How Frivolous?

 “It is pitiable that frantic efforts must be made at critical times to get law-makers in some States even to listen to the respectful presentation of the black man’s side of a current controversy. Daily the Negro is coming more and more to look upon law and justice, not as protecting safeguards, but as sources of humiliation and oppression. The laws are made by men who have little interest in him; they are executed by men who have absolutely no motive for treating the black people with courtesy or consideration; and, finally the accused law-breaker is tried, not by his peers, but too often by men who would rather punish ten innocent Negroes than let one guilty one escape.” – W.E.B. DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk, 1903

But it’s 2014…           

2014!

111 years later ant this statement is just as true now as it was then. I thought the death of Trayvon Martin and its resulting legal saga would shed light onto a situation that has been plaguing the American society ever since the first slave was brought over, but it hasn’t. In fact, things have only gotten worse since the rhetoric held by both black and white Americans “well…the President is black” has taken a foothold into the American thought pattern. The perception of the black man is just flawed. Take Barack Obama for example, he is questioned at every turn, often called a tyrant, a dictator, a monarch while the people that he is associated with fail to make up a majority of the minority. This makes the argument that his election was their doing a totally frivolous one.

We as blacks are quick to say that sagging pants and baggy clothing is the undoing of years of civil rights struggles and leads to our children and our black men being taken less seriously, but I have seen grunge, emo, and children at school in pajamas fortunately avoiding harassment. PAJAMAS? Yep, pajamas! As a kid I was always taught to look my best, to not look thrown together, like I come from something, but what was this for, to avoid harassment/prejudice that was going to come anyway? I’ve been in elevators with white women who held on to their purse for dear life despite the fact that she was surrounded by four well dressed black men engaging in the practice of law in a Texas county courthouse. I’ve been scolded for wanting to wear suits with sneakers in the legal practice when I’ve seen lawyers who wear jeans, cowboy boots, and oversized belt buckles DURING TRIAL. I was told that in order to be taken serious as an attorney I would have to cut my dreadlocks when I’ve seen others who have hair just as long (albeit a different color and texture). MLK wore a suit and he was still shot in the face, so please miss me with that. All MLK’s dream focused on was to look at people with the benefit of the doubt on an individual basis, nothing more, but it seems like that thought was a totally frivolous one.

There’s a serious problem when we have to look for the law to be executed in the way that it was supposed to from its inception. I never thought I would see the day when I, a black man, rooted for the prosecution to merely do their job and secure a conviction or an indictment (with the latter being much less difficult), and not do defense counsel’s job for them. Hell, the next time I’m in trial, can I get one of these oh so nice prosecutors to do my job for me, or is that also frivolous?

Yet, what isn’t frivolous is the status of the black man in America. I know what Eric Garner and Mike Brown were guilty of being; big Negroes. I hold police to a higher standard because their profession demands it. You are allowed to legally carry a gun and are supposed to protect and serve the public at large. Are you allowed to be scared? Sure. Are you allowed to make bad decisions? Ehh, that’s human nature. But for you to be killed during the administration of a use of force that was made illegal by your police department and not even being forced to stand trial is mind blowing to me. 1L year of law school teaches us that you take your victim as they are, so stop with the claim that Garner’s weight contributed to his untimely demise, THE FOREARM AROUND HIS NECK DID. Mike Brown was ultimately killed because he was jaywalking, if he did punch Darren Wilson, did that give Wilson the right to shoot him? I thought that all this was supposed to be ironed out in a court of law, and that defenses didn’t come into consideration until AFTER the grand jury phase, or maybe my knowledge of the law is frivolous. I just want people to realize where the frustrations of these protestors come from and that our anger isn’t frivolous.

What happens after these travesties occur? We try to demonstrate without being considered revolutionaries (but that’s exactly what George Washington did) and we try to make our frustrations known without being considered angry. We try to peaceably assemble and are still considered a threat on that requires rifles and military vehicles to keep in check, (refer to the picture above). And then what happens next? Here comes Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, who (if history is correct) would have had a bullet in both their heads if they were EVER taken as a serious threat. Now I’m not an advocate for violence but there must be anarchy to appreciate control, it’s kind of like a ying/yang thing. And something needs to be done. I do not have all the answers but I am beginning to become angry enough to search for them. I was sent a text this AM that read “please find a way to use your education and profession to incite change in this country,” and I DON’T think that’s a frivolous request.

This is the society that we yearn to belong to, the one that has given us the following rules, have allowed for the trivial exploitation of white privilege in the hashtag #CrimingWhileWhite, and still won’t concede the rights “guaranteed” to us by the U.S. Constitution.…which begs the question; do black lives really matter, or is that thought too a frivolous one?