When Racially Charged Instigation Turns Violent: an Examination of Push Back

As a writer who dabbles in journalism, I sometimes am faced with a professional dilemma. Do I write the news: sanitized, clean, devoid of any emotional attachment? Do I lean on the facts that, through research, observation and interview I am able to gather and piece together a dry account of who, what, when, where, why, and how? Or, do I go with the ache in my gut that sees the breaks in the system and how those very facts can bury a young man's life in a vicious hail of law, tying it up with so much bureaucratic red tape that it looks like the gag gift that your uncle gave you for your last birthday? Except, this time, instead of the watch in the smallest box of many, you find a lengthy jail sentence and a life of trying to escape one singular -- albeit violent -- misstep.

On an unseasonably warm January afternoon in Michigan, I find myself in a court room fighting this very internal battle as I furiously scribble down notes in my little black-bound journal. I chose to go with my gut and satisfy the warrior within who fights battles with digitized keystrokes displayed on a high-resolution LCD screen (sorry journalists).

A text message landed me here, to witness the sentencing of Za Sang Bik. As I listen intently to the defense and prosecution attorneys argue for or against lenience, I'm sincerely wishing I could have been there for the whole trial. But, while in that court room, I'm treated to a CliffsNotes version of the facts in the case. Fact: a group of Burmese young men chased down and beat-down a young, white male, to the point where all of his top teeth were kicked out of his face. Fact: the 10 months in the county jail with work release (if eligible) and 24 months of probation, coupled with over $500 in fines and costs, seem lenient given the severity of the assault. Fact: That young white male pulled a knife. Fact: That young man, while severely injured and more than likely emotionally affected, showed up with a full face of teeth because – grandma.

Here's where the facts and my inner literati samurai with his digital quill-blade firmly in hand begin to war with one another. The defense attorney detailed that the young Burmese men AND their community had been consistent victims also. But, America doesn't honor the victim-hood of non-whites who experience racial discrimination and violence, does she? America tells these people to simply get over consistent emotional trauma. America neglects to protect fellow Americans and prospective Americans from America, and then punishes them for finally pushing back. I mean we ARE talking about the same country that sent the original Statue of Liberty back because she was black. Don't believe me? Google it.

What the facts don't tell you is that about forty members of Bik's local Burmese community, some who must have had to take time off of work, packed that small court room to show him support. The facts don't tell you about Bik's Burmese neighbor whose car was set on fire, and was reportedly accused by the responding officers of setting the blaze himself. The facts won't tell you about a people who fled racial and religious discrimination in search of the American Dream, only to find more of the same discrimination upon arrival. The facts don't tell you that Bik is not yet a U.S. citizen, and our inability to see racial injustice as a greater community of human beings may have very well negatively affected his citizenship chances.

There are good people in this country who will inevitably say something to the effect of, “You wanna live in 'Murica, you got to follow the law.” And I would say that those people have a point – to a point.

I would ask those people, in rebuttal, to put themselves in shoes other than those that they own and ask themselves exactly how much they would be willing to take. Exactly how long before you would get sick and tired of being sick and tired? How long before you made a wrong choice and took the law into your own hands because you did not see the law working on your behalf? If you lived in a country that wasn't your own and people constantly harassed you because you weren't born there, or don't speak the language well, or look different, how would you feel? How would you feel if you filed a police report in your adopted nation and the authorities blamed YOU for being a victim? How long would it take?

This problem we have with race and acceptance in this county is a multi-layered, arsenic-laced cake of attitudes and institutions that work in collusion to cause very real damage to very real people. It isn't strictly economic. It isn't singularly confined to the realm of individual bigotry. It is intersectional, deep, and it is poisonous. It is a convoluted problem that cannot be solved with oversimplified platitudes from people who pointedly refuse to ask themselves the hard questions because they are afraid of guilt, because they don't want to be seen as a “racist.” These same people, while failing to see the humanity in others, tip toe the precipice on the edge of humanity themselves.

Incidents like the one described above are exceedingly tragic affairs, because they are completely preventable. We need to, as a culture, take an honest, hard look at the underlying issues that cause push back, instead of always concentrating on the results. A naturalized citizen once confided in me that one of the biggest problems they saw with America is that it doesn't operate proactively, instead choosing to take a reactionary stance on almost everything. Let that sink in.

We are living at a time when our current POTUS got into office by campaigning on a largely anti-immigrant, pro-supremacist platform. The Leader of the Free World openly courted violence at his campaign rallies, at times offering to pay the legal fees of those who would commit violence on his behalf. His cabinet and advisory staff feature some of the most vocal white supremacist voices in our nation. President Trump's dangerous rhetoric has had the effect of emboldening the giant of open hatred that was stirred from slumber by the election and re-election of our first African-American president. It is in this climate that we are still denying the effects of systemic racism, still blaming minorities for our problems, and still neglecting to protect those among us who are most vulnerable to physical, emotional, and economic violence. It is in this environment that we still punish those most vulnerable for standing up when no one will stand for them.

At the end of the day we must ask ourselves how much longer can we sustain this reactive model before our fear of change rips our nation apart at the seams. How much longer until America realizes her greatest enemy is the one within? Will we wake up before it is too late, or will we continue to destroy the lives of the "others" until we destroy ourselves?

#Equality #SocialJustice #ImplicitBias #racism #America