The Burden of Proof Resides in Black America

Rayshard Brooks captured on body cam footage moments before his death.

June 12, 2020

Let’s take a moment to assess the current cultural climate in the United States.

White people have privilege. Other cultural groups have less obvious, but still subtle and effective privilege. Black people have the duty to explain.

Black people must explain purpose in place, explain purpose in success, explain purpose in defeat, explain purpose in education, explain purpose in arrest and black people are even expected to explain purpose postmortem.

Why were you in that neighborhood? Why were you out so late at night? Why did you huff and puff when asked a question? Why did you shake nervously? Why did you have so much cash on you? Why did you run? Why did you raise your voice when the cuffs were too tight? Why were you so big and strong? Why didn’t you go down with the first kick? Why couldn’t you breathe?

Today someone had the gaul to tell me that most of the black people to die at the hands of the police in recent years died because they didn’t “act” appropriately in the moments leading up to their deaths.

So, I ask - what is the protocol when someone presumes you to be guilty because of your very existence? When you are a black man with stature greater and more assuming than the officers called to the scene - do you stand a chance? When you are a black woman with sass, often mistaken for “attitude” - do you stand a chance?

What do you do when you’ve been indicted for every crime imaginable because of the color of your skin?

Someone is saying “stay home and stay out of the way.”

I’m sure Botham Jean would argue that doesn’t always work either.

Funding isn’t the problem with policing in America. The refusal to humanize black people is the problem.