I have a very heavy heart following the verdict of involuntary manslaughter in the trial of the BART cop who shot Oscar Grant in the back on New Years Day, 2009.
And I’d like to move away from the media’s focus in the Mehserle trial, as they try desperately to come up with stories of violence among the largely peaceful gatherings. I’ve seen “shock” and “shame” over looting done by a small minority of those who clearly weren’t gathering in hopes of building community and making change, like many others were, without media coverage. Some say the looting is “more shameful” than the unjust verdict itself.
Really?
Is this what we should be focusing on? Is the fact that some took advantage of this moment to cause chaos, following sensational media hype all but calling for it, more shocking than the fact that a cop can shoot an unarmed black man in the back as he lies down on the pavement, and avoid being convicted of murder? More shocking than the sound of a gunshot ending the life of a young man, a father, a son? More shocking than the horror the Grant family faces for the rest of their lives?
Dare I say that to focus on the looting, of all things, is not really the point.
So I’ve dwelled too long on it already. Moving on.
What’s weighing much more heavily on my heart is the thought of Oscar Grant’s family. His mother describes the verdict as being “slapped in the face by a system that has denied us true justice.” I feel the echo of her words: “My son was murdered. He was murdered. He was murdered. He was murdered.” It breaks my heart that she has to deal with a justice system that doesn’t agree.
I hope, at least, that more than violence or media sensationalism, this can lead to conversation, to speaking out about how it feels for the justice system to value some lives over others, to writing or creating art or doing whatever we can to express ourselves, as Jen Cross calls for here. The truth is, regardless of the verdict, Oscar Grant is lost forever. Let’s hold one another and hope not to lose another so senselessly ever again.
”Justice does not come to the swift nor the strong, but to the one who endures to the end. And as a family and as a nation of African-American people, we will fight for justice til the end”- Wanda Johnson
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It’s hard to focus my feelings about everything right now enough to write about it, but here’s something.
For Oscar Grant and Wanda Johnson
When You Hope for Justice and Get a Slap in the Face
when you hope for justice
and get a slap in the face,
hold your head high.
feel the sting of it,
know the pain is real
and don’t let anybody tell you
it was never there.
cry.
know your tears aren’t for nothing,
let them fall to the earth
to water the seeds
that will grow the roots
to anchor the trees
that cannot be moved.
know that you, too,
cannot be moved.
when you hope for justice
and get a slap in the face,
look to the past.
to those who were beaten and left to die,
whose sadness and rage
left them still standing,
and built the ground we stand on today.
look to the future,
where today’s heavy hearts
are tomorrow’s beacons of hope.
our hope may be lost
but our determination can be found again.
Inkblot 