On Tamir's 21st Birthday

Image description: a picture of a 12-year-old Tamir Rice. He is smiling at the camera while throwing up a peace sign. The sun from a nearby window gives his soft brown skin a glow.

TW: discussion around police-involved shootings, murder, anti-Blackness, and racism.

Tamir Rice should be 21 years old today.

Tamir should be celebrating with friends and family, with a long weekend to do so.

But Tamir is not here today.

Tamir is not here today because, at the age of 12, he was murdered by a police officer who had been deemed emotionally unstable and unfit for duty by Independence, Ohio’s police department but lied about this to get a job with the Cleveland Police Department.

Tamir is not here today because he was murdered by a Cleveland police officer who never received a background check when he applied for the Cleveland Police Force.

Tamir’s family received no justice for his murder because a jury believed the officer who murdered Tamir was justified in his actions. After all, Tamir had an airsoft pistol that looked real, and there was no way the officer could know the difference.

Meanwhile, white mass shooters on murder sprees get lengthy negotiations, gentle trips to the police station and Burger King, and so much benefit of the doubt and so many excuses for their actions that it’s blatantly apparent whose lives don't matter.

Tamir should be celebrating the benchmark of adulthood.

But Tamir isn't with us today.

[Image description: a picture of a 12-year-old Tamir Rice. He is smiling at the camera while throwing up a peace sign. The sun from a nearby window gives his soft brown skin a glow.]

On People of Pallor, Law Students, and White Supremacist Ideologies

I recently saw a video where a young, inebriated woman of pallor was pulled over for a suspected DUI. She failed every field sobriety test with flying colors. When the officer informed her that she was under arrest, the young woman, who shared she was a law student, told the officer she could not be arrested unless she consented to, and was willing to be, arrested.

This sentence was one of the whitest things my ears have heard in the entire year of someone’s Lord 2023.

The things that white supremacist ideologies implant in the bodies, brains, and belief systems of the un-melanated masses never fail to shock me.

Does she think that if people of culture, Black, Brown, and Indigenous people, consent to the harm that policing systems have levied against us for centuries? Does she think the melanated are willing participants in centuries of traumatic events administered by policing? Did she believe the officer, a white male, was going to agree with her and let her go because she thought she was more learned than him on the law and could outsmart them? Did this un-melanated woman believe she was above the law, even though she posed a threat to other civilians by being above the acceptable breathalyzer test levels?

Or is it all the above?

And how many people of pallor have similar beliefs and values?

And how many of them are lawyers?

The things that make you go “Hmm.”

I hope she never gets to practice law.

On "Fit," Belonging, Copping a Squat, and Sitting a Spell

For those who have never felt how it feels to understand that there isn't a workplace where you "fit" or belong because of your identities and that your only recourse is to do what you must to survive, count yourselves lucky.

But while you're counting your lucky stars, sit a spell and unpack how privileged you are to feel like you belong everywhere with no feelings of discomfort or attacks on your personhood.

Or cop a squat and mull over how unwilling you might be to acknowledge that you've accepted assimilation and suppression of who you are in some fashion as a form of survival.

Acknowledging these things isn't intended to make you feel guilty.

Acknowledging these things is intended to help you tap into your humanity.

Workplaces aren't one size fits all.

Identities, safety, and belonging aren't either.

"...And they'll wish they never met you at all!"

[Image description: Stills from Carl Thomas' "I Wish" music video. In the first image, Carl Thomas can be seen looking out of his car window while driving. He has a look of despair on his face at what he is seeing. The second image shows Carl leaning back in his seat. He looks sick to his stomach as he holds in a deflated breath. He has a defeated look on his face. Both pictures are captioned with "White people when they share something wild they've said or done to a person of culture, look to another person of culture for validation or a cosign and realize they're about to get checked."]

[Image description: Stills from Carl Thomas' "I Wish" music video. In the first image, Carl Thomas can be seen looking out of his car window while driving. He has a look of despair on his face at what he is seeing. The second image shows Carl leaning back in his seat. He looks sick to his stomach as he holds in a deflated breath. He has a defeated look on his face. Both pictures are captioned with "White people when they share something wild they've said or done to a person of culture, look to another person of culture for validation or a cosign and realize they're about to get checked."]

On Conflation and the Universal Workplace Experience Myth

There aren't enough people willing to comprehend and admit that just because they feel safe and supported at work doesn't mean everyone feels safe and supported at work. This goes double for the place you currently work.

Just because you're having a good time at work doesn't mean everyone you work with is having a blast.

There is no such thing as a common or universal workplace experience. And if you think there is?

You're conflating your experience as the only experience that matters.

You also might need to evaluate your relationships with white supremacy and “professionalism” and the perks your lack of melanin or willingness to engage in homogenization or assimilation to erase your skin tone provides.