Part I: The Unwritten Laws of Being Black

This is the first in a three-part series written in response to

three tragic events in America which began July 5, 2016.

“There ain’t a white man in this room that would change places with me. None of you. None of you would change places with me, and I’m rich.”

-- Chris Rock, 1999

The first time I heard comedian Chris Rock utter the line above I did not laugh.  For this white woman raised in an upper middle-class home, the truth was like a kick to the head.  Not once in the history of African descendants in America has it ever been safe to be a black man.  This week’s shootings in Minnesota and Louisiana underlined that fact again.

The first shooting occurred Tuesday in Baton Rouge, LA.  Alton Sterling, 37, was selling CD’s outside the Triple S Food Mart when Officers Blane Salamoni and Howie Lake responded to an anonymous 911 call saying Sterling was making threats with a gun.  Cell phones began to record the tragedy as officers arrived.  Video shows Sterling being thrown against a police vehicle, being tasered, being thrown against a second vehicle, then being tackled and pinned to the ground.  Someone shouted, “Gun!” and Sterling was shot six times.  It was not until he lay dying on the ground that officers removed an object from his pants pocket.  Sterling’s hands were empty.  Though his probationary status temporarily prohibited from carrying a firearm under Louisiana’s open carry law, the victim apparently felt he needed protection.

On Wednesday in Falcon Heights, MN, a suburb of St. Paul, Philando Castile, 32, was pulled over by Saint Anthony Officer Jeronimo Yanez reportedly for “a busted tail light.”  Castile told the officer he had a weapon and a permit to carry it.  He then reportedly reached for his license and registration and the officer fired four bullets into his chest as he remained seated in his vehicle.  Castile’s girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, used her cell phone to stream what followed live on Facebook.  Castile died before the eyes of the world as Reynolds calmly and respectfully assured the officer she would keep her hands right where they were.  The video shows Castile’s hands were empty.

In the aftermath of their deaths, false stories circulated that both Sterling and Castile had gang affiliations.  According to his police record, Sterling had to register as a Level 1 sex offender following an incident when he was 21.  He also was found guilty of a domestic assault and drug possession.  According to Minnesota court records, Castile was found guilty of 31 traffic-related misdemeanors including driving without proof of insurance, not wearing a seatbelt, and parking tickets.  If these men were white, no one would ever raise the specter of gang affiliation unless they had swastika tattoos on their skinheads. These African American men were not gang members.

These murder victims were imperfect humans, contributing members of society, and fathers of young children.  Sterling reportedly was living in a half-way house, getting his life back on track after serving his sentence for domestic assault.  Castile was a nutrition services supervisor at the J.J. Hill Montessori Magnet School where he served meals to 500 children with “patience and a friendly demeanor.”

Castile’s case is particularly troubling.  It is clear from his 31 traffic-related tickets that he was a victim of police harassment for a very long time.  Authorities stopped him repeatedly because he was “driving while black.”  This appears to have been the case on the day of his death as well.  While the officer cited the reason for the traffic stop as “a busted tail light,” the stop was made in broad daylight when the fully functioning tail light (photographed by witnesses) was not a safety factor.

How often are black men treated like this by police?  When a white man drives a newer model car in a lawful manner, no one notices.  When a black man does the same thing, officers decide the matter requires further investigation.

Why?

In America, black men are not supposed to succeed.  From the substandard elementary school classroom, to the poverty of a single-parent home, to the “loitering” charge leveled upon the teenager who goes to hang out with his friends until 10:01 on a school night, everything is stacked against African American males from birth.  The assumption of criminality is stamped on every black child who reaches puberty by police officers everywhere.  For many urban black boys, a marijuana conviction is practically a rite of passage.  If a youth is white, that first dime bag comes with a suspended sentence.  For a black kid, the precipitous fall into a life marked by economic insecurity accelerates when he has to serve 60 percent of a 30-day sentence.

Alton Sterling wasn’t brandishing a gun, he was selling CD’s while being black.  Philando Castile was not driving a broken car.  He was pulled over for having a car.  The unwritten laws of prejudice permit African American men to be systematically punished for the small successes in life that white people take for granted.  Both men were deemed “dangerous” by police because they exercised their legal right to carry a firearm.  Both men were sentenced to death for violating the greatest of the unwritten laws for being black:  In claiming the Constitutional right to bear arms, they were equal.

Chris Rock was right.  All the money in the world cannot make a white person wish for a lifetime in the deadly shadow of the unwritten laws of bigotry.