When Being Unarmed Isn't Enough: Black Folks Still Being Denied Humanity

Photo courtesy of stltoday.com

More than 40 days and restless nights have passed since Mike Brown was shot and killed on August 9th. That followed the death of John Crawford, who was shot in a department store aisle while holding a toy gun. Then there was the incident of a police officer in Oklahoma City allegedly targeting at least 8 black women and sexually assaulting them in the process. Folks, I'm getting tired of this. What we have continually seen is that when it comes to the split second decision of firing a gun -- and ultimately changing the life of the victim and the shooter -- blacks in this country are still seen as criminals first, people second.

This lack of humanity has been seen time and time again. Whether it's a choke hold caught on camera, or a mentally ill man being shot in Los Angeles, a grandmother being punched on the side of the highway like some MMA fighter, or the woman dragged naked from her home in Brooklyn when cops showed up to the wrong door, 'protect and serve' has never seemed to mean so little.

Fannie Lou Hamer Speaks Out on Voting Rights and Police Brutality

Fannie Lou Hamer is often one of the forgotten names of the Civil Rights Movement.

Mrs. Hamer was from the small community of Ruleville, Mississippi, where she spent most of her early life working as a sharecropper. It was at the the age of 37 that she joined SNCC (the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee). Seeing that the only way people of color were ever going to have a voice was through politics, she became an organizer and lead voter registration drives for the people of her community. For this, Fannie Lou Hamer caught hell. Her life was threatened, she was the target of multiple murder attempts, and she suffered brutal beatings at the hands of the local Mississippi police. In the following 7 minute audio clip recorded on June 9th, 1963, Mrs. Hamer speaks of the struggle for the right to vote and the horrific consequences that followed.

This clip is courtesy of the Black Media Archive Podcast