejoice in the fact of death–ought to decide, indeed, to earn one’s death by confronting with passion the conundrum of life. One is responsible for life: It is the small beacon in that terrifying darkness from which we come and to which we shall return.

All of these anti-quarantine protestors are caught up in a grand and complicated projection designed to forestall awareness of the reality of death, whose imminence materialized quickly with CV-19. Denial of the dangers of CV-19 connects to the deeper aspects of this culture so obsessed with youth (evidenced by the cultures of beauty, plastic surgery, dieting, wrinkle creams, hairlessness, and so on).

Do we need a lesson in the difference between a chair and a human being?

Now, as is the American way, all of those anxieties and fears about death will be offloaded onto the necks of black people. It’s as if forcing black people to die allows their white murderers to feel more alive and more firmly rooted in life than in death. But the fact of death, regardless of your skin tone or class status or gender identity or sexuality, cannot be postponed, negotiated with, or made otherwise a reality of living.

My spiritual journey has shown me that what people do is a reflection of what they feel inside. So murderers “feel” dead and can only feel alive in the presence of an actual dead body. People who can only see criminality in another feel guilty themselves because ultimately, there are no others. Everything is a mirror.

I suspect, black people do not behave in the genocidal manner that racist and murderous white people do is because we project what is inside of us–which is life, not death.

I have seen some racist arguments which wonder why black people don’t terrorize white people in armed militias or take up an eye-for-an-eye strategy vis-a-vis police/vigilante shootings. [My daughter] Omi was speaking to a (now former) friend of hers in Sri Lanka who told her that “black people are weak.” Many people whose consciousness is framed by anti-blackness think like this. By this logic, Jesus was weak too.

A makeshift memorial for George Floyd near the spot where he died in police custody in Minneapolis. 

But the reason, I suspect, black people do not behave in the genocidal manner that racist and murderous white people do is because we project what is inside of us–which is life, not death. As a black person, I have no desire to kill anyone, for any reason. I am too concerned about what I would become if I did such a thing. And, I am too concerned about what I would foreclose in the life of the person I would kill. In other words, if living in this society means becoming a serial killer–I’ll fly away.

I’ll close with a prayer:

I pray for
the safety of
each and every one of us.

I pray that
our children
are safe.

I pray that
wisdom and insight
will rain down upon all of us and
the killing can stop.

I pray for
our collective
healing.

Love to you all.

Stefanie Kyle Dunning is Associate Professor of English at Miami University of Ohio. She is a graduate of Spelman College and the University of California, Riverside and a Ford Fellow. Her first book Queer in Black and White: Interraciality, Same Sex Desire and Contemporary African American Culture, was published by Indiana University Press in 2009. Her work has been published (or is forthcoming) in African American Review, MELUS, Studies In The Fantastic, and Electric Literature. and several other journals and anthologies. Her latest project, Black to Nature: Pastoral Return in African American Culture, is forthcoming from the University Press of Mississippi in 2021.