It is a crime as old as time itself. It occurs while some are simply walking and while others are merely talking. It is the crime known as ‘Living While Black’ and if recent reports are any indication, it is once again rearing its ugly head.
Racism
The crime of LIVING WHILE BLACK occurs when any African-American person is caught walking, talking, breathing, blinking, moving, or otherwise existing on the planet. Any White person only need witness a black person “living” and feel “threatened” by their living for a crime to have been committed and for proper probable cause for that black person to be arrested… or shot at… or even killed. At least that’s how it has always worked. At least that’s how it has recently worked.
The crime of LIVING WHILE BLACK frequently occurs in neighborhoods where most of the people there are white. According to sociologist Elijah Anderson, this makes that particular zone a “white space,” or an area whose “most visible and distinctive feature is [the] overwhelming presence of white people and [the] absence of black people.” For many White Americans, this marks blacks as an inherent threat to the order and safety of their spaces. As Anderson writes, “When the anonymous black person enters the white space, others there immediately try to make sense of him or her—to figure out ‘who that is,’ or to gain a sense of the nature of the person’s business and whether they need to be concerned.”
Such is the case of 2 very recent events.
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PHILADELPHIA STARBUCKS – #Living While Black:
Last week, 2 black men in Philadelphia were arrested and detained for 9 hours for LIVING WHILE BLACK. Their crime: they were waiting for a friend inside a Starbucks in a predominately white section of town.
Although white people all across America and every day of the week frequently utilize Starbucks as a “community” hub to make use of the free WiFi, to get out of the cold or the rain, or to simply chat with friends without necessarily buying anything, these 2 black men somehow seemed out of place by simply “sitting” and “waiting.” The manager noted their “odd presence” and immediately called police, who arrived and promptly arrested the men for loitering. Ironically, their white business associate arrived to meet them just as the men were being escorted out of the establishment in handcuffs.
How dare these 2 black men “sit” in Starbucks amid a store full of white people “sitting” in Starbucks. Regrettably, they were LIVING WHILE BLACK.
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MICHIGAN TEEN – #Living While Black:
Last week, a 14-year-old black teen in Rochester, MI was shot at as he was ‘Living While Black.’ His crime: he knocked on a white person’s door to ask for directions.
Brennan Walker overslept and missed the bus to his school, so he took off from home to walk to class. After making a wrong turn or 2, Brennan realized he was lost and decided to knock on a door to ask where he was and to get proper walking directions.
According to Brennan, a white woman opened the door and immediately started yelling “Why are you trying to break into my house?” She then yelled for her husband, who came to the door brandishing a gun. He shot at the boy, who immediately ran for his life and hid behind a bush frightened and in tears. The woman then called 911 to report that “some black man” had just tried to break into her home. Police arrived to discover that the supposed intruder was a black 14-year-old kid who had only attempted to seek directions.
Jeffrey Zeigler, the white homeowner who happens to be a retired firefighter, was charged with assault with intent to murder and a felony firearm charge. He now faces the possibility of life in prison.
“I’m kind of happy that, like, I didn’t become a statistic,” Brennan told the press, saying his mother warned him about the risk of being African-American and being shot. Regrettably, he was LIVING WHILE BLACK.
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Racism
The crime of LIVING WHILE BLACK dates back decades and even centuries. It’s the crime black men commit when police run their license plates and trail them for miles after they’re spotting driving a nice car in a white neighborhood. It’s the crime that caused white mobs in mid-century Detroit to attack and occasionally torch the homes of black people who moved in – or even near – all-white enclaves. It’s the crime that 23-year-old Michael Griffith committed in 1986 when he was killed by a group of white men wielding baseball bats. His offense? He dared to walk through the largely white neighborhood of Howard Beach, New York. And it’s the crime that almost got 14-year-old Brennan Walker killed while walking to school.
Whoever said racism is dead in America is delusional!
DJ you hit on every point perfectly. This is an important issue more people need to recognize exists. It needs to stop now.