I Can’t Breathe! [Extended]
By Wayne Hare
Usually my updates are around what I’ve been doing between cranking out the next Civil Conversation story. And I’ll get to that in the next update. I’ve not been idle. But the last few weeks in America beg for attention and for speaking out. We’re all just reeling…you… me.. all of us. Many people have reached out to me simply to express their rage, sadness, and confusion and in some cases ask what can they do to fight racism.
If you know me, or if you’ve read me, you’ve heard me say that here in America, if you peel away a layer or two, you find race. It’s in the policies that come out of Washington when safety nets that are meant to uplift or protect the least among us are cut back with African Americans always suffering disproportionately. It’s there when disaster relief programs favor the white and wealthy. It’s there in our criminal justice system. It’s at the check-out stand when you’re not treated with the same respect and cheerfulness as the three white folks in line ahead of you. It’s there when you’re stopped for a legitimate traffic violation, but you’re driving a nice car so the cop asks what you do for a living, where you’ve been and where you’re going – none of which has anything to do with the reason you were stopped. “Just wondering if you’re dealing drugs, sir.”
It’s there when white people comment negatively and derisively on the condition of black neighborhoods that aren’t as spiffy as white neighborhoods – not having a clue that the lack of bank investment and the lack of public services – a term that Nixon coined as ‘benign neglect’ – is intentional. It’s there when people wonder aloud why “now that the playing field has been leveled, why aren’t black Americans still not doing so well?” It’s there when people doubt that a duly elected black president is actually qualified to be president or if he was born in Africa. Or if his grades at Harvard Law School were fudged. It’s there when black people cannot get mortgages at the same interest rate as their white counterparts. It’s there when Johnny gets a call back from a potential employer when equally qualified Jamal does not.
It’s there when Amy or Becky or Karen call the police for a black person sleeping in her dorm, or bird watching in Central Park, or barbequing at the beach, or swimming in their swimming pool. It’s there in the certainty that their whiteness will prevail and that black skin will be seen as a dangerous weapon. It’s there when the cops are called on a 12 year old boy for playing with a toy gun and is then shot dead before the police car comes to a full stop. It’s there when white men with assault weapons storm state capitols to make a point when even the most brain dead American knows that a group of pissed off armed black men would bring a far different and more deadly law enforcement response.
It’s there when President Obama’s picture was taken with 30 or so of the top military commanders in the armed Forces and not one of them wasn’t white. And it remains there when it is noted that in the 75 years since the armed forces were integrated, only one African American, General Colin Powell, has made it to the very top of the military hierarchy. Just one in all those years.
Racism was there in the housing bubble when minorities who had never been treated fairly by banks in getting mortgages were targeted for unsustainable mortgages until the bubble burst, leaving minorities, especially African American with an even greater wealth gap between white and black Americans.
It was there when Jim Cooley, a white open carry activist, carried a loaded assault weapon into the Atlanta airport and simply went about his business, supposedly keeping his daughter safe. But when John Crawford, a black man, picked up an air rifle that he was considering buying for his son in an Ohio Walmart, he was quickly shot dead.
It was there when Ronald Reagan announced his run for the presidency from the Philadelphia state fair – the same town where three civil rights workers were murdered by the local sheriff and others 16 years earlier. And it was there when Nixon opened his war on drugs targeting black Americans.
It’s there when politicians use loaded code words, like “States' rights” to let white Americans know he’s got their back.
American racism was there when the NFL conspired to deprive Colin Kaepernick of his livelihood because he placed his knee on the ground for the 1 minute and 55 seconds it usually takes to sing the National Anthem – a song of freedom written by a virulent slave owner that nods to slavery in the third verse. And it was there when the same NFL didn’t make a peep when Derek Chauvin placed his knee on George Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, crushing it into the ground and killing him while he begged for his dead mother and then died with the whole world watching. Although now they somehow seem to be able to see the light and can distinguish between a good knee and a bad knee. All it took was Floyd’s gruesome death. I think that what bothered me the most was the look of complete nonchalance on Derek Chauvin’s face. He was simply squashing a large cockroach.
It was there when three white men chased and murdered Amaud Arbury for the audacity of simply trying to not be murdered. And his killers weren’t apprehended until a video created a national outcry. It was there when I was stopped, picked up by the police and driven out of the neighborhood I was jogging in in VA years ago with the simple but unambiguous, “You’re not allowed in this neighborhood.” I never realized how lucky I was that day. I lived.
It was there when Breonna Taylor was shot and killed for the crime of sleeping in her own bed when the police executed both Breonna and a ‘no-knock ’warrant…a warrant served at the wrong location for the suspect they were looking for…who was already in custody. And not for the first time did an illegal ‘no-knock warrant’ at the wrong address result in a black death. It was there in 2010 in Detroit when - with a reality show television crew in tow to glorify the Detroit PD with the cops once again executing a ‘no knock warrant’, again at the wrong address, executed not only the warrant, but 7 year old Aiyan Stanley-Jones with a bullet to her head, who, like Breonna was guilty only of being asleep in her own bed. No officer was ever charged or disciplined.
It was there before Derek Chauvin choked George Floyd to death in Minneapolis, when former NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo choked Eric Garner to death on the streets of Staten Island. And it was there when the only person involved in that death that the coroner determined to be a homicide by choking, was Ramsey Orta. His crime? He was guilty of filming the murder of his friend. In the ensuing months the NYPD shined spotlights into his apartment during the night, followed him on the street, and eventually succeeded in setting him up with a false drug charge, threatening his mom with prison time unless he confessed, and finally putting him away for three years at Rikers Island and eventually at Groveland Correctional Facility in upstate New York – far enough away from his family on Staten Island to make visiting him a difficult rarity.
If racism was there when Eric and George were choked to death in 2014 and 2020, it was also there in Los Angeles in 1976 when Adolph Lyons, a black 24 year old was pulled over for driving without a tail light, yanked from his car, handcuffed and choked. Adolph was lucky. When he regained consciousness he was lying on the street, spitting up blood and dirt, gasping for air, and he had urinated and defecated in his pants. He was issued a traffic violation for a minor offense and released. But when his law suit reached the supreme court 7 years later in 1983, the court sided with the LAPD. An astonished and angry Thurgood Marshall wrote a dissenting opinion. “Although the city instructs its officers that the chokehold does not constitute deadly force, since 1975 no less than 16 persons have died following the use of a chokehold by an LAPD officer . Twelve have been Negro males…” One LAPD officer casually described the reaction to the chokehold as “Doing the chicken.” The victim experiences extreme pain. His face turns blue. He goes into spasmodic convulsions. His eyes roll back. His body wriggles. His feet kick up and down, and is arms move about wildly.
But for LAPD Chief Daryl Gates, the racism didn’t end there. “We may be finding that in some blacks when it is applied, the veins and arteries do not open up as fast as they do in normal people.” Yeah…normal people. Gates was chief from 1978 to 1992 when he was forced to resign. Under his tenure, “The LAPD became a worldwide symbol of all that was bad, bigoted and brutal in big-city policing.”
Racism is there in all these places and more. It’s in the everyday daily lives of some 13 percent of the American population. But still, when I say that it’s everywhere if you peel back a layer and take a look, I’m looked at with polite skepticism.
The coronavirus kills black people at 2.4 times the rate that it kills white people due to a pre-existing condition called ‘Being black in America’. Racism has made being born black a dangerous, pre-existing health condition. Across the country, black Americans suffer from higher rates of diabetes, hypertension, lower life expectancies, asthma and heart disease than white Americans. They are more likely to be obese and get insufficient sleep, which in turn contributes to health issues.
The pre-existing condition of being black is there when African American mothers die during child birth at 2 to 6 times the rate of white mothers and it’s there in that same delivery room when black infants die at twice the rate as white infants. And while the death rate is declining for white babies, it’s increasing for black babies. It’s hard to deny the role of racism in these “underlying conditions.”
In addition to the consequences of structural racism, it’s well-documented that racism itself is hard on a person’s health. Chronic stress caused by discrimination can trigger a cascade of adverse health outcomes, from high blood pressure and heart disease to immunodeficiency and accelerated aging. Evidence even suggests that the racism endured by black mothers contributes to the alarmingly high maternal and infant mortality rate.
Race-based police violence killed Eric Garner, but societal racism contributed to the death of his daughter Erica, three years later at the age of 27 when she went into cardiac arrest following an asthma attack and died. There’s a striking link between long-term air pollution exposure and coronavirus deaths. Black Americans are 75 percent more likely to live near a polluting facility, such as a factory or a refinery. That helps explain why even before this pandemic, black children had a 500 percent higher death rate from asthma than white children. That’s structural racism.
Police violence kills 3x more black people than white, while black people are 1.3x more likely to be unarmed.
Thus the Coronavirus, combined with the murders of George and Breonna and Amaud has yanked back the covers of the ‘everywhereness’ of American Racism.
Robin Di Angelo, author of bestselling book “White Fragility. Why it’s so hard to talk to white people about race” argues that white Americans view racism as an individual moral failing instead of the waste product of a system that prioritizes white people and whose levers are consciously (see: Amy Cooper in Central Park) and unconsciously manipulated by them. A “waste product!” Yeah, that seems about right.
My answer to what can you do about racism is simple. Pay attention until you see it and feel it in your bones. Don’t be that doctor in Steamboat Springs who asked me a year ago, “But isn’t racism all over? Hasn’t everything been fixed?” Don’t be that ignorant guy. FEEL it! A friend Jana McCabe, wrote this just a few days ago: “My heart is heavy, but it is not the guttural experience that my friends of color who cannot escape the reality of racism experience. The best I can comprehend is it is like hearing about child abuse/murder before becoming a parent and after. It was always upsetting. But after becoming a mother it became a visceral/physical sensation that I can’t escape.” FEEL it!
Play a game when you read the news. When you read about some policy coming out of Washington, or some state, think about it and ask yourself, “Could that have anything to do with race? With the way that politicians view money or other benefits being distributed?” What other reason could there be to tear down the Affordable Care act without replacing it with anything? It provides the most benefit to poor people of color. Or not expanding Medicaid? It provides the most benefit to poor people of color. Or cutting back on the Supplemental Nutrition Program? Food stamps provide the most benefit to poor people of color. Or the current Justice Department’s efforts to tear down the police oversight “use-of-force” consent decrees? Because force is mostly used against poor people of color. When a U.S. president gets up in front of the entire Staten Island police department and advocates that the officers rough up their suspects and the entire police force chuckles and claps – write to the chief. Or the mayor. Because we all know what color the suspects are that we’re talking about and there’s not a dammed thing funny about it.
Send money to organizations that fight hate or the effects of hate. The Equal Justice Initiative . Obama’s My Brother's Keeper. The Colin Kaepernick Foundation. No More Deaths Or whichever organization appeals to you. And coming soon to a theater near you will be the opportunity to contribute to the Civil Conversations Project.
Don’t be so sensitive. It’s not about you. White fragility makes it unbelievably difficult to talk about race with so many people whose immediate reaction is, ”It’s not my fault.” Stop with the sensitivity and just listen.
When you see something, say something. That joke about replacing the Rose Garden with a watermelon patch when Obama took office? Not funny. Call out the joke teller. When you get a racist email, reply “all’ when you respond with your version of, “That’s unacceptable.” I’ve done that more than once. It’s pretty enjoyable. And effective. And it embarrasses the hell out of the sender.
Understand that everything about racism affects everybody in the country. Including you. Maybe not in the same way, but you don’t need to be a genius to know for sure that we’d be a better country if we really were the land of the free where all men and women are created equal and entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Where we all have an equal shot at the ‘American Dream’! I’d like to live in that country, wouldn’t you?
Read Ta’-Nashi Coates “The Case for Reparations”, or just one of these books: “White Fragility – why it’s so hard for white people to talk about racism, by Robin DiAngelo and Michael Dyson. “The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America” by Richard Rothstein “Stamped From The Beginning” or “How to be an Anti-racist” by Ibram Kendi. “Don’t Shoot – one man, a street fellowship, and the end of violence in inner-city ” by David Kennedy, or “Deep Denial – the persistence of White Supremacy in the United States” by David Billings. “American Poison – how racial hostility destroyed America’s promise” by Eduardo Porter. “This Land Was Ours – how black beaches became white wealth in the coastal south”. “Dying of Whiteness – how the politics of racial resentment is killing America’s heartland” by Jonathan Metzl. Or don’t read any of them, but definitely watch the short documentary on incarceration and the 13th amendment called, aptly, “13th” on Netflix, or also on Netflix the very excellent and balanced docuseries of the Flint PD called “Flint Town”. It’s a balanced and fascinating picture of life in a poor, black, inner-city.
Explore your neighborhood and if it’s all monocultural, wonder why. How could that come about naturally? Did ancient or current racism play a role? And no, that one black family down the street doesn’t make your neighborhood diverse. And if you live in a suburb of an urban area and your house was built between the end of WWII and the creation of the Fair Housing Act in 1968, find that federally imposed, restrictive covenant that forbid the re-sale of your house to “Negros or Chinese”. Frame it. Hang it on your wall, and wonder…if African Americans were prohibited from living here not so long ago, does that racism explain why they are still not here today?
Drive through the black section of any large city and ask yourself, is this how people choose to live? Or is racism somehow at play? Look for interstates bisecting the black section of town…dead end streets...effective barriers between the white section and the black section and know that was the result of your federal government intentionally separating the two communities. An un-written plan that the feds called, “Getting rid of niggertown.” Figure out how far families in that community have to go to get food like you enjoy. And how do they get there? And know this: This is not what we choose. This is what we endure.
Drive through those cute, upscale, gentrified communities – the ones with glass-fronted condos above retail pizza or ice creams shops or aroma-therapy studios, and wonder, “Who used to live here? Where did they get pushed out to?” And how?
Vote! And vote for politicians who have never shown a hint of racism.
Mostly, just get it in your mind that, as I’ve said before, that 155 years after the end of the war that assured the end of forced labor – 151 years or so after the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments assuring all people equal rights and equal citizenship – 64 years after Brown v Board of Education assuring equal education – and 56 years after the 1964 Civil Rights Act once again assuring all people equal rights and treatment – that enough is enough. How can we still be so far away from the founding ideals of this country? The country needs all of its energy, all of its brain power, all of its humanity, to focus on many other pressing issues. Pay attention and now that you’ve trained yourself to see it, call for an end to racism everywhere. It’s time.
And share this post with everybody you know!
I leave you with just a few stanzas of Langston Hughes famous poem Let America Be America Again.
Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.
O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath—
America will be!