In this opinion piece, Rose-Ingrid Benjamin says the same rules don’t apply to Black people in the case of Breonna Taylor.
Last week, Breonna Taylor’s killers were found to not be legally at fault for her death. Instead, the judge claimed the fault lay with her boyfriend for shooting first. This is all despite the fact that the officers in question burst into their home erroneously and without warning. Despite the fact that Breonna and her partner lived in an open-carry state.
I suppose the American value of self-defense was never meant to apply to the melanated. Sleeping while Black is as much a reason to die as any other. Even in my outrage, I know that we should know better than to be surprised. And yet these moments always sit a little too heavy on my heart, on my mind, and on my shoulders. I sigh a heavy sigh of knowing and press on with the day, the week, the month, the year, the so-called life I’m called to live.
Sometimes, rarely, but sometimes I let my mind forget the world I was born in. I give my mind and my heart reprieve. I pretend that the world they promised us as children is not only possible but among us. I stay in the fantasy that there isn’t an entire system dedicated to the destruction of bodies like mine. A world where Breonna is alive, in love, happy, and successful; building a future and living out her dreams. A world where Sandra was treated like a human being and allowed the right to be smart, direct, and bold. A world where Nina lived a long life, made joyous music, became a classical pianist and toured the world of sound mind playing the music she loved.
We don’t live in that world, but wouldn’t it be nice if we did?
Wouldn’t it be nice if we lived in a world where being a Black woman wasn’t a potential death sentence? Where she wasn’t seen as angry, insolent, mouthy, sassy, or too much? Where the Black woman can just be? A world where she can simply live and not have to fight to be “excellent” or “magic” so can be loved, respected, or seen? A world where she can take up all the space she needs? Where no one lives to make her smaller or remind her of her place?
Wouldn’t that be nice?
Rose-Ingrid Benjamin
Related content:
BEHIND THE MIC WITH JULLY BLACK: NEW MUSIC, NEW LOVE, SAME JULLY
