Jacob Blake and the anniversary of Emmett Till: 'I don't want your pity. I want change'
Jacob Blake and Emmett Till's deaths are both part of a long story of oppression. It is finally time to make real change and not just give them pity.
As Jacob Blake’s older sister Letetra Widman stood in front of a bank of microphones less than two days after her brother was shot by Kenosha (Wis.) police, she reached back six-plus decades to knit together our shared history.
“This has been happening to my family for a long time,” she said. “It happened to Emmett Till. Emmett Till is my family. Philando, Mike Brown, Sandra...This is nothing new. I'm not sad. I'm not sorry. I'm angry. And I’m tired.”
Emmett Till and Jacob Blake's stories are a continuum
After our commemoration the 65th anniversary of Emmett Till’s murder last Friday, I want to echo Letetra’s words.
She is angry and tired. I am angry and tired. Black America is angry and tired. Since long before Jacob Blake or Emmett Till, racialized violence — whether carried out by the state or passively sanctioned by the state — has been a too common feature of American life. We cannot allow racialized violence to outlive us.
Though Till’s and Blake’s stories are different in many ways, they are part of a continuum — a measure of whose humanity will be recognized, whose dignity will be honored, whether our children will be able to grow up into adults, and whether they will even have a chance to be a child in the first place before they are viewed as “threats”, "criminals" or targets for white supremacists.
Letetra made this point explicitly.
“When you say the name ‘Jacob Blake,’ make sure you say father. Make sure you say cousin. Make sure you say son. Make sure you say uncle. But most importantly, make sure you say human.”
With each new tragedy, we reach to connect with that continuum of humanity, but we try to use it to propel us forward. The uprisings in cities across America this summer propelled elected officials to finally make significant, meaningful progress on these vital issues.
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Two major bills that would go a long way toward addressing systemic racial inequities —the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act and the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act — have both passed the House of Representatives. But just like the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, those two critical bills have languished on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s desk for months. This legislative trifecta would go far in responding to some of the gravest threats that we face in our democracy today in the form of police violence, racial violence, and voter suppression.
McConnell refuses to call them for a vote — not because they will lose, but because they will win. The people want justice. People are marching across every corner of our country and demanding reform responsive to the crises that are tearing at the fabric of our nation. It’s time for our elected leaders to lead or get out of the way.
Time for inaction is over
We are on the precipice of seismic change. The Emmett Till anti-lynching bill was originally introduced more than a century ago and had failed to pass more than 200 times before this year. Now only one senator — Rand Paul of Kentucky — stands in the way. He has become a one-man filibuster against progress, against equality, and against justice. He can stop it for now, but he cannot stop it forever.
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As civil rights leaders and advocates gathered to commemorate the March on Washington, we did so knowing the urgency of the moment. As Black people and their allies marched and protested the shooting of Jacob Blake, a white male armed with an AR-15 shot and killed two people and injured one more. Officers in military tanks expressed their thanks for his presence on the streets before the fatal shootings. The events in Kenosha raise the question — how much injustice are we willing to tolerate? After generations of having racial terror and trauma forced upon us — we continue to say their names — Emmett Till, Jacob Blake, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Tamir Rice, James Byrd Jr., Medgar Evers, Fred Hampton, Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Dionne Wesley because—
The time for inaction is long-since over. In the words of Letetra:
“I stopped crying years ago. I am numb….I don't want your pity. I want change.”
Kristen Clarke is president & executive director of the National Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. Follow her on Twitter: @KristenClarkeJD
