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<div style="display: block;" id="reader-header" class="header"> <font
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href="http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2016/07/alton-sterling-police-baton-rouge/"
id="reader-domain" class="domain"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2016/07/alton-sterling-police-baton-rouge/">http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2016/07/alton-sterling-police-baton-rouge/</a></a></font>
<h1 id="reader-title">#AltonSterling: 37-Year-Old Man Killed by
Baton Rouge Police</h1>
<h2 class="entry-subtitle">There are no new words. There are no
new thoughts. There are no songs to sing or chants to scream
that will make this soul-crushing feeling of inevitability go
away.</h2>
<div id="reader-credits" class="credits"><span class="byline">By:
<span class="author vcard"><a class="url fn n"
href="http://www.theroot.com/author/kirsten-west-savali">Kirsten
West Savali</a></span></span><span class="posted-on"> <a
href="http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2016/07/alton-sterling-police-baton-rouge/"
rel="bookmark"><time class="entry-date published"
datetime="2016-07-06T03:59:32+00:00">July 6, 2016</time></a></span></div>
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xml:base="http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2016/07/alton-sterling-police-baton-rouge/"
id="readability-page-1" class="page">
<div class="entry-content">
<p class="-dropcap">Another black body on hot asphalt,
heartbeat colliding with bullets in his chest, breathing
becoming labored as an executioner in a uniform steals
his life from him.
</p>
<p>This time, his name was <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.theroot.com/articles/news/2016/07/la-politician-calls-for-justice-department-investigation-into-shooting-death-of-alton-sterling/">Alton
Sterling</a>.
</p>
<p>This time, he was 37 years old.</p>
<p>This time, he was a father of five.
</p>
<p>This time, he was selling CDs in front of a store.
</p>
<p>This time, the Baton Rouge, La., Police Department is
responsible for his death.
</p>
<p>This time, there will be riots and screams of “Black
lives matter” as his state killing plays on a continuous
loop and mainstream-media outlets get clicks and ratings
over another one of our dead bodies.
</p>
<p>We will see Sterling’s family. We will learn the
existence and/or extent of his criminal record because,
surely, he deserved to die. Surely, the white police
officers were just doing their job by killing a black
man who dared to live in his own skin on a public
street. Surely, they will continue to vilify him by
alleging that he had a weapon because, in this country,
the Second Amendment was always intended to protect them
from us—never to protect us from them. We will remember
that the devaluation of black lives is embedded into the
very core of this country—a country we’re expected to
salute and pledge our allegiance to while black leaders
are handpicked for the express purpose of making us
believe that proximity to whiteness equals freedom.
</p>
<p>It does not.
</p>
<p>And it is hard not to hate in times such as these. It
is hard to see white privilege wrapped in white skin and
not want to exhume the memory of Nat Turner’s revenge
and breathe life into it. Because what else is there,
really? What else will make sense to the lawmakers in
this country, to the politicians in this country, to the
wealthy and protected and coddled and pacified in this
country, if not the blood of their children and loved
ones intermingled with ours on pavements across this
country?
</p>
<p>If their tears are tempered by guilt-ridden whispers of
“Thank God, it wasn’t me or my child”; If they can look
into the mirror with gratitude at their white skin, then
nothing changes. Pragmatists will continue to call
radical black politics dangerously unrealistic while
ignoring the dangerous reality that envelops the black
and brown people around them until we can’t breathe.
</p>
<p>This is what trauma feels like. This is what terror
feels like. This is what a war zone feels like.
</p>
<p>Do you think Sterling didn’t know that he was a target?
Do you think that those who loved him haven’t followed
the <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2015/jun/01/the-counted-police-killings-us-database">escalation
of documented police violence</a> against black people
in this country? Do you think they were unaware that
police officers pulled a drive-by on 12-year-old <a
target="_blank"
href="http://www.theroot.com/articles/news/2015/12/tamir_rice_found_guilty_of_being_young_free_and_black/">Tamir
Rice</a>? Do you think they didn’t know about <a
target="_blank"
href="http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2016/05/if-nyc-top-cop-bill-bratton-wants-to-discuss-thugs-he-should-start-with-the-nypd/">Kimani</a>
and <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2015/07/one_year_anniversary_of_eric_garner_s_death/">Eric</a>
and <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.damemagazine.com/2014/08/18/black-women-are-killed-police-too">Rekia</a>
and <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/12/former_milwaukee_cop_won_t_be_indicted_for_fatal_shooting_of_dontre_hamilton/">Dontre</a>
and <a target="_blank"
href="http://theroottv.theroot.com/video/The-Death-of-Kajeme-Powell">Kajeme</a>
and <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.theroot.com/articles/news/2015/07/univ_of_cincinnati_officer_charged_with_murder_of_sam_dubose_he_purposely/">Sam</a>
and <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2015/05/when_will_we_demand_justice_for_natasha_mckenna/">Natasha</a>
and <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/30/us/30lima.html?_r=0">Tarika</a>
and <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.rawstory.com/2015/01/this-black-woman-was-shot-dead-by-ann-arbor-police-but-theres-been-no-national-outcry/">Aura</a>
and <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.theroot.com/articles/news/2015/11/video_released_showing_police_shooting_death_of_laquan_mcdonald/">Laquan</a>,
and too many others to name without the rage and tears
flowing free? All of them connected by the blackness of
their skin in a country that hates us for our freedom.
</p>
<p>I quote Zora Neale Hurston often and do so again here:
“If you are silent about your pain, they’ll kill you and
say you enjoyed it.”
</p>
<p>No one can say that we enjoy being traumatized on a
daily basis. No one but us—the black people who are
aware that money won’t save us, degrees won’t save us,
good jobs won’t save us, good neighborhoods won’t save
us, the right friends won’t save us—knows what it is to
wake up, get dressed, put one foot in front of the other
until we’re outside our doors, wondering if today will
be our last.
</p>
<p>No one but us—the black people who understand that we
can love our children, raise our children, teach our
children and guide our children—knows what it is to see
our boys grow long and big and have terror seize our
hearts. No one but us knows what it is to see our girls
grow curves and become subject to the violent fetishes
of police officers who believe that <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.theroot.com/articles/news/2015/11/hate_crime_if_daniel_holtzclaw_s_victims_were_white_everyone_would_know/">no
one will give a damn</a> about black women.
</p>
<p>Alton Sterling should not be dead. The next victim of
state-sanctioned violence will not deserve to die, and
that victim could be me or you or anyone we love. No one
is exempt and no one should have to live like this.
There are no new words. There are no new thoughts. There
are no songs to sing or chants to scream that will make
this soul-crushing feeling of inevitability go away.
</p>
<p>And it is so hard not to hate those who tell us that
change takes time. It is so hard not to hate those who
tell us to look how far we’ve come as a country. It is
so hard not to hate those who say that we should move
forward together.
</p>
<p>Facts: There is no “together” as long as black people
in this country are not safe. We live and love and laugh
and cry and dream through nights of clear and present
danger—the stars nothing but bullet holes ripped through
black flesh. <a target="_blank"
href="https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/wont-you-celebrate-me">Lucille
Clifton</a> taught us that we should celebrate every
day that something tried to kill us and has failed, but
we do so knowing that every day, somewhere, that <em>something</em>—often
dressed in blue and wearing a badge—has succeeded.
</p>
<p>We do this knowing that this joy, this pain, this life
in our bones, is all we have. And the moment we stop
feeling, the moment we stop raging, the enemy has won.</p>
<aside class="see-also"> </aside>
<p>If history is precedent, there will not be justice for
Alton Sterling, but that does not mean that people will
not fight for justice in his name. He has been added to
the roll, and each time that roll is called, the rage
will build. The fear will build. The hatred will build.
The love for black people by black people will build.
And that is as it should be. That is as it must be.
</p>
<p>Langston Hughes warned long ago:
</p>
<blockquote>
<p><em>Negroes,<br>
Sweet and docile,<br>
Meek, humble and kind:<br>
Beware the day<br>
They change their mind</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Time’s up, America. Time is up. </p>
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