Why My Black Son Came to Me Distraught Because of the Rittenhouse Verdict

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He came to me visibly upset. It hit him in the face like a wet dishcloth. The Rittenhouse verdict was in, and once again, he saw the double-dealing and ugliness of the justice system.

He shook with rage and disappointment. Hope sapped from his soul as he wiped angry and bitter tears from tired eyes. The melanin soaked into his skin, a burden laced with generational trauma. If he were Rittenhouse and carried a loaded rifle to a demonstration and did what the young jewel and the love of white America did, he would've died in those Kenosha streets labeled a criminal and a thug. His body riddled with bullets like Jacob Blake.

The white officer who crippled Blake got away to patrol the streets once more. "Where's the justice for that black man?" He said.

"Marching and protests don't solve shit," he said. It's time for a revolution. It's only a matter of time before more blood is in the streets.

I looked at my 23-year-old son and cried in my spirit for the America he lives in. The America, his ancestors, seasoned with their blood in the south's vicious and hot cotton fields.

My son stood there like Nat Turner, ready to burn the justice system to the ground. I thought Justice isn't blind; she peeps from behind her blindfold, destroys the innocent, and frees the guilty. Her bias hides but manifests itself in the courthouses of this diseased politic we call fair and free.

I understood his disappointment and anger. I've lived at least 30 years with mine. I was ignorant in my early youth. I was indoctrinated with false narratives about Columbus and the first Thanksgiving. The brutality and inhumanity of the great sin of American chattel slavery was glossed over and given maybe a short chapter.

Once I graduated from my Eurocentric public school system and went to Xavier University of New Orleans, an HBCU (Historically Black College or University), I learned the true nature of my station. The anger and dissatisfaction began then, and as I read more information, my disgust grew.

My son is fortunate. We educated him at home about his history, which is why he becomes angry at the injustice as a young black adult.

I continued to listen to him pour his sadness out into the atmosphere. As he stood there, I wondered what can I tell him as his father to bring him back to the light and offer some hope.

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I looked at my son for at least a minute before I spoke and, I decided to offer examples of the injustices he must stand up to and fight.

I reminded him of the Central Park Five and how they served several years in jail for a crime they didn't commit. The police coerced and framed those boys because it's always been easy to attach criminality to the black and brown. We don't deserve the scales of justice to balance equally. The time those boys lost, they can never get back.

We discussed Julius Jones in Oklahoma and how he is serving time for a crime that most evidence says he didn't commit. However, the investigation immediately went looking for a black man. His alibi was never presented. Three witnesses have come forward to state another man committed the murder. Jones was hours from death before the Governor of Oklahoma commuted his sentence to life without the possibility of parole. One eye witness's description, which Jones didn't fit, sent him to death row.

He doesn't deserve the benefit of the doubt that Rittenhouse received. Blackness and maleness convicted Jones before the trial even began-a trial where a jury member called him the "N" word.

I spoke about the countless black men exonerated after decades behind bars for crimes they didn't commit. But, unfortunately, no amount of money can pay for the time lost. Time is a commodity. A nonrenewable resource that can be extinguished in the bang of a judge's gavel.

Kevin Strickland spent 42 years in jail for a triple murder. There was not one bit of physical evidence to tie him to the crime. The police badgered the sole survivor of the massacre to finger Strickland. We know that eyewitness testimony is suspect at best. 52 percent of eyewitness testimony accounts for wrongful convictions. The survivor recanted her testimony, but she died before she could see his release from jail.

Strickland lost four decades of his life. At 62 years of age, what does he have to offer society? He was locked up at the age of 18. No wife, kids, career, and most of his family is probably deceased. Hence, the loneliness he must feel. I implore you to open the link and look at his photo.

You can see the years etched into his face. His eyes locked ahead, wondering what's next after decades in jail. He has never had a smartphone or used wireless headphones. These items are foreign to him. The justice system murdered this man's life. Who is going to pay for that death? The state of Missouri definitely won't.

To add insult to injury, he won't see a dime for his years of incarceration-only sentences vacated by DNA evidence are eligible for monetary damages in the state of MO. The white supremacy and racism in this law are horribly evident. Innocent Black people are seven times more likely to be wrongfully convicted than an innocent white person. This is justice for us. We watch as justice opens her wide jaws to devour black men and women like candied peanuts while white folks continue to get light sentences for crimes that would put a black man under the jail.

Christopher Belter confessed to raping four teenage girls when he was a teen. He didn't deny it. However, the judge gave this privileged white boy eight years of probation. Not one day of jail time. There are black men serving life or decades for nonviolent drug offenses, but he gets to go home and probably rape another man's daughter. He is a sexual predator, but he is out to prowl the streets again.

My son and I discussed these injustices. He looked at me, wondering how can he ever feel valued in a nation his ancestors helped build. I told him to continue breathing and fight like the Civil Rights Warhorses of yesteryear. Channel John Lewis, Martin Luther King, and Malcolm X and employ their legacies to gain strength.

Yes, marching is futile; instead, write and talk about these injustices and maneuver yourself into positions where you can make changes. The fight is long, I told my son, but it's worth it.

I teach, I said to him, to tell the truth to my students about our history. We need white and black kids to know about the real legacy of America so we can maybe fix this country and reconcile our bloody history.

Before we ended our conversation, I told him to stand tall and remember that his mother and I are here to talk to because his road is tough as a young black man. He smiled and said thank you and walked away hopefully with more tools to fight the systems that continue to try and oppress him and his siblings.

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The conversation I had with my grown son stinks of white privilege. So few white parents had to watch their child shed tears of absolute defeat. Yet, at the tender age of 23, my son has to be careful in these American streets. Black parent has to have different conversations with their kids, and it's exhausting because we shouldn't have to.

I wish I had confidence this would be the last conversation about racial injustice in my home. However, I have two more kids, and I know I will have these stressful conversations again.

I would be remiss if I didn't speak about the two white men Rittenhouse killed. They didn't deserve to die at the hands of a teen with a high-powered rifle. I pray for their families because, in my opinion, they didn't receive justice either.

Lastly, Ahmaud Aubrey's killers are going to jail. An almost entirely white jury handed down a guilty verdict. However, let's not forget these defendants walked around free for ten weeks while Mr. Aubrey's mother wondered if her son would get justice. Only national and public outcry brought these guys to accountability. If that never happened, they would still be free this holiday season.

Remember, Ahmaud's mother waited for twenty-one months to get justice for her son while Rittenhouse was set free from his charges in 15 months. The case went through several district Attorneys, and the police didn't arrest the men after Arbury was killed. We must walk extra miles or be killed on video to receive what others enjoy freely-justice.

Only in this America would the attorney try to ban black pastors and use tired racist epithets to cast a shadow on this man's innocence.

This doesn't reduce the impact of the Rittenhouse verdict as evidence of bias in our justice system. But it does offer peace to his parents and the ones who loved Ahmaud.

Peace and thanks for reading