Page 2 The Skanner January 6, 2016
Challenging People to Shape
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Opinion
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Founder/Publisher
Will Texas’ New Open Carry Protect Black People?
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t the stroke of midnight,
beginning Jan. 1, 2016,
any individual who
holds a Texas Concealed
Handgun License (CHL) will
be allowed to openly carry
their handgun in the Lone
Star State.
The law, passed by the 84th
Texas Legislature and signed
in June by Texas Governor
Greg Abbott, will allow peo-
ple with permits to carry
their handguns outside their
clothes, and those who al-
ready have concealed hand-
gun licenses will only need
to renew their permits when
it comes time for renewal.
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CHL holders will be allowed
to carry handguns as well.
History shows us there has
been a tremendous element
of risk that Black people have
faced when it comes to deal-
ing with law enforcement.
There has been a consistent
pattern in society, and in the
mainstream media, of Blacks
History shows us there has been a tre-
mendous element of risk that Black
people have faced when it comes to
dealing with law enforcement
Everyone else will need new
training on the new “open
carry” law.
The real question, however,
is: will Black people receive
the same level of respect and
consideration when it comes
to the application of this new
law as non-Black people will?
Prior to the passage of the
new law, current Texas law
only allowed open carry of
rifles or shotguns. Now, only
info@theskanner.com
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Jeffrey L.
Boney
NNPA
Columnist
intended for Black people, but
for non-Black people. When
members of law enforcement
constantly use the narratives
that they thought the “sus-
pect” was “reaching for his/
her waistband,” or that they
had to shoot because they
were “in fear of their lives,”
one can see how the imple-
mentation of this new “open
carry” law has many Texas
residents concerned.
According to a recently
released report from law
enforcement watchdog Map-
ping Police Violence, between
Jan. 1 and Dec. 15, 2015, police
officers in the United States
shot, beat, used stun
guns on or otherwise
killed a staggering
1,152 people.
What is even more
troubling in the Map-
ping Police Violence
report is the fact that
59 out of the nation’s 60 larg-
est police departments killed
at least one individual or let
someone die in their custody,
and 100 percent of the people
killed at 14 of those police de-
partments were exclusively
Black. Only five of those U.S.
police departments killed
only White people.
In Houston, some entities
have chosen to embrace the
law and others have not – in-
being viewed as the guilty
aggressor — while Whites
are typically viewed as “not
guilty” and focused on pro-
tecting themselves when they
carry firearms.
As we look at the significant
number of unarmed Black
people who have been killed
in this country by members
of law enforcement, it leads
many people to believe this
new “open carry” law is not
cluding the University of Tex-
as at Houston and some area
businesses.
In the end, “open carry” is
the law of the land and it will
take some serious getting
used to. For those law enforce-
ment officials who violate
the law and profile lawfully
carrying Black people, it may
take several federal lawsuits
in order to address the issue
and stop the behavior.
Gun rights are civil rights
and are not just for non-Black
people, and there is some
form of legal “open carry” law
in 43 states in the U.S. In the
state of Texas, any law-abid-
ing, African American citizen
has the legal right to exercise
“open carry” if they so choose,
without harassment or with-
out being racially-profiled.
Whether driving while
Black, walking down the
street while Black or, now, le-
gally carrying a firearm while
Black, the skin color of Black
people should not be used to
stereotype and treat Black
people like very few other
races in America are treated.
Time will tell how this law
will impact the African Amer-
ican community, but there is
one thing African Americans
should always be mindful of
in Texas — don’t let “open car-
ry” get you carried away.
Students: What Will You Sacrifice for Justice?
D
r. Martin Luther King,
Jr. once wrote, “It may be
true that the law cannot
make a man love me, but
it can keep him from lynching
me, and I think that’s pretty
important.”
Those students who are pro-
testing campus racism need
to keep that quote in mind as
they assert their right to feel
safe and comfortable on cam-
pus. When the protests have
been well defined and include
an end game, such as the Uni-
versity of Missouri protests
that toppled a President and
Chancellor, they have been ef-
fective. When protests broad-
ly address issues like comfort,
they are less successful. And
while it is satisfying to force
a President (or a faculty mem-
ber for that matter) to resign,
the conditions of campus life
will not necessarily change
because there is a new leader.
Structural racism is so firm-
ly embedded in our culture
that it will take years, if not
decades, of focused work and
commitment to eliminate it.
Unfortunately, too many are
less dedicated to eliminating
institutional racism than they
are to maintaining the status
quo. Consider, for example,
the rhetoric during these
Republican Presidential de-
bates. Or, consider the clum-
sily racist question Supreme
Court Justice Antonin Scalia
posed when he asked whether
Julianne
Malveaux
NNPA
Columnist
Black students should attend
“lesser schools” than schools
like the University of Texas.
Student activism was one of
the highlights of 2015. With-
out waxing nostalgic, though,
I’d suggest that some of these
young activists take a page
“
metrics. More scholarships,
more faculty, more student
admits. Not necessarily more
comfort.
From my perspective dis-
comfort is a good thing. Dis-
comfort is a sign that some-
thing is wrong. Clearly there
is much that is wrong on our
campuses and in our nation.
Racism is alive and well,
though it shows itself in dif-
ferent forms than it did de-
cades ago. The signs don’t say
“white” or “colored” anymore.
Few “civilized” Whites use
the n-word, but expletives are
‘Back in the day,’ we were far less
concerned with ‘feeling’ comfort-
able than with being empowered
from the playbook written in
the late 1960s and early 1970s,
when protests shut campus-
es down for weeks. Student
protests led to curriculum re-
view on some campuses, the
development of academic de-
partments like African Amer-
ican studies and Ethnic Stud-
ies, the addition of faculty of
color, a commitment to enroll
more students of color, and
more. “Back in the day,” we
were far less concerned with
“feeling” comfortable than
with being empowered. We
wanted change, and we were
willing to fight for it. And, the
change we wanted was tied to
hardly necessary when there
is a coded language of exclu-
sion.
Too many of us prefer com-
placency to discomfort. We
prefer to think that every-
thing is fine. Too many would
like to pretend that inequality
and injustice are minor mat-
ters until a headline shakes us
out of complacency — a young
man shot 16 times while he is
on his back, a young woman
supposedly hanging herself
in a jail cell. Then there is
protest, and anger, and rage.
Still, too little done to devel-
op a sustainable attack on
the racism that plagues our
nation. Student activists of
2016 could learn from the ‘60s
activists, and they can also
teach “mainstream” leaders
twenty-first century organiz-
ing techniques. And across
generations, there must be
teaching and learning about
complacency and discom-
fort, about what change looks
like, and about what people
are willing to give up to get
change.
This 2016 election year
promises lots of conversa-
tion about justice and change.
Some political leaders will
talk of “overregulation”,
while others will suggest that
we must pass new laws. Some
will suggest that affirmative
action is no longer necessary,
while others are clear that
there remains unequal access
to higher education. When
questions of law are debated,
I find it useful to consider Dr.
King’s view of law — it won’t
make you love me, but it will
keep you from lynching me
and, as he said, “that’s pret-
ty important.” Dr. King de-
scribed himself as a “drum
major for justice,” not a drum
major for comfort. The cam-
pus activists who are raising
critical questions are motivat-
ed by justice and cannot allow
themselves to be sidelined
with conversations about
comfort. Comfort will always
be elusive in a racist society.
And that’s a good thing.