When the characters in Avenue Q sing, “Everyone’s a little bit racist”, it’s cute and funny, and a little uncomfortable. They point to the elephant in the room, forcing us to admit it’s there so that we can deal with it. We cannot pretend that we don’t see color. Color, race and ethnicity are parts of who we are. When we acknowledge that, we realize that these things determine how people deal with each other.
Last month, a 17-year-old black man was shot while visiting his father. George Zimmerman claimed he shot Trayvon Martin in self-defense, but the 911 recording tells a different story. Yet, the police department “stands by its investigation”. The story has garnered international attention, and people everywhere are asking, would Zimmerman still be free if Martin had been white?
I want to know why this kind of thing is still happening.
In October 1987, both apartments in my building were robbed. The thief broke in through the basement door and made his way upstairs, taking anything with apparent street value. As a safety measure, our landlord who lived in the first floor apartment, installed brackets on either side of the door and slid a two-by-four through them. Five months later, it happened again. I was the first one home, and had to deal with the police. The officers took one look at the two-by-four, now lying next to the door, and told me that obviously I had a had a boy over and was afraid to tell my mom. They concluded that I had staged a robbery. That was the end of their investigation. They didn’t notice that one of the brackets was bent, or that there were dents in the two-by-four; so they didn’t think that maybe the thief had pushed the door open a little and used some sort of tool to slide the wood out of the brackets. I figured that out, in just a few minutes. Twenty-four years later, I wonder what would have happened if my landlords, the only white residents on our block, had been the ones to talk to the police.
Crimes with minority victims are notoriously mishandled. Similarly, minority prison populations are disproportionately high.
What happened to “…liberty and justice for all”?
In pre-exilic Israel, the prophets adamantly denounced the injustices in their society. “And what the Lord requires of you: only to do justice and to love goodness, and to walk modestly with your God.” (Micah 6:8) They warned repeatedly that God would bring destruction upon them as punishment. They didn’t listen. Will we?
Justice may indeed be blind. We, however, cannot afford to be.
Stay informed. Get involved.
Applied Research Center – Racial Justice Through Media, Research and Activism
Amnesty International – working to repeal the death penalty
The Sentencing Project – Research and Advocacy for Reform
Black and Missing – Providing an Equal Opportunity for All Missing
Theo-logical Tijuana 
wow, thanks for bringing the story into the personal. can’t believe the way the police treated you. It’s true, the racial bias in the justice system is reprehensible. I’ve met Chicago cops who are so racist they won’t speak to you if you’ve just spoken to a black person…and this was a cop on the South Side. What in the world are we doing putting someone on the street to ‘protect and serve’ when they have that big of log in their eye? they need more personality tests!
Thanks for your personal story. Painful and disturbing – but this and other stories need to be shared. I saw a photo earlier today from Birmingham in 1942 calling all men to war – all white men. The huge billboard has the white soldiers with the words, “And liberty and justice for all.” Black men are walking under the billboard. A picture paints a thousand words! Again, thanks for your witness!