Cook: Black lives matter

photo David Cook

When young, unarmed black men are shot to death, we -- the media, myself as a white man, maybe you, too -- fill the void with distractions and things that don't matter.

He was wearing a hoodie. (Trayvon Martin).

He had picked up a toy gun inside Walmart. (John Crawford).

He was playing his music too loud. (Jordan Davis).

He had just stolen cigars from the convenience store in Ferguson. (Michael Brown).

Whether these things are true or not isn't the point. Such distractions serve as justifications or excuses, not unlike the way Emmett Till's 1955 murder was explained away because he may have flirted with a white woman in Alabama.

More sinisterly, they tease us into forgetting something of infinite and utmost importance.

"Black lives matter," said Janelle Jackson.

Since Brown's death, she and two other Chattanoogans -- Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson and the Rev. Brian Merritt -- have traveled to Ferguson to witness and share in the protest-awakening revolution that is unfolding there.

Jackson and Henderson did so as part of a national gathering called Black Lives Matter.

"Mike Brown was a person," said Henderson. "A person about to start college. A person with hopes and dreams with a mother and father who loved him."

Out of the vortex-cauldron of information and misinformation about Ferguson, those three words -- black lives matter -- seem to carry a mountaintop weight, some prophetic standard by which our actions will be judged.

Black lives matter ... therefore America cannot continue to profile, arrest and shoot its black men in such ways.

Black lives matter ... therefore the rates of poverty and unemployment which affect black people in disproportionate ways must be addressed.

Black lives matter ... just as much as white lives, which means we may all work together to disassemble the real problem.

"State violence," said Jackson.

To speak of state violence is to speak of what Dr. King called the triple evils -- racism, poverty, militarism -- of America. State violence is the mass incarceration of black men. It is a militarized police. It is an economic system that has created a permanent underclass of white, black and brown Americans.

Such is not exclusive to Ferguson.

"We have instances of police brutality here," said Henderson.

Henderson and Jackson are part of the local Concerned Citizens for Justice. Merritt is a Presbyterian minister working in Westside's Renaissance Church.

Tuesday night, Henderson and Jackson were scheduled to speak at Westside Baptist Church about what they experienced in Ferguson.

"I have hope from standing, literally, on the ground where Michael Brown laid for 4 1/2 hours," said Henderson. "I could be angry and depressed and furious, but I have hope that there are some really righteous people that are going to make sacrifices to ensure this never happens again."

Merritt traveled to Ferguson to bear witness and march alongside other ministers from near and far. The trip became intensely spiritual, with Merritt even recognizing a Christness within Brown's death.

"He laid on the ground for so long, that when they tried to clean the blood up, they couldn't get it out of the concrete," said Merritt, who is white. "It was still there in the middle of the memorial. It became a symbolic thing for me to hear African Americans say they tried to clean up the blood but couldn't get it out."

Could you imagine this in your neighborhood? A young white teen shot by police, his body left in the road for hours?

"Uncovered, with his head blown off," said Merritt. "We couldn't imagine this on the North Shore. I couldn't imagine sitting on my front step less than 10 feet away from my daughter whose head was blown off in the middle of the street."

Michael Brown's life was most precious. Just like yours, just like mine.

Black lives ... matter.

Everything else is a distraction.

"This is a movement that's going to be long-lasting for the liberation of black people," said Henderson. "It is a tragic moment, but a special one for black youth who are going to commit their lives for social justice."

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

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