Precedent Shows, We Are Not The Same.
Life as a Black person is Hard.
Life as a Black Woman is harder.
Early on in an American child’s life, conditioning occurs — this conditioning makes us naturally believe that though our present is bad, our future has potential.
Some people would call this the American Dream, defined as an inherent right to opportunity byway of nationality. Observantly, however, this baseless claim to opportunity is unfounded considering the limitations put on the Black life by American systems.
The truth is evident in looking at the treatment of Kyle Rittenhouse and Breonna Taylor.
Kyle Rittenhouse: “Good Ole Conservative Hero”
Seventeen-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse suspect in the Kenosha, Wisconsin fatal shooting is now a notorious pillar within the Conservative Party.
During the protests over the senseless shooting of Jacob Blake, Rittenhouse opened fire on innocent protestors. The victims were later identified as 26-year-old Anthony Huber, and 36-year-old Gaige Grosskreutz.
Though the climate we’ve endured this past year has normalized chaos and racism, most moral driven people were disgusted by the actions of Rittenhouse.
The Trump family was not outraged — alarmingly they rationalized the actions of the suspect.
When asked about his sentiments on the Rittenhouse case, Donald Trump Jr. cold heartedly expressed “we all do stupid things at 17.”
At a press briefing at the White House on August 31st, mirroring his sons ignorance, president Trump noted “you saw the same tape as I saw and he was trying to get away from them it looks like, and he fell and then they very violently attacked him.”
Self-defense, they claim, is the reason Rittenhouse came to peaceful protest armed with a semi-automatic weapon and killed two people.
At first there was confusion on why the president of the “free” world would rush past due process and leap into the arms of assumption — Rittenhouse’s background made it painstakingly transparent.
Rittenhouse’s loyalty and obsession with law enforcement made him a good ole boy.
Rittenhouse was a Public safety cadet and a proud proponent of the Second Amendment according to Police Chief Phillip L. Perlini. His time as a cadet, working alongside his white privilege explains why he thought it was okay to patrol the area as if he were a legitimate law enforcement member.
In a video released by the Chicago Sun-Times, there is a graphic depictionof what happened the night of the fatal Kenosha shooting. Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson sat down with the attorney for Rittenhouse, John Pierce to discuss the video.
Predictably, they focused on and analyzed the pieces of the video that made Rittenhouse’s innocence compelling. There is a clear recording that shows Rittenhouse briefly running from a group of protesters. Carlson and Pierce believe that that fully justifies the means.
I do not.
The video shows a fraction of the night. The question that should be asked is why he felt it was his duty to “protect” the community. He did not even live there. Crossing state lines to appear at a protest with an AR-15 screams law and order. And the history of this country and its relationship with law and order, suggests that Rittenhouse was doing nothing more than trying to tame a group of minorities that were threatening the establishment.
Sure, I could be wrong. But considering the history of police interactions with agitators, Rittenhouse was a certain outcome to the Kenosha protests. Protestors were causing “Chaos” “disrupting the peace” and destroying “their peace”. That is how white conservatives conveniently describe it.
The focus is not on the cause, ever — always on the effect — when it comes to law enforcement and outrage. The cops that shot Jacob Blake in the back and paralyzed him from the waist down for no reason at all were not the problem that created a Rittenhouse. Instead, what left Mr. Huber and Mr. Grosskreutz dead was their actions — so Conservatives say.
Rittenhouse was just a 17-year-old boy. He was protecting the community, trying to stop the “thugs” destroying the land. That is the narrative they want you to believe. Not because it is true, but because Rittenhouse protects the system. He was a cadet, enamored by law and order and inspired by his White privilege. He can protect the establishment and purge the world of the people that threaten it.
The POTUS is protecting him, despite his indictment and unfinished trial. Trump is showing you that law and order is more important than human life. He is using the center of all U.S. decisions — the White House — as a stage for his declaration that lives that protect order are far more important than lives that catalyze change.
That is why Breonna Taylor is gone and Rittenhouse is relentlessly protected by Americas most powerful people.
Breonna Taylor: The Cold Hard of Truth about Being Black in America
On March 13th, Breonna Taylor was fatally shot five times by Louisville police officers, in a drug raid conducted on the wrong person.
According to a New York Times article Breonna Taylor was trying to create better for herself and her family. Working as an emergency room technician, Taylor had just worked four overnight shifts.
In her apartment there were countless post-it notes and envelopes where she wrote her goals — some including buying a car, purchasing her first home and having a baby.
But again, like most Black woman in this country, her story was not easy. Born to a teenage mom and an incarcerated dad, Breonna worked for a better life. That was her story. She was not a criminal that need to be hunted down by a mob of police in the middle of the night, like the Louisville police suggest.
The night of her death, shortly after midnight, police enacted a “no knock” raid, with guns drawn looking for two men wanted on drug charges. The cops broke down the door, at which point a confused Kenneth Walker, boyfriend of Breonna Taylor, opened fired at the intruders.
One of the officers responded by firing 10 rounds blindly into the apartment.
The officers hit Ms. Taylor with five bullets at which point she bled out, coughed and suffered for five minutes before she took her last breath. No officer came to her aide.
Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron announced on September 22nd that murder charges would not be filed against any of the officers. When asked about his decision Cameron said “our responsibility in the AG’s office is to the truth and to facts. I cannot fashion the facts in such a way to meet a narrative that in many ways had already been put out there before the facts had been put out there.”
The fact, whether Cameron addresses reality or not, is that an innocent woman was killed as a result of carless actions by law enforcement. They acted in a way that was negligent of the value held in every life. Even if they did fire shots because Mr. Walker fired at them, Ms. Taylor was suffering for five minutes — no one came to save her.
Breonna Taylor was not a criminal. Though people love to bring up her boyfriend’s past as justification for breaking into their home, no one is at fault but the Louisville Police Department. They broke into a woman’s home looking for a man, they fired aimlessly into an apartment with no light — which is a direct violation of protocol within their department. Yet they are justified and free to continue their lives while Breonna Taylor is dead.
The only charge filed for this senseless act was wanton endangerment against Brett Hankinson. This law does not even directly correlate to the actions that killed Breonna Taylor — it addresses the bullets that fired into another apartment. Essentially, the Grand Jury, under the supervision of the Attorney General, decided that Breonna Taylor’s life did not matter.
Unfortunately, I am not surprised.
Black Girl, White World: Dangerous
In the last few minutes from the video from Kenosha shooing, Kyle Rittenhouse, having just shot three and killed two people, walks past police officers with his weapon still in hand.
Bystanders are heard screaming “he just killed them”. Even Rittenhouse walked towards SWAT and police cars with his hands up thinking he was about to be detained for his actions. He was not. Instead the cops pulled off, not even stopping him for his actions.
Rittenhouse proceeded to drive home across state lines and turn himself in.
With first-degree murder charges, Rittenhouse has acquired extensive support.
So far Rittenhouse has racked up large amounts of money for his legal fees. Donations include
· $390,000 — Fundraiser on the Christian fundraising platform GiveSendGo
· $605,550 — FightBack Foundation donations
** That totals to nearly $1 million in legal fee funding from outside resources for Rittenhouse
City officials working the Breonna Taylor case reached a $12 million settlement with her family. The city paired this money with no murder convictions related to her death.
This decision was preceded by months of outrage and protesting in her honor.
The clear conclusion is, they were treated different.
The president of the United States, his followers and an alarming number of White Americans believe that there is no differentiation in the treatment of Black vs White people.
· On June 30th, Trump characterized the painting of ‘Black Lives Matter’ on Fifth Avenue as a ‘symbol of hate’
· Jim Hagedorn (R-MN) expressed “The Democrat ‘Black Lives Matter’ Party, along with armies of rioters, are at war with our country, our beliefs and western culture.”
· Tucker Carlson ranted Black Matter protests are “not because police are more brutal or more unarmed African-American men are being killed by the police. That’s not happening. It’s a total hoax.”
The double standard is evident.
When Breonna Taylor was murdered people were outraged. High profile celebrities, some politicians — all kinds of people across the country — gathered to protest her killing. So the City officials paid her family off in hopes that that would calm the storm.
The money was not accompanied by apologies or real remorse from the people involved in her killing. That settlement was nothing more than hush money. And when the hush money did not silence the activist, they released a clear ruling that demonstrated a perceived insignificance of the actions by the officers involved.
Breonna did nothing, yet she was killed. The best she got out of a system aimed at “protecting” was money she could not even spend.
Breonna worked her whole life to see financial freedom. But only in her death did this country think she was worthy of millions.
Her family had to fight for far too long to get a fraction of what they truly deserve.
Kyle Rittenhouse knows no fight. He got to grow up in a world that shields him from the realities of us — Black women.
We die for sleeping. Get no justice and are told “we did the best we can.”
People like Rittenhouse — White people — even when they are wrong the system will make it right.
He killed two people and injured another at a protest that had nothing to do with him. But of course, he is the neighborhood hero. “A patriotic kid”.
The sirens went off when he was arrested for a crime he so clearly committed. They raised $1 million for him. Without him even asking.
His white supports protected him.
Daniel Cameron failed Breonna Taylor in service of his white taxpayers and party allegiance.
Race is a determinant. There are decent white people. I have experienced them. But as I grow older and experience more, I learn that there are not nearly enough. When anyone can say that Kyle Rittenhouse is a hero and Breonna Taylor does not deserve justice, there is a dangerous precedent set.
One that correlates race and ideals to innocent or guilty. The mistreatment of Breonna Taylor and the protection of Rittenhouse perpetuates a narrative that some lives matter more than others. I fear for our country and the decisions the rulers of it continue to make. Division is now inherent, and I do not know when that will change.
When I look at Breonna Taylor, I see myself. My children. My mom. My Sister. My friend. That makes me profoundly angry.
To all the people that think the American Dream still exists. That my life can be inherently important and lucrative because I was born in America. I encourage you to remember this:
While that may be true for you, we are not the same.
“For me the history of the place of Black people in this country is so varied, complex and beautiful. And impactful” — Toni Morrison
