Beating around the bush
By: Callum Hunter-Hill
Tags: Racism, George Floyd, Trump Administration, USA, Trump

I find racism a difficult subject to write about. I’ve never experienced first hand racism. People having a pre-judged opinion on me based on things I can’t control doesn’t happen.

I’ve had to worry about my co-workers getting ahead of me because they’re doing something better than me, but never that my race might be holding me back.

I’ve moved in to a house but never thought of the police being called on me because of my skin colour.

I’ve slept in a dorm room at university undisturbed but I’ve never had the police called on me because I look like an intruder, even though I have I.D, room keys, even university clothes on, all because of my skin colour.

I’ve never had the police called on my 8-year-old daughter for selling bottles of water on the street to fund a trip to Disney Land, because of their skin colour.

I’ve never had to worry that a garbage picker I’m holding could be seen as a ‘threatening object’. However, apparently having a trash can, a garbage picker and black skin is a perfectly justifiable reason to have a gun pulled on you.

And I’ve never had to worry about my skin colour being a source of scrutiny from law and order. Sure, I’ve worried about being drunk, coming across as aggressive. But I’ve never worried about my skin colour being a threat to some racist cop, to the point where he needs to pull her gun out or kneel on my neck.

According to the Los Angeles Times, getting shot by the Police is the leading cause of death for young black men.

And in that light, I feel it to be a difficult subject to write about without having the nagging underlying feeling of insensitivity. ‘What would I know’.

I’m angry. But by staying silent, I’m just another cog in the system. By not being vocal, I’m an accessory to the crime. And by not voicing my frustration, I’m just beating round the bush.

In the last few days I’ve read up on reasons why black individuals are arrested, from the ridiculous to the fabricated.

A white women calling the police on a black man entering his own apartment. Two black men arrested for sitting in a Starbucks. An Airline calling the police on a black women because her arm was touching a white women.

‘Surely there’s more to those stories?’ ‘Surely the man entering his own apartment was unnecessarily aggressive?’ ‘The black women sitting on the plane must of been doing something?’. I don’t know what to tell you folks, that’s the story, that’s the extent of it.

Other stories range from blatant assault to homicidal. An unarmed black man shot at 34 times for sitting in his car. An unarmed black man savagely beaten by baton, kicks and punches, for entering his apartment. A black man walking home smashed into the floor by 5 police officers, only for the officers to re-enact the assault in fits of laughter, while the black man is still lying, bleeding on the floor.

A father of five Eric Garner, murdered by choke-hold in 2014 by white cop Daniel Pantaleo. George Floyd, murdered by a knee to the neck in 2020 by white cop Derek Chauvin.

The list of the reasons for these arrests, beatings, murders, assaults, harrassments, I found, are high and wide. ‘We had a call’ ‘ A made up warrant’ ‘ A new law in place’ ‘ ‘I’m a police officer, I can do what I want’.

And the excuses for when the repercussions are in place and justice is found wanting just bends reality. ‘Wasn’t racially motivated’ ‘ The officer felt threatened’ ‘ We had reason to believe’.

‘It’s just a few bad apples’.

It’s not a few bad apples, the whole thing is rotten to the core.

From story to story you find zero consistency in any fabricated excuse, reason, mandate, anything, for the police to be so blatantly criminal towards black individuals.

The only ever consistency, is racial motivation.

And that’s where we’re beating around the bush. No matter how many fabricated excuses can be picked out of the imagination, the underlying issue will always be there. No matter how many times police just bend their reality to suit their agenda, it’s going to happen again. And again. And again.

The bush needs to be weeded out root and stem.