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Howard University Student Body via USAToday
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A quiet rage has been inside me since the shooting of
Michael Brown on August 15 —
a rage I kept under control as I tried to be objective, and resist being
manipulated by the strident and predictable rhetoric surrounding this senseless
killing.
However, as I watched Michael’s
funeral, that rage burned hot.
It brought
to mind the senseless and tragic deaths of other young Black men:
Eric Garner, age 43 on July 17, 2014 in Staten
Island, NY;
Trayvon Martin, age17 on February 26, 2012 in Sanford, FL.
I couldn’t help recalling the horrifying murder
of
Emmett Louis Till, age 14 on August 28, 1955 in the Mississippi Delta.
His body was fished out of the Tallahatchie
River after being beaten and shot in the head.
The image of his mutilated and bloated body is still seared in my
memory.
Before you
write me off for strident and predictable rhetoric of my own, you must know
that these killings are not the only ones that have me incensed.
I am likewise enraged by the
murders of thousands of young African American men in places like Chicago, Detroit
and Philadelphia, where the killers happened to be Black.
I have lost personal friends in “drive-by”
shootings, simply because they happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong
time.
