Charles Blow, in response to the news that Freddie Gray’s killers will not be held accountable, used his column at the New York Times to share the anguish, the frustration, the inner turmoil that Black Americans have been forced to deal with day in, day out as we grapple with the reality that in the eyes of society, our lives just do not matter. The alacrity with which brutality is employed against POC and the sure knowledge that no one will pay for abusing us have psychological consequences. As Mr. Blow puts it, it leaves him “incandescent with rage.”
“I am at the screaming place.”
“I deserve to be angry. I deserve to survey the system that thrusts so many officers and black and brown people in contact in the first place, and be disgusted. I deserve to examine the biases that are exposed in the officer/citizen encounters, and be disgusted. I deserved to take account of an utterly racially biased criminal justice system, and be disgusted.”
Recent high-profile unprovoked killings by police and the lack of accountability for the taking of innocent lives have Charles Blow at the “screaming place.” As are we. At the screaming — or cussing — place, that is. If you feel the pain, please join us.