Sean Bell and the hot summer...

The heat makes people do crazy things. You can’t sit still. The oscillating fan never gets to you quick enough and never stays on you long enough. The air is thick and muggy. Breath is short; patience is shorter. And, I have a theory that the New York City summer is going to be HOT. Of course, the temperature will reach the upper 90s as will the humidity as it does every blistering New York City summer. However, I’m referring to the intense sweat that the summer will drop all over the streets and blocks of the city. With “city,” though, I don’t mean the ever-coveted upper East or West sides or the hippie/yuppie Williamsburgs, but the Harlems, the Jamaica Queens, the Mount Vernons, the Mott Havens, the Washington Heights, and the Bed-stys. It will be a different type of heat, attributing my theory in part to the Sean Bell verdict.

Everyday occurrences are microcosms of a bigger cosism or picture. The Sean Bell verdict is a microcosm of a tension that swells the lymph nodes of America – the struggle for racial equality. This is a struggle experienced by the African American community primarily – as the media would have us, the viewer, believe that is the only struggle – but within all minorities living in America, be it Native American, Pakistani, Mexican, Chinese, Vietnamese, Dominican, Middle Eastern, Ghanaian, or Bolivian.

The last couple of days I’ve been reading various reactions and points of view in regards to the Bell verdict. You either agree or disagree with the verdict and based on what I’ve read from various perspectives, there’s hardly any in-between. There are always the extremists or conservatives (on both sides). See http://www.sharprightturn.wordpress.com for the “Ann Coulter” side of the argument. Don’t stay too long, though, because it just makes you angry. (I lasted about 3 minutes). There are even more sites – though it was very easy to search for both sides – with the opposing perspective – disagreeing with the verdict. (Check out http://www.lipmagazine.org/~timwise/theyshoot.html .) I would say that this is the majority of the nation’s opinion, only it’s just that the people who do disagree with the verdict have a little more (actually, a lot more) to say about it. If you agree with the not guilty verdict what’s the point to advertise it? Why waste your breath on defending the power and assumed right to power when the power that is held is rarely challenged to the point at which power will switch hands or, even more utopian, be shared. There’s more at stake for the people who choose to be silent about their disgruntlements. I am in no way spiting or sniggering at the leaps forward that have been made; it is only that it isn’t enough. To be satisfied without true equality is not to be satisfied. More than two black men (in the city alone within the last couple of years) have been shot at with more than one full clip, killed, and it be determined that the cops acted as they should have. The re-occurrence of this happening throughout the country to minorities is appalling. Michael Moore augments this point in a typical Moore-ian short film off YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfFfUxBDMDY . When was the last time a white male was shot at and killed under the same conditions and with the same results?

I’m not in any way suggesting more white deaths by police would lead to a more equal America. I am suggesting however, that there are inequities in the treatment of American people and people living in America based on a long history of white dominated power. A wise man once said, “he would not bleach his Negro soul in a flood of white Americanism, for he knows that Negro blood has a message for the world. He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American, without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows, without having the doors of Opportunity closed roughly in his face” (that wise man was W.E.B. Du Bois).

So, what does this verdict mean for the African American community? It depends on what level you look into this verdict. Some would say it was a blatantly racist decision, which builds more rage into the conspiracy theory life lived by most minorities across the country. I don’t think a guilty verdict would have changed or reversed the injustice that has consistently been served to minorities in this country, but the not guilty verdict most definitely fuels fire for revolution. And when will that come? To the verdict, Spike Lee (on http://www.bet.com/Music/News/musicnews_russellsimmonsandspikeleetalkseanbellverdict_04.25.08.htm ) was quoted as saying, “I feel very bad and I guess it’s business as usual. Of course, race relations are better here in NYC then it was under Mayor Guillani’s and the infamous Ed Koch, but Sean Bell should be alive.” True and true. Again, what Lee says is a microcosm of something bigger. It’s the 2,000 pound elephant in the room. It’s the usual business of the power struggle for minorities. It’s the constant beat down of a system that will get you one way or another. This verdict, but more intensely, the severity of the situation itself, the fact that this happens and can happen is the true beat down to the advances and hopes for an equal and just country and World.

Some would say that this wasn’t a case about race since two of the defendants were people of color. Since they were acquitted and they were people of color themselves doesn’t that clear them of any racial tensions or racist mentality? I don’t think the cops were racist, but I do believe their job promotes a stereotyping mentality. Would the officer have acted differently had it been a white man who said, “I’m going to get my gun”? Probably, but that is merely speculation. The point here is that the officers most definitely had other options. Upon hearing the alleged “gun” phrase, they could have immediately identified themselves and then conducted a search. I think, though, because Sean Bell and his friends were men of color, these cops immediately acted a bit more intensely and nervously. (Dr. Boyce Watkins, professor at Syracuse University, addresses this on his YouTube video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQRQa-oND4o .)

That seems to be the reaction of the police, the government, the majority of America and the World when it comes to the minority – a bit more nervous and cautious and scared. Scared of what? I think it’s a deep fear of losing the power edge, the aura of control, the sense and entitlement of empowerment. It’s the manipulated mind that won’t allow any give-in to the power structures that exist. That is why this Bell verdict is a microcosm of a bigger picture.

I find in myself that I am not beyond this mentality in some shape or form. There have been times when I have passed black men on the street and thought more than twice about my safety. Why? Perhaps it was a neighborhood I was in or perhaps it was a look I thought I saw or felt. Basically it was out of fear on some level. Is it all right to feel this? Sure, as long as you acknowledge it and try to confront it and understand it at some point. I do not think our police departments, our educational leadership, our government, our America, and our World is honest with this issue. The status quo has remained just that from the perspective of minority America – and I don’t mean this for just African Americans, but all minorities. It’s difficult to judge this since there are so many perspectives, but I think if one takes the time to read between the lines, it’s clear.

What does music tell us about our culture? Is culture a product of music or vice-versa? Whichever you believe, they directly have an effect on one another. What does Bob Marley sing about? What are themes in various forms of hip-hop music? What themes are there in the Blues, which is the foundation for American Rock and Roll? These are genres created, by people of color, with common themes engrained within them: revolution, change, growth through hardship, progress, the right to equality, and justice. Once again, music is a microcosm of a bigger picture.

As an educator I worry for many of my kids. Education is a crucial and essential tool when dealing with issues of societal norms and power structures (to name a few issues). I think it is an issue overlooked by our school systems. Why are inner city schools struggling? Does it really boil down to money and standardized tests? The amount of resources provided to inner city schools and suburban schools is incomparable. There is enough here to write several more entries about the limitations forced upon schools because of the bureaucratic rule and economic mismanagement. What I want to focus on is how the Sean Bell verdict affects our children.

First of all, I think many of our students are angry. It’s okay to be angry as long as you have the mentality and maturity to know how to deal with the anger. This is not an “easy” thing to do by any means or at any time, especially when one’s life is or has been faced with a cycle of continuous anger or struggle. I am not suggesting that all “inner-city” have experienced this, but suggesting it is a possibility for any youth or any person to have this in their life. I do not want to stereotype “inner-city” or “under privileged” children, only merely suggest a point in general (this is wordy, I know, my bad).

If any anger exists because of the Bell verdict (from a minority kid point of view), it is most likely at the police. I have found this through many informal interviews and discussions with my kids. The police are now a symbol of unstoppable and threatening power, rather than service and protection (they may have been before as well, but even more so now). Just this mentality is proof that something needs to be changed. Remember this is a police department funded by the people through taxes with the purpose of service and protection.

Kids can easily be over emotional. They need process time and a venue to express happiness, sadness, confusion, and anger (we all do). Without a proper understanding of all that this Sean Bell case brings to surface about our American-ness and a venue in which to break these items down, our kids can and will hold in their feelings until struck to release them. I fear for those kids who are just at their breaking point. I fear for those kids who are in school, but often checking out to be with friends or to do other things with, perhaps, little purpose or direction, perhaps who are bored. I fear for those kids who are easily manipulated and when fed things they perhaps lack a confidence to think for themselves and choose to follow the emotions of others. Those kids on the brink are soaking in the things around them. A little anger can sway a kid to lead in one direction, perhaps one a little more positive, or the other, perhaps one a little more negative. I don’t believe life is black and white, that people are all good or all bad. I think we all have our moments and in them we confront the good self and the potentially bad self. For our youth, however, one bad decision can affect him or her for a lifetime. The stakes are high now and the city is hot.

I’m not suggesting there will be an all-out war throughout the city, but I think this case has and will continue to rekindle frustrations on both sides of the issues. The people are upset at the verdict and the continual mishaps and excessively aggressive tendencies acted out by New York’s finest. The police have their own frustrations, perhaps one being, having to deal with the constant analysis by the public and the pressures of trying to be the good guy in the midst of the public’s bad guy perception.

The question and the challenge here is how do we move on? There is no one answer. But, a dialogue must be kept alive and healthy and REAL. Merely brushing this under the rug as the NYPD has a tendency to do is a slap in the face to the people for whom they “serve”. This is not just a challenge to African Americans and the NYPD, but to all New Yorkers and people living in New York (to our nation and to our World). That means the ever-coveted Upper East and West sides must include themselves. They must have the audacity and integrity to be a part of the change that so desperately needs to happen. To be silent is to ignore the issues. To be silent is to close the door on others, especially our youth who are craving to be heard and understood.

“The Nation has not yet found peace from its sins; the freedman has not yet found in freedom his promised land.” W.E.B. Du Bois wrote that in his book The Souls of Black Folk over a hundred years ago and yet his words still speak loudly to us today. We are all “free”, but now we have to strive to find OUR promised land. We have to be the conductors of change and the creators and the writers of the revolution.