Confession…
I
AM
Conflicted
I like everyone else was waiting with baited breath, particularly Black America on the verdict of Derek Chauvin and while I was relived in the sense he was found guilty I found myself conflicted. Conflicted in the sense that “accountability” is a thing when the life of a person of color is held in the balance. It’s as if Lady Justice has the capacity to develop a level of spontaneous capriciousness when a black body is involved at the hands of law enforcement.
Today justice was served, but bills are still past due for Oscar Grant, Sandra Bland, Tamir Rice, Corey Jones, Michael Brown, Philando Castile, Breonna Taylor, Jacob Blake, Matthew Williams and Eric Garner just to name a few. Further, my conflict lies in the FACT the aforementioned and countless others not named here will NEVER see justice or accountability. They will only see settlements and Lady Justice will continue on remaining blind, deaf and willfully ignorant to them and their subsequent deaths. Therein again lies my conflict.
As I said before I am happy justice was served and I pray the Floyd family has found solace in the fact that someone will be held accountable for the death of their loved one. However, I have been conditioned to know that neither my degrees, my 800 credit score, my relative good standing in the community, my nomination for an Image Award or anything else will save me if my movements are sudden and an officer of the law determines he or she felt threaten. In some cases it might not even save me if I am in my own home. I can just as easily be another name in the platoon of names that look like me who were killed at the hands of law enforcement and no one was ever held accountable for my death.
My conflict is both real and heavy and is part of the duality I labor with every day. If I am honest it’s the double consciousness that W.E.B Du Bois talked about. Knowing that I must navigate a dual justice system that has the capacity to turn a blind eye to my cause and call for justice and accountability. This reality has made me condescending when it comes to verdicts like Derek Chauvin's.
As I reflect today the system simply worked, but yesterday (Breonna Taylor, Tamir Rice, Philando Castile, etc.) it didn’t and tomorrow it may not especially if there is not a preponderance of evidence to make it. The burden of proof George Floyd’s death and subsequent Derek Chauvin’s conviction left for others to have to establish simply to get justice is untenable and poses a problem that mutes my capacity to celebrate. Because what I know is that between 2015 – 2020 people who identified as Black (1,480 or 296 people each year over 5 years) were killed by law enforcement and very few of the people involved saw a courtroom. Let alone a trial.
So pardon me if my exuberance is tempered by a scoreboard that reads them 296 me 1.
That’s my truth and I AM sticking to it…
I AM
Dr. Irvin PeDro Cohen
