alternet | In his desire to placate white folks and appear reasonable,
Jonathan Capehart lets Wilson off the hook. The implication of
Capehart’s argument is that Michael Brown is an acceptable, justifiable
casualty in this decades-long police war on a small Midwestern
community. But if you believe that All Black lives matter, that is an
unconscionable conclusion, one that “offends my sense of right and
wrong.” As “respectable” Blacks are wont to do, the Capeharts of the
world need to believe that if Black people would just “act right” and
“do right,” we would be all right. But in a system of white supremacy, there isn’t that much act right in the world.
Jonathan,
surely you know a suit and tie won’t protect you. So we’re going to
keep on marching, as you said. And we will keep holding aloft the banner
of Michael Brown. We will do so, because Black folks have already
tested out your theory of respectability. We’ve been trying to save our
lives by dressing right, talking right and never, ever fucking up since
about 1877. That shit has not worked.
In an ideal world of crime
and punishment, the officer would have had the legal leeway and good
sense to pick these boys up, take them back down to the convenience
store, make them apologize and work out an arrangement to work off the
cigarillos they stole. That is one example of restorative justice and of
the world we are fighting for. We are trying to get free, and that
means we bring everybody with us, whether your suit is tailored or your
pants sag. When the revolution comes, we will leave no one behind.
