Online Video Has Brought to Light Old News: Sanctioned Violence against Black and Brown Bodies

Online Video Has Brought to Light Old News: Sanctioned Violence against Black and Brown Bodies

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Although Thomas Jefferson is a beloved founding father, there is no doubt that he was a flawed product of his time. He believed in slavery, and in the idea of Caucasian superiority. The arrogant notion that black lives were lesser lives was the key ideal that allowed slavery to happen. When we look at people in history, we don’t often look at the full scope of their character – it’s a buffet of remembrance, and the appetite is usually for glory and good deeds. As Dan O’Brien, humorist and writer for Cracked said in an After Hours episode, "[Thomas Jefferson] was forward thinking and awesome in the 18th century, but he is a racist, cartoon villain by today’s standards."

While America has strived to progress against the laws and ideology of then, it’s proving difficult to transcend. Just recently, the KKK in Atlanta, Georgia, passed out fliers near Piedmont. The next morning, a young black man was found hanging in Piedmont Park. Police ruled it a suicide, but because #PiedmontHanging went viral, the case was handed over to the FBI. In this day and age, black lives are still tragically lost to antiquated and violent biases. Writer and National Poetry Slam champion Clint Smith notes that there is a general attitude of shock towards the Black Lives Matter issues, as if they have sprung up from nowhere, but much like the Piedmont hashtag, it’s the technology that’s finally catching up to the issue, creating a wider audience for wrongdoings the nation has been blissfully unaware of. Visibility is finally exposing violence.

Clint Smith points out that there’s an aspect of parenting that is unique to the black community. He recalls his parents teaching him that no matter how polite, well-articulated, or sharply dressed he was, he would be judged by his skin. People were going to cross the street to get away from him at night, and parents have the hard task of making sure their children understand that it is not their fault. That their inner worth isn’t compromised or turned bitter by ingrained discrimination.

Parents must talk to their children about racist mindsets and brutality, warning them from going to parks, or making sure they know to travel with friends rather than alone. Parents have to teach their children that if they are of color, then statistically, they’re more at risk when dealing with officers of the law than a Caucasian child. Hopefully the technology that has exposed the state-sanctioned violence that has been happening for centuries makes that conversation easier.

Jumping on the momentum of this exposition, Clint recommends a simple step one: listening. Acceptance comes from understanding. It’s important to recognize the issues by stepping out of the comfort zone, so challenge yourself to see things from another person’s eyes.

Clint Smith's book Counting Descent is out 15 September, 2016 and it available for pre-order now.

CLINT SMITH:

Clint Smith is a teacher, poet, and doctoral candidate in Education at Harvard University with a concentration in Culture, Institutions, and Society (CIS). He serves as a resident teaching artist in Boston Public Schools and as a writing instructor at Bay State Correctional Center in Norfolk, MA. Previously, he taught high school English in Prince George’s County, Maryland and served as a public health worker in Soweto, South Africa. His research interests include critical pedagogy, mass incarceration, race, and inequality. In 2015 he was awarded the Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation. In 2013, Mr. Smith was named the Christine D. Sarbanes Teacher of the Year by the Maryland Humanities Council. He has spoken at the 2015 TED Conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, the U.S. Department of Education, the IB Conference of the Americas, the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, and has been featured on TED.com, Upworthy, and TVOne's Verses and Flow. Additionally, he has been profiled in The Washington Post, Vox, The Huffington Post, The Root, NBC News and the book, "American Teacher: Heroes in the Classroom" (Welcome Books, 2013). His TED Talk, The Danger of Silence, has been viewed more the 2 million times and was named one of the top 20 TED Talks of 2014. His new TED Talk, How to Raise a Black Son in America, was released in April 2015.

TRANSCRIPT :

Clint Smith: In Thomas Jefferson’s memoir, Notes on the State of Virginia. He wrote that the slave is incapable of love. The slave is incapable of possessing and sustaining complex emotion. And that black people are inferior to whites in both the endowments of body and mind. And so for ...

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