Hope, its two daughters, and the iceberg of gun violence…
By: Liberty Now
Tags: Gun Violence, Activism, Black Bodies, America, BlackLivesMatter

Illustration of Ahmaud Arbery by @nikkolas_smith

THIS ARTICLE WAS FIRST DRAFTED IN MAY.

I fight back tears and shield my eyes , from the replay of the shooting of Ahmaud Arbery on CNN news, as I unconsciously tally mark another black life lost. Of course, one life of many lost that same day, week, month or year for the crime of simply being black. This time round, my tears are not filled with complete anger, strife or disdain towards white perpetrators and the continued cycle of systemic racism. It is also filled with courage. I have anger towards the way things are, but courage to know that it doesn’t have to or will remain the same; and I can do my part in making change. So can you. However, the pursuit of change is complex.

An Example Of Courage:

I stumbled across a documentary on The Children's Crusade that took place in Birmingham, Alabama during the first week of May, 1963. At the time, Birmingham was considered literal hell on Earth for African Americans, or anyone that was not considered pale; the most racist and segregated city in the south. The initial phase of the crusade began on April 12th 1963, with the leadership of Martin Lither King Jr (MLK), Reverand Ralph Abernathy and Reverand Fred Shuttlesworth. Under the plan of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights, an affiliate organisation of the Souther Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) of which MLK was the president of, the plan was for as many black people, to join MLK and other leaders in a non-violent march to city hall as part of a campaign to demand the desegregation of Birmingham. The march was as a result of calling into question the broken promise of the merchant leaders in the community to allow for economic and community mobility of African Americans.

The idea was to risk the reality of jail and brutal attacks in order to bring to attention their concerns. MLK saw this as a call to carry out his Macedonian aid, similar to Apostle Paul:

“I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried their “thus saith the Lord” far beyond the boundaries of their home towns, and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid”.

However, the march did not materialise the desired results and MLK amongst others were arrested and went to jail. Another strategy kicked into effect. SCLC leader James Bevel organised a march for thousands of children who put themselves forward to protest peacefully. They marched in groups of 50, and peacefully accepted arrests and being pushed into police vans. However, they weren’t met with a peaceful response. On the first day of the protest, hundreds of children were arrested. By the second day, Commissioner of Public Safety Bull Connor ordered police to spray the children with powerful water hoses, hit them with batons and threaten them with police dogs. This did not deter their fighting spirit, as over the next few days, children continued to protest and the images circled throughout the nation and the world, caused an outcry. Businesses in Birmingham began to feel the pressure, especially after the condemnation from John F Kennedy (who’s hand had to be forced, before siding with the civil rights movement). The civil leaders in the community eventually agreed to make change to laws and free the children in jail. This courageous act of change and victory was still met by injustice and violence as later on that year in September 1963, four little girls were killed by bombs planted by white supremacists at the 16th St. Baptist Church and over 20 more were injured.

The Iceberg Of Gun Violence

In an attempt like MLK said to not “rest content with the superficial kind of social analysis that deals merely with effects and does not grapple with underlying causes”. I want to challenge your perspective, if not inclined, or further probe your social analysis of the underlying issues of a black body getting shot by the police, not in an attempt to have the answers or to be reductionist, but to acknowledge the complexity of gun violence on black bodies. Edward T.Hall in 1976 used the iceberg analogy to appraise culture. Almost 92% of an iceberg lies below the surface of the water.