On April 2, students of the Elon Law chapter of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) and the Black Law Students Association (BLSA) provided commentary to raise awareness and advance discussion about racially motivated crimes and police brutality in the United States. Excerpts from their commentary follow.
The Black Lives Matter Law Student Day of Action organized by NLG and BLSA included law students acting as legal observers to ensure the safety of those involved in a #blacklivesmatter protest in Winston-Salem. Students also created a blog and posted statements about race and justice in the United States. Excerpts follow:
“Without discussion, racism and discrimination will continue in society. How can we move forward in the future if we are unable or unwilling to look at the problems in our present? Before we can even begin to fix the racial problems in America, we must understand why racism and discrimination continues to exist.” – Diamond Zephir L’16
“Tamir Rice was a twelve year old boy. He was probably mischievous, adventurous, curious, playful; he was a boy engaged in a common youthful pursuit. Who knows, maybe he was re-enacting the classic cops and robbers scenario, or recreating something he’d seen on a video game or on television. But the color of his skin made him more than a twelve year old boy on the day of his death. It made him a menace, a brute, a threat, and his skin cost him his life when were his skin of a lighter hue he may still be alive.” – Nickie Young L’16
“I believe in equal justice for all human lives. The segregation of American lives into degrees of importance, priority, or quality contradicts the American people’s voice in the forms of The Constitution, The Bill of Rights, and The Amendments … The lives of an American Citizen should be indivisible from one another by party, race, gender, wealth, education, or circumstances; that is what I believe in, because ‘united we stand, divided we fall’ is my American Dream.” – Hailey Reall L’17
“Police brutality against black men has been on the forefront in the last few years – but we all know that this is not a new phenomenon. As law students, we need to be willing to use our voices, our knowledge, and our ideas to unite with groups that are promoting the universal truth, that every single life matters.” – Whitten Stone L’17
“I know that every police officer is not racist in the full definition of the word. However, it pains me that the possibility of his or her latent discrimination of the person of African decent is put out by some people as non-negotiable. ‘Stop Pulling the race card.’ ‘You make it more about race than it is.’ Until I can understand why my beautiful brown-faced brothers and sister are abundantly more likely to by the victims of police brutality, I have no choice but to look at the ties that bind.” – ShaKeta Berrie L’16
“The United States prides itself upon being a melting pot of diversity, but current events contradict this widely held notion. Being judged by the color of one’s skin will never be acceptable in order to justify the killing of an individual. Justice and the value of human life for all need to be restored.” – Blakeney Brown L’16
“I think it’s pure ignorance when people say we’re living in a ‘post racial society.’ We are living in a super racialized society where you don’t even have to be racist to benefit from white privilege you just have to look the part. I think we all need to stand up for equality.” – Angelique Ryan L’16
“There is no justice unless there is justice for all. There is no equality unless we are all included. Lawyers, as Advocates for justice, have the duty to use their voice to influence equal justice. My grandmother once said, The coldest place in hell is reserved for those who stay nuetral in times of moral conflict.” – Tevin Carr L’17
“Jesus Huerta was murdered by the Durham police in November of 2013. All investigations have been insufficient, and the police smear campaign of the troubled young boy’s life killed him a second time. Unlike most of America, I was not awe stricken by Eric Garner’s, Tamir Rice’s, or Mike Brown’s deaths, but instead left with a sinking feeling, shaking my head, and repeating the mantra of ‘not again.’ Again, these men were killed a second time. It is unconscionable to believe that a system that espouses equal access and equal protection would work to the utmost to allow men who murder others to go unpunished simply because of the uniform they dawn. If we want to envision a post racial America, the America in which equality is more than mere lip service and justice more than an empty political mantra espoused by stuffed suits, we must answer difficult questions in regards to the authority of police, the punishment of some races to a more severe degree than others, and the institutions of power that either condone or neglect these facts.” – Chris Stella L’17
“Black lives matter when they are segregated into crumbling neighborhoods and failing schools. Black lives matter when they are denied equal access to opportunity and economic prosperity. Black lives matter when they are treated as marginal and unworthy of respect. We must begin to realize that police brutality is but a symptom of these larger issues and that until Black lives begin to matter in more fundamental ways societally we can expect these problems to persist.”
Read the complete commentary on the Elon Law National Lawyers Guild blog here.