the color of law
A Short Essay on Police Violence , Black Hashtags , and Mental Health in the [ Crying ] Black Community
The ricochet of bullets into Philando Castile ’ s chest will probably remain with Diamond Reynolds and their four-year-old daughter forever . “ It ’ s ok , I ’ m right here with you ” are the words of a black child comforting her mother in an unimaginable moment . The mothers of Alton Sterling , Mike Brown , Tamir Rice , Trayvon Martin , Renisha McBride , Sandra Bland , and so many others [ will experience the trauma that afflicts black women ] who must deal with the loss of their children . The children of Alton Sterling will have to navigate the world in remembrance of their father ’ s violent death as it replays throughout the digital world .
Unfortunately , the death of black folks at the hands of the police has become an all too familiar phenomenon . With this , comes the emotional aftermath of black death that has become normative in the black community . Policing and surveillance in black and brown communities has been a contentious issue since the birth of this nation . State-sanctioned violence has periodically accompanied the sociopolitical landscape of the black experience . Historical stereotypes of blackness have created a festering narrative of black male criminality and deviancy among black females .
BY ITANÉ COLEMAN
Regardless of their actions , many black people live in a state of fear and mistrust that parallels the state of terror experienced in the antebellum South . As a result , we see a generational pain and frustration that plagues the black community and our subsequent struggle for equity and freedom . Throughout history , black and brown bodies have been subjected to assault in a number of dehumanizing ways . The white supremacist devaluation of black and brownness , as well as the susceptibility of our bodies to its ongoing violence contributed to the construction of the # B l a c k L i v e s M a t t e r m o v e m e n t . T h e # BlackLivesMatter movement epitomizes a life-time of frustration and a yearn for liberation within the black community . Although a hashtag on social media , black lives matter has been the rhetoric of the black community since emancipation . We have fought strategically for years to gain recognition as not only citizens , but as humans in this country .
Our advocacy with # BlackLivesMatter should not end with police brutality . The discourse of this movement is crucial in spaces that extend to education , policing , well-paying jobs , etc . # BlackLivesMatter allows us to consider what is at stake when black and brown people are systematically murdered and d i s p r o p o r t i o n a t e l y t a rg e t e d f o r t h e implementation of violence in its many forms . The notion that black lives matter does not convey that other lives do not . Like many other movements relating to blackness and black liberation , the Black Lives Matter movement has been reduced to a hate group that promotes