We’re at this crossroad, more than we’d like to be.
Realizing the glaringly offensive truth that I have to tell my little brother that he can’t act like other boys his age because of his color is hurtful and indisputably unfair. But I, like a lot of sisters, mothers and fathers, am no stranger to the ugly and naked discrimination that our society has cloaked in a thick, guilty layer of disguise that America likes to call post-racism.
I also, like many black women, understand that to protect our young brothers and sons, it is absolutely paramount to warn them of the ills they have inherited from the color of their skin in this country. And those are truths that we have yet to escape.
Driving while black? Be extra careful.
Being drunk at a bar with all your college friends? Stay low key.
Pulling your wallet from your pocket? Just make sure to keep your hands where everyone can see them.
And even these warnings, as superfluous as they sound, aren’t enough. I live with a rational fear that my little brother with the caramel-brown skin will be shot down, discriminated against, beat and shunned, even if he follows the “be-careful-because-you’re-black” rules.
But it goes beyond that. What about the petty choices my brother or his friends make that are a reflection of juvenile teenagers and young adults having fun? Flipping the bird in his Instagram and Facebook photos? Wearing a gold grill and posing with friends? Using expletives in captions, or dressing more like an urban hipster than Carlton Banks?
Those are the images that live far beyond the every day actions of a black man in this country. Those are the images that are used as ammo to perpetuate the idea that a black man should be feared. Those are the images they will use to paint him into what they want. A thug. A gangsta. A killer.
That’s exactly what Robert Zimmerman Jr. did when he posted a side-by-side image of slain Florida teenager, Trayvon Martin, and the teen who allegedly shot a 13-month-old baby to death in Georgia. Both of those images show boys with the same brown skin, who are about the same age, flipping the bird in the “same way.”
Zimmerman’s erroneous claim that Trayvon, who we know as a smart, regular teenage boy, has much more in common with a 17-year-old who was charged with murder because he was throwing a “f*ck you” sign to the camera, is not only a disrespectful comparison of someone who was actually murdered with an alleged murderer…it’s a racist claim that reflects both Zimmerman’s intentions and views. Views that will hopefully hurt more than they help George Zimmernman’s defense that the shooting of Trayvon was not racially-charged.
And it isn’t one of those underhanded blows that our “post-racism” world likes to throw. It reeks of the absolute bigotry, fear, discrimination and bias that is a direct catalyst for the rules we make up for our black boys.
Now, must I tell my little brother, who is going into his first year of college, that he can’t act like other young adults and flip the bird because he too, will become a killer? I would like to tell him not to do it because it’s not professional or becoming. Not because he’s black.
Zimmerman then argued that pictures like the ones of Trayvon and Elkins (the alleged murderer) and heinous crimes that black people commit are the sole reason people should be afraid of blacks.
So must we assume that he is also afraid of teenage white boys who flip the bird? Must we assume that Zimmerman thinks young white adults who pose with their middle finger to the sky are going to shoot a baby, rob a woman, massacre a school?
No. Because he isn’t threatened by white people. For whatever reason, he is unfazed by the horrendous and infamous crimes of white people. So when scores of young white people and celebrities do it, it’s comical, non-threatening and immature at most.
But when Trayvon did it. When the black teen down the street did it. When my little brother does it. They are all killers. It is almost as if they have lifted a gun to society with the point of a finger. The same finger that stay-at-home moms use in traffic. The same finger that Jennifer Lawrence threw up at the Academy Awards. The same finger that gunman, T.J. Lane, flipped in the courtroom as he was read his three life sentences for shooting an Ohio school.
And I’m sure that not even that image of an ACTUAL killer throwing his middle finger high has evoked the alarm and uncomfortableness that a picture of my educated, non-killer brother might.
Why? Well, looks to me that his skin is quite different.
I’m not sure if I am perpetuating and excusing racism by teaching little black boys that every move they make will be scrutinized and transformed into something it is not. I’m not sure if I should tell my brother that he can’t partake in the silly shit his white friends will surely do because he’ll be treated differently by law enforcement, the public and media. And I’m not sure if I should throw all these “rules” to the wind and tell him to do all the same things his peers are doing to gain some semblance of equality.
In the end, I probably will tell him to keep his ratchet “f*ck you” pictures off of Instagram, first, because I want him to get a job, and no employer thinks that’s attractive. And secondly, yes, because he’s black and dogmatists like both Zimmermans will probably use that one picture among many decent images to profile him, lest he be accused of a crime that he did not commit.
It shouldn’t be like that, but it is. So maybe instead, we should tackle the Zimmermans by letting them rock out with their obvious racist comparison. Dig that hole deeper, Zimmerman. I’m sure calling all black boys who flip the bird killers will certainly help your brother’s case in June.
Christina Coleman is the News and Politics Editor at GlobalGrind. Prior to this she was a science writer. That explains her NASA obsession. She crushes on Anthony Bourdain. Nothing explains that.
Follow her on Twitter @ChrissyCole
