October 16, 2019
Page 9
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Embrace Was Touching but Also Frustrating
We can’t hug
away injustice
t raCey l. r ogers
We caught a glimpse
of humanity recently
when Amber Guyger, a
former Dallas police of-
ficer convicted of mur-
dering Botham Jean,
was embraced with com-
passion by the victim’s
brother.
Guyger shot Jean in his own
apartment while he was sitting
on his couch eating ice cream.
Though Guyger lived on an entire-
ly different floor, she thought she
was entering her own home after a
long shift.
Guyger’s defense was that she
felt “scared she would be killed”
upon seeing Jean’s silhouette. In-
stead of calling for backup, Guy-
ger drew her weapon and fired.
She didn’t even attempt to resus-
citate Jean after killing him.
Yet at her sentencing hearing,
Botham’s brother Brandt Jean of-
fered Guyger his forgiveness, say-
ing he felt no need to see her im-
prisoned. He even asked the judge
if he could give Guyger a hug, and
images of their embrace quickly
spread.
It was a touching image —and,
for many members of the black
community, a frustrating one. For
many of us, it feels like we’re con-
stantly being expected to show
by
compassion for the perpetrators of
violence towards us.
Republican Senator Ted Cruz
almost said as much directly, when
he patronizingly praised
the Jean family’s actions
as a “demonstration of
Christian love” — as
though they were meet-
ing a divine obligation to
embrace Botham’s killer.
The shock of what
happened in that court-
room overshadows the
police are involved.
Many of us felt a terrible anx-
iety that, like the perpetrators in
those cases, Guyger would get
off scot-free. And for a convicted
murderer, Jean’s killer nearly did.
Guyger, who was off duty at the
time of Jean’s death, received a
lenient 10-year sentence, with el-
igibility for parole after five.
I don’t think this sentence fits
the crime. But when black lives
don’t matter, what can one expect?
From the beginning, America’s
Having been on the
receiving end of centuries of
white terror and racism, we
know all too well the costs
of not receiving grace or
humanity in return.
long odds that Guyger was go-
ing to be convicted at all. CNN’s
headline on the verdict said it all:
“Prosecutors Won a Rare Murder
Conviction in a Police-Involved
Shooting.”
It was rare, indeed. Wheth-
er you’re Philando Castile at a
routine traffic stop, Tamir Rice
playing with a toy gun, or one of
the countless victims of lynching
during the era of Jim Crow, justice
for black lives is hard-won when
“law and order” meant the surveil-
lance of non-white minorities.
Policing itself in the United
States can be traced back to the
1700s, when “slave patrols” were
instituted to monitor and enforce
discipline on enslaved Africans.
Made up of armed white men,
these patrols evolved into state
militias and, eventually, mod-
ern-day police forces.
That’s why the justice system
continues to be unjust for people
of color — it was designed that
way.
It’s why many black Americans
increasingly feel that black grace
isn’t something to be celebrated.
And it’s why, after black pa-
rishioners of the Emanuel AME
Church in Charleston publicly for-
gave the neo-Nazi who massacred
nine of their members, some of
us worried that our “forgiveness”
perpetuated a “slave mentality”
that absolved our oppressors.
Having been on the receiving
end of centuries of white terror
and racism, we know all too well
the costs of not receiving grace or
humanity in return.
Despite the Jean family’s for-
giveness, reports emerged that
Joshua Brown — a key witness
in the case against Guyger — had
been murdered just 10 days after
his testimony. Was it retribution?
How can we not wonder?
“Our lives must move on,”
Botham Jean’s mother said af-
ter the trial, “but our lives must
move on with change.” She called
out the Dallas police department,
shaming it for its racist biases and
corrupt handling of the case.
For the Jeans, change not only
looks like hugs and forgiveness.
Change also looks like ensuring
black lives matter in a court of
law.
Tracey L. Rogers is an en-
trepreneur and activist living in
Northern Virginia. Distributed by
OtherWords.org.
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