Cook: Black protest matters

On The WebTo view this week's "Black Lives Matter" schedule of events, visit www.concernedcitizensforjustice.org.

photo David Cook

Members of our city's Concerned Citizens for Justice have just returned again from Ferguson, Mo.

Yes, they were protesting police brutality and white-on-black violence, like when cops shoot unarmed black men, like young Mike Brown.

And yes, they've brought the protests home: All week in Chattanooga, events are planned -- tonight, at the Red Bank City Hall, they're calling for the firing of an officer who beat a motorist in April -- as part of a national "Black Lives Matter" movement.

But no, I won't ask them that question.

You know the one.

"Why aren't we protesting black-on-black crime?" said CCJ's Ash-Lee Henderson.

The question isn't even a question. It's a ruse. A fiction. A presumption that refuses to understand this most important truth: Protesting state violence is protesting street violence. By ending one, you end the other.

"The violence we see inside our communities is a symptom of that state violence," Henderson said.

Yet often, we in white Chattanooga see it as hypocrisy. Black men shoot other black men, and CCJ says nothing. White cops shoot black men, and here comes Al Sharpton.

"Just go down a few blocks to the projects in Chattanooga ... and do all your demonstrating for the cameras," one reader said.

If only it was so simple.

Criticism of CCJ and black protest is a double standard and falsehood. Most often, the color of Tennessee violence is white, not black.

In 2013, white Tennesseans committed 61 percent of all our state's crimes against society: drugs, pornography, gambling, weapons violations.

Blacks committed 37 percent of those crimes.

In 2013, white Tennesseans committed 65 percent of all our state's crimes against property: arson, shoplifting, embezzlement, burglary.

Blacks? Less than 34 percent.

In 2013, white Tennesseans committed 57 percent of all our state's crimes against persons: assault, murder, rape.

Blacks committed 41 percent.

So white crime happens at a roughly 2:1 ratio to black crime, yet when was the last time anyone in the white community protested white violence? (Then, we have the audacity to criticize what crimes CCJ does and does not protest.)

Yes, blacks are only 18 percent of the Tennessee population. Exactly. Such out-of-whackness only reflects a larger system of inequality: disproportionate poverty, profiling, mass incarceration. Such heavier, top-down, vertical violence creates conditions where horizontal violence -- kids in blue shooting kids in red -- can flourish.

"It's a symptom of a disease that wasn't created by these communities," Henderson said.

When we look closely, though, we find that there is a chorus of black protest, resistance and creative struggle, happening all the time here.

Sunday, a church organized the celebration of the 19th year of the Million Man March. A few weeks before that, another church opened its doors for 24 straight hours of preaching and prayer for peace in the community.

On Sept. 27, there was a rally to end the violence. Three days before, the Rev. Alfred Johnson gathered cops, firefighters and folks from at least four other churches to march down Alton Park Boulevard singing, praying and exhorting for peace.

Four main events, less than one month apart. (Name one anti-violence event organized by white folks.) There is the tireless work of LaToya Holloman. And Kevin Muhammad and Terry Davis. The voice of Dwight Harrison. The saintly Gloria Griffith.

In our city's ecosystem of protest, CCJ plays an outspoken role: to challenge and organize against the system that creates the conditions that lead to violence in the streets.

Last month, civil rights leader Charlie Cobb published his own criticism in the Washington Post, saying that many current black leaders have failed.

"Al Sharpton and others fill their rhetoric with fury about the white power structure, but ultimately serve messages that are superficial and myopic," Cobb wrote.

He said it was time to pass the mantle to younger black leaders, whom Cobb said were more inspiring today than in 1961.

"These young people, largely invisible and ignored, deserve more attention," Cobb wrote.

He even listed three by name.

Ash-Lee Henderson was one of them.

Contact David Cook at dcook@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6329. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter at DavidCookTFP.

Upcoming Events