I remember being 16 years old walking to the store with my baby brother. I always have to use the term baby brother because he's been at least 6 feet tall since he was about 12, mind you he's 5 years younger than I am, but that's neither here nor there. Well that night my mom sent me to the store, it has to be around 7:30-8:00 and I dragged my brother with me. I didn't feel like going, and since I had no choice, he was going to walk with me, lets just say it's one of the perks of being the oldest.
We were on our way back to home, had just cross through the parking lot and two cops stopped us. I had never had an encounter with the police like this before. It was two guys, one black and one white. They asked us were we were coming from. I looked down at the Giant bags at my hand, and being the sarcastic person I am I said something like we were coming from the library. Although both me and my brother both started laughing, neither of the cops laughed. One of the cops asked my brother to take his hood off his head. We had both just thrown on hoodies to run to the store. I noticed that one of them had his hand on his gun while they were talking to us, so I kinda quick elbowed my brother and we both stopped laughing. I asked the officers if everything was ok or were in in some type of trouble. He said he had to check our bags. I didn't understand but we gave them the bags and they went through them. Then I remember them saying they had to pat down my brother to make sure he wasn't trying to hide anything. By this time, I start getting angry and ask the cop "why are you patting down a 11 year old, that is carrying grocery bags?" He told me that he "fit the description" of someone that had just robbed a lady by the Mt. Vernon Sq, UDC Metro. So many thoughts started running through my mind, I had heard of situations like that before, but never did I think it would happen to me or my brother. After the cop finishes patting down my brother, and of course finds nothing, they tell us to go straight home. No apology, nothing, just "ok, make sure you go straight home." As we walk away, you hear the dispatch over the radio talking about the "suspect with a red hoodie being apprehended by at Shaw Howard Metro".
When we got home and told my mom what happened, she said "I'm sorry that happened to ya'll. But understand, that you will always fit the description for some people. It's not right, but it's the way it is. You just have to make sure that you are always doing the right thing, just like you were tonight, so that their accusations will have no ground to stand on."
My response to her...'But Ma, my brother's hoodie was light grey."
3/22/12
A Life is a Life....Until It's Taken
I had been trying to keep my comments to myself about Trayvon Martin case. Am I outraged? Of course I am, as every human on the planet should be. The thing that gets me about this case is that, if this was black guy that felt the same way Zimmerman felt (because there are some black people that just don't like other black people), that had shot another black guy....I don't think it would've caught fire like it did. Does it make it any less tragic because they have a common denominator of skin color? No...it's still tragic. Should you be less outraged if Zimmerman was a teenager also? No...it's still an outrage.
Whenever a life is lost, it's sad, it's tragic and everyone should be outraged, regardless of who did the killing and who was killed. A life is precious. I often wonder will we as people learn that? Especially the people who look like me. This year alone I can think of 2 people, both teens, who were MURDERED, but was it a march about it? No. Does it make it any less tragic? No. Should you be any less outraged? No. At least not in my eyes.
It's easy to say the it's a different case, but when it boils down to it, it's all the same. Person 1 didn't value life enough not to kill Person 2. It's my sincere prayer that one day we as a people, especially black people, will learn that life is precious. And not just get outraged when it seems like a severe injustice was done, but understand that every time a life is lost, it's an injustice. But then again.....that's just the way I see it.
Whenever a life is lost, it's sad, it's tragic and everyone should be outraged, regardless of who did the killing and who was killed. A life is precious. I often wonder will we as people learn that? Especially the people who look like me. This year alone I can think of 2 people, both teens, who were MURDERED, but was it a march about it? No. Does it make it any less tragic? No. Should you be any less outraged? No. At least not in my eyes.
It's easy to say the it's a different case, but when it boils down to it, it's all the same. Person 1 didn't value life enough not to kill Person 2. It's my sincere prayer that one day we as a people, especially black people, will learn that life is precious. And not just get outraged when it seems like a severe injustice was done, but understand that every time a life is lost, it's an injustice. But then again.....that's just the way I see it.
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