Last Sunday morning at approximately 2:00 a.m., I was walking eastbound on Franklin Street approaching N. 5th Street in RVA. I was drawn to that feverish noise I hadn’t heard in some years. It was the sound of spring chaos in the street. When I worked these streets I loved the energy of that sound and like it or not, the chaos that accompanied it. True to form I was not disappointed this time either. As I approached the intersection all I saw was a sea of Richmonders (I guess) who looked to have just come out of an establishment on 5th and were emptying into the streets. There was obvious contention amongst a portion of the crowd as the volume, replete with expletives, gave all indication that things were about to get ugly.
With the throw of the first punch all I suspected was instantly confirmed. The cowardly pile-on began and led to other spill-off brawls with the same many-to-one ratios that are typical in these settings. Everyone wants to get a punch in when they can do so with perceived impunity and when the odds are heavily stacked in their favor. I saw off-duty police and security attempting to quell the madness but they had no effect. They did have time to call in the cavalry though. A few minutes after the fray began I heard the faint evidence of sirens indicating that help was on its way. This always adds the dimension of fast-track scattering among the participants. It in and of itself is an unchoreographed dance that is fun to watch.
I took up a position at the southwest corner of the intersection right in front of a British pub and I stood amongst a group of people who had emptied this establishment and were doing just as I was…….watching. I heard one gentlemen remark, “black people don’t know how to act”. I hope to conjure up some imagery in your mind at this point. A bunch of white people standing on a street corner in front of a pub watching a large group of black people beating the shit out of a few of their own. I wish I could have heard what the non-fighting black folks were saying too. How does something like this make them feel? Who was to blame? What were the facts that led to the melee? Was there a victim or just multiple perpetrators doing battle? Could justice find its way into any of this and make a difference for anyone? Does justice really matter or is selfish hype more important?
I could not help over the last week but consider that which I witnessed against the backdrop of all the controversy and rhetoric surrounding the Trayvon Martin case. If one were to attempt to decipher the many variables surrounding this early morning street fight and build a strong case from it they would be hard-pressed to do so. Likewise, the facts….the truths of the Martin-Zimmerman case will be tough to uncover but not impossible. There are two sides to that tragedy regardless of what all the uppity experts and advocates are saying. What some choose to claim is clear-cut is in fact murky reality at best. The fog of that night’s war is truly only known by those involved, and God Almighty. And even though the reverend-duo of Jackson and Sharpton claim to be men of the cloth, they are no more prescient about how this thing will play out than any of us. In fact, their rush-to-street-judgment rhetoric, incitement of violent words and actions, and over-reliance on adding racial fuel to the existing fire could have far greater adverse outcomes than the loss of Trayvon himself.
The truth exists; words were said, actions were conducted, and one young man is dead as a result. The substance of the words and the nature of the actions are less important than the reality of a family losing a child. Effort will be expended to uncover as much of that truth as can be realized. If Zimmerman turns out to be an over-zealous cop wanna-be with a racial bias guiding his public service actions, then arrest him, try him, convict him, and put him away. If Trayvon himself was culpable to any extent in the events of that night, let those realities be known as well. Regardless, let the system work towards the appropriate conclusion and resulting actions commensurate with the truths that existed that night.
There is absolutely no call for the Jacksons, Sharptons, Lees, and Black Panthers of the world to use this tragedy as another opportunity to pull the race card and generalize it over the entire non-black population. Where was their “leadership” last Sunday morning in Richmond when the fight was on? Where are their calls for justice and racial harmony when black men victimize black men or when black men victimize white men? Their rhetoric and its accompanying fallout is dangerous when selectively applied and only in cases that bring them notoriety as concerned parties determined to reveal the plight of the black man. They speak not of racial equity for all but ally themselves only to those incidents to which the card can be easily applied and get the most self-centered mileage. In short, they are using the Martin family’s misfortune for their own misguided aims and nothing they say or do will alter the events the night young Trayvon died.
Racism is a reality of human existence. It varies in degrees based on the individual but some residue probably exists in all of us. Some choose to embrace its clutches and act upon it. Others choose to acknowledge its destructive power and turn away from it. But I think the most dangerous purveyors of its craft are those who use it, manipulate it, perpetuate it, and do so in the name of equality. These subtle fomenters of hate mask themselves in the façade of unity but sustain undercurrents of division in their very words and deeds. If one could waive a magic wand and give these enemies of humanity what they think they want I am confident they wouldn’t accept it. For it would require them to reject their own biases and acknowledge their own shortcomings. The humility required to accept we all are just one of many and not entitled to special accommodation would be more than they could bear and would mandate that they turn in their cards. Without a trump or a crutch, whatever would they do with their lives?
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