One year after the death of George Floyd under the knee of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, author and academic Caroline Randall Williams read the statement of Darnella Frazier, the young woman whose videotape of Chauvin killing Floyd led to the officer’s conviction on all three counts against him.  Ms. Williams read the statement at the behest of MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell since Ms. Frazier, who recently turned 18, does not grant interviews or make public statements after the trauma of witnessing Floyd’s death and then testifying about it in Chauvin’s trial.  One year later, and the George Floyd Justice In Policing Act of 2020 (HR 7120) is still being debated in the Senate as right-wing politicians seek to water it down or block it completely.

The historic irony is that this also comes as we approach the 100-year anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre, in which the thriving Black community of Greenwood, Oklahoma, also known as “Black Wall Street”, was burned to the ground in a violent White race riot on May 31 and June 1, 1921 that killed up to 300 Black people, sparked by a trumped-up story that a young Black teenager had bumped into a young White girl on an elevator and was accused of assault.  Close to 10,000 Black citizens were left homeless and thousands were taken into custody and detained.  (Tulsa race massacre – Wikipedia; Tulsa Burning: The 1921 Race Massacre | HISTORY Channel)  That this was not an isolated incident is shown by the Wilmington, North Carolina Massacre of November 1898 (Wilmington Insurrection of 1898 – America’s Black Holocaust Museum (abhmuseum.org); America’s Only Successful Coup d’Etat Overthrew a Biracial Government in 1898 – HISTORY) and the Rosewood Massacre of 1923 (Rosewood massacre – Wikipedia; Rosewood Massacre – Overview, Facts & Legacy – HISTORY).  The message has long been sent that to step out of line meant death for Black people.  We do not see the large-scale race massacres today, but the death toll continues under color of law, one body at a time.

In all of this, we continue to hear the protestations of many of the country’s White citizens and a few of their Black friends that the United States has come a long way, that much progress has been made, that this is decidedly not a racist country, that those who insist it is are unpatriotic, communist, or terrorist sympathizers, and that Critical Race Theory and the 1619 Project are divisive, historically incorrect, and must not be taught in the schools, because, as they have reminded us time and again, this is not a racist country.  Never mind all the evidence to the contrary.  Never mind that the United States was founded on the extermination of the Indigenous population and built on the backbreaking unpaid labor of kidnapped and enslaved Afrikans.  Never mind the vicious, genocidal race riots from Wilmington to Rosewood to Greenwood that were never prosecuted, the victims never made whole and the history buried and denied to this day.  Never mind the internment camps for Asian Americans after the conflict with Japan in World War II.  Never mind the country’s history of ethnic, racial and political repression, from the Red Scare to COINTELPRO, that disproportionately targeted Black and Red communities.  Never mind the repressive policies from several US presidents that increased the misery in the poor neighborhoods where many people of Afrikan Descent live, and the draconian law enforcement and judicial practices that severely punished transgressions by those who live there.  Never mind the statistics on mass incarceration, political imprisonment and extrajudicial murders by police that continue even as you read this. 

If 99.9 percent are good cops, how do we keep getting that one-tenth of one percent, time and time again?

The following was our answer to one well-meaning person who, we believe, did not understand why George Floyd has become such a symbol, not because he was a hero but because, as a victim, he has symbolized, once again, the fine line that so many of our Brothers and Sisters must walk when they are forced to live in the margins of existence and are met by the keepers of “law and order”.  To be sure, the person we are answering suffered tragedy of their own, and we feel sympathy for their suffering.  But the Black Experience in America is one that apparently too many still cannot fathom, hence the old 1990’s saying, “It’s a Black Thing, You Wouldn’t Understand”.  So many of this country’s White citizens (and some Black ones) have bought the right-wing’s rhetoric about how discussing and resisting police brutality in particular and racism in general is divisive, that we shouldn’t even see color, that the Movement for Black Lives and other anti-police brutality movements (whatever you think of their effectiveness) amount to “reverse racism”, and that the calls to “defund the police” are simply taking things too far.  Thus, it was necessary to offer our analysis, from our particular point of view, of What It Is Like To Be Black In America.

As for police brutality in general, there are certainly many honorable police officers (I’ve met some and read about others), but where are they when these atrocities occur?  Don’t they realize that the “rotten (bad) apples” at least will spoil the bunch and at most are indicative of a rotting tree?  In Floyd’s case, there were apparently FOUR dishonorable cops, not just one.  As Floyd begged for his life and Chauvin choked that life out of him over the objections of witnesses, where were the good cops telling Chauvin to stop?  Where were they when Eric Garner was killed in NYC with an illegal chokehold for selling loose cigarettes?  Where were they when Abner Louima was sodomized by FOUR cops in a police station bathroom?  Where were they when Amadou Diallo was gunned down by four cops and 41 bullets IN HIS OWN DOORWAY?  Where were they when Tamir Rice was gunned down as he played alone in a park?

We keep asking, begging and demanding that reforms be instituted every time an instance of police brutality occurs to deter further such acts.  When someone kills a police officer, the death penalty is almost automatically sought as a deterrent.  But when the reverse happens, the excuses resume. Proper police procedure was followed.  The officer feared for his life.  The 12 year old did not drop his (toy) gun quickly enough (two seconds).  The man was a threat (as he was running away).  His belt buckle looked like a gun.  One of the officers yelled “gun” and we assumed it was.  If 99.9 percent are good cops, how do we keep getting that one-tenth of one percent, time and time again?

The refreshing behavior of the police witnesses in the Floyd case offers some hope for police ethics, but this was still the exception that proves the rule about the Blue Wall of Silence, and the right-wing bent of many politicians (whose “Back the Blue” duplicity was shown in their defense of the January 6 rioters whose actions led to the deaths of Capitol Police officers) is still working to ensure that police accountability stays off the table.

One year after Floyd’s death, a death that a jury has now declared to be murder, a Congressional bill to punish further such acts is still being fought, tooth and nail, in the United States Senate.  Reforms are resisted at every turn.  But when someone gets frustrated with this level of obstruction and says “to hell with it — defund the police”, suddenly all the hit dogs start to holler.