The newest news story regarding hate crimes to hit the big news stations is from Tulsa, Oklahoma. According to this article from Fox News (notice I'm trying to show equality in my news sources ;) ) two men, Jake England (age 19) and Alvin Watts (age 32) have been arrested as suspects in the recent Tulsa shooting rampage which left three men dead.
The shooting happened in a predominately black neighborhood and all three people who were killed, plus two who were injured, were black. That, coupled with comments England made on his Facebook profile, has many calling the shooting a hate crime against blacks. While the Tulsa police have taken these crimes seriously and quickly arrested the suspects without incident, they are hesitant to label the killings "hate crimes" without further evidence.
This case brings up many issues. Firstly, I commend the Tulsa police force for acting with such integrity. Crimes against blacks -- really all minorities -- have often been disregarded or labeled 'less important' than crimes against whites. The Tulsa Police Department seems to have been treating this particular crime-solving effort with the speed and diligence expected of such a horror. I am glad to see they aren't ignoring the fact that this could be a racist hate crime, but I'm equally glad to see that they are waiting for evidence to determine the nature of the crime. I've recently heard many black commentators, speaking of Trayvon Martin's death, say things like, "We just want the justice system to work for us the way it works for the rest of the country". It seems Tulsa Police are providing an example of that equal treatment.
Secondly, I'd like to take a look at Jake England. According to the Fox News article, England has had a rough couple of years. Scratch that. He's had a really rough couple of years. In 2010, when England would have been seventeen, a man broke into Jake England's sister's apartment. Their father tried to fight off the intruder, but was shot in the chest and killed. The intruder, the man who shot England's father, was black.
Fast forward almost two years. England is nineteen, has a fiancé and a new baby. Perhaps things are looking up, until his fiancé commits suicide. England is now looking at life as a single parent without his father and without his partner all before he starts his second decade of life. That would make anyone scared and upset. It would even make some people act out in anger, seeking a kind of revenge. The previously mentioned article even cites "concern about possible [black-led] vigilantism in retaliation" against the shooters.
No one, regardless of the color of their skin, is immune to anger brought on by a great loss. And no one, regardless of the color of their skin, should get away with violent acts because they have suffered that great loss. However, the racial divide we experience in the U.S. feeds justification for such acts of revenge. If I only have one experience with a black man and it happens to be negative, then it’s easy for me to assume my experiences with all black men will be negative – indeed that black men themselves are bad. If a black man only meets one white man who happens to be a bigot, it would be easy for him to assume that all white men are bigots. With this warped mentality, randomly shooting at a group of people simply because of the color of their skin can be interpreted as revenge.
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about ethnic tensions in the Middle East, too, and I wonder if ignorance isn’t a big problem there, just as it is in the U.S. We humans just don’t know each other.
Today at lunch, I was speaking with a friend of mine who is on a committee in Abilene called United By Faith. United By Faith members attempt to gather together people of many different ethnic backgrounds in Christian worship and fellowship. I believe it is these types of things that will slowly bring us together; friendships across racial lines, the ability to sit together at a dinner table or in a pew, to learn from each other and grow. But I’m tired to periphery relationships. I want blacks and whites to have deep, committed friendships, where they really, truly, intimately know one another. I want to see more black girls and white girls choosing to be roommates their freshmen year in college. I don’t know the make-up of Jake England’s friend base, but I’m willing to guess it didn’t include very many black people. Perhaps, if Jake had a strong friendship with a black man, he wouldn’t have opened fire randomly in a black neighborhood. Perhaps.
I know I sound like a crazy idealist, but I’ve actually experienced this change in my life. I used to judge many of the black kids at my church who horseplay really roughly on Wednesday nights. I thought they were fighting and would often interrupt them, reprimanding them for their fighting (I wasn’t going to be fooled by their claim, “We’re just play-fighting”). Eventually the girls I drive home told me they really are play-fighting. This is something they do all the time: at home, at their cousins’ house, at school. It’s part of how this group of kids shows affection. They were persuasive enough for me to realize I had been placing my own worldview over their behavior, my worldview that said anything I perceive as negative is serious and needs to be stopped. I now watch their horseplay from the side. It still makes me anxious and I keep an eye to discern if someone is actually in real pain or danger, but I know what’s going on and so I can stand back and let them handle it. And they do a pretty good job. As good as any yet-to-be-fully-developed teenager can. ;)
The point is, I would never have known this fact about these kids had I not been in relationship with some of them. This is my idealistic plea for relationships across divides: racial, ethnic, political, economic, and religious. Perhaps, perhaps with more and deeper relationships, we will love each other more or at least hate each other less. It is a challenge I myself must face: to get to know my fellow human beings.
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