A jogger was shot in Satilla Shores, just outside Brunswich, GA. His name is Ahmaud Arbery, a black man who committed the terrible crime of walking through an open construction site. Did he steal anything? No. Did the landowner think a crime was committed? No. Was there anything to justify lethal force? No.
Travis and his father Gregory McMichael never considered those simple facts. They chased Arbery in a pick up truck. Having cornered Arbery, the younger McMichael approached with a shotgun.
A man approaches you with a shotgun. What do you do? Kneel and beg not to be shot. That is one possibility--especially if you're white (European American as I prefer). You're innocent. The law will prevail. What happens if suddenly you're an African American? You're still innocent, but does that matter. Well, not if history has any say.
African Americans are born into a country that legally says they are free, full citizens. It doesn't always hold true. Forget slavery, which you may call a national mistake although the word mistake would be a description well beyond euphemism (disillusion, lie, plain stupid). One hundred-fifty years ago, the nation passed the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and that change combined with the 13th and 14th ensured freedom for all men (it would take another half century or so for women to be recognized equally). Even with that freedom, has the African American community, particularly its men, struggled, battled, and died because of injustice? Yes. Was there a reason Arbery would consider his life threatened? Yes. Think Trayvon Martin. (I deliberately did not repeat the long list of African American men killed wrongly in the past decade.)
Did Arbery have to retreat? No, but he tried. They chased him down. Did he have to ask for mercy? No. Did he believe his life was threatened? Hell, yes. He fought to save his life. Were Travis or Gregory McMichaels' lives threatened by a jogger? No. Why the weapons? Was Arbery armed? No. Should they have known better? Yes, at least the elder should have. He was a former police officer.
I feel for the Arbery family. In this era, it's unthinkable, unfair, and painful for a parent to outlive her/his child.
There's something else.
I am terrified for my own family.*
My grandsons are African American. The elder of the two roams his neighborhood on his beautiful trail bike he received as a birthday present. He is proud of his bicycle. He enjoys long rides, much as Arbery enjoyed long runs. My grandson is tall for his age. He could pass a few years older than he is. What are his chances of becoming a target of some misguided and bigoted individual? Better than mine or his father's ever were (we're both European American). What are the chances that he or his brother could end up on a slab in a morgue? Umpteen times greater than my son or me. Is there any justification for those odds? Again, hell, no.
So I was distressed when my son told me that my daughter-in-law and he finally had The Talk with him.
Not sex. That would have been easy.
Bigotry and the n-word.**
They explained that some people--non-African Americans--will hate, distrust, or think less of him simply because his skin is dark. They asked if he ever heard the word nigger or had he been called such. (In this instance, I deliberately used the word because that is the word my son had to use in order for my grandson to understand.) His answers to both questions: No. He was confused by the word. It had no meaning to him. They explained, and feelings of frustration and anger welled up in my son (I presume my daughter-in-law as well but I did not talk with her about the conversation). As the conversation wound down, my son was teary.
My grandson approached him and gave him a hug.
"What's the hug for," my son asked.
"You looked like you were going to cry," my grandson responded.
* I deliberately didn't include the names of my family or their location.
** I hate the expression "n-word". I understand the reasoning for it. The word nigger is offensive. It should be. When spoken, bile should accompany it in one's mouth. It's vulgar, more vile than fuck, shit, and whatever vulgar word you might want to come up with. That is a good thing. The word should remind us of our nation's grievous of sins, never venal, always mortal.
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