Guest Commentary
Yet another black man murdered by the police

From the Minneapolis Labor Review, April 24, 2021

“A time comes when silence is betrayal.”
— Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

By KerryJo Felder

Another black man murdered by the police.

As we sit waiting for justice for one black man murdered by the police, George Floyd, we see again, the murder of another. One who made it just one year out of his teenage years, Daunte Wright.

I am livid.

To have police simply play judge, jury, and executioner with the lives of another human being is not to be excused. Neither are the lies they give when they commit murder.

I will not accept the lies, but it is not up to me in this land we call America. It is up to our white allies, for they are the majority of those in power who can change our laws.

If white people come out and make a line, the police think twice before rampaging forward with their tear gas, their rubber bullets, their tanks, and eventually and firstly, their real bullets.

This conversation is for white people to have with other white people. Like my black husband and I will give our children “the talk” as we try to ensure that they live a long life, white people must talk about valuing everyone and instill in those around them that all men are created equal — and then stand for it, because we have hundreds of years of instilled hate in many instances.

Minneapolis almost had it right. Space and justice was needed. What they didn’t count on is other white agitators and black haters coming in from out of town to draw wedges on already tender ethnic soil that we have been tilling for some time now.

But, here we are again, and I call on all of my white allies, those who say they are a friend, to take to the streets, to make calls, send e-mails, hold press conferences, change laws, and denounce the murder of Daunte Wright.

“I’m sorry” only means something if it comes with an action. If not, you do not think my children and my husband are worth it and that then makes me not worth it and so you never were my ally in the first place.

For those who instinctively want to know about a prior record, or to wait to make a judgment until these murdered Black men have been proven worthy enough or human enough to earn your empathy is wrong. And it means that you both dehumanize Black bodies and don’t know Black people. This can be applied to every ethnicity.

I see a few people and a few organizations out there doing the real work that needs to be done. Just like we do for elections, education has to be done. Conversations need to be had. People need to be “touched” at least three times to make it count.

People need to stand up where they are for each other, no matter how uncomfortable it is. Otherwise, hate wins and black men are murdered for various lies and the murderers are protected by blue and we then embrace a “race” war.

Then what? Your uncle? Your son? Your mother? Your brother? Your grandmother? Your father? Your sister? Your cousin? Your aunt? Your grandfather?

Mad?

I am livid.

“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”
— Archbishop Desmond Tutu

KerryJo Felder has worked as an organizer for the Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO since 2013.