{"id":4597,"date":"2015-12-29T13:45:16","date_gmt":"2015-12-29T18:45:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/?p=4597"},"modified":"2015-12-29T16:25:21","modified_gmt":"2015-12-29T21:25:21","slug":"tamirrice-10-things-white-people-can-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2015\/12\/tamirrice-10-things-white-people-can-do.html","title":{"rendered":"#TamirRice: 10 Things White People Can Do"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"Till<\/span><\/a>by Amber Johnson<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

The contextual and physical resemblance between Tamir Rice and Emmett Till is striking. It doesn\u2019t seem coincidental at all. History repeats itself. The nerve of the city to actually ask \u201cwhy was Tamir in the park?\u201d and use it as a part of any defense proves how dire this situation and many many many more are. Analogy: if a woman is raped, it\u2019s like me asking well why did she have a hole anyhwere\u00a0on her body that could be penetrated? What? Common sense right? Right!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

To suggest that he should have known better. To leave his breathing and STILL ALIVE Body on the ground for FOUR entire minutes without administering ANY first aid AND then TACKLING and RESTRAINING his 14 year old sister in the police car. I can\u2019t continue fighting at this rate. Exhaustion and stress are literally killing us.<\/span><\/p>\n

Many of my non-black friends on social media ask me how they can help and what they can do. Here\u2019s a short, starter list.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Be an advocate, not just an ally.<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Speak to public officials in ways that I cannot. <\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Vocalize the outrage and serious concern for our communities as if it were your own BECAUSE it IS your own.<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. Be angry with us and spread that anger in your social media networks, on your blocks, at your kids schools, in church.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  5. Explain to other non-black people why they should also stand up and fight. <\/span><\/li>\n
  6. Have uncomfortable conversations. \u00a0Confront every racist you know and shout that we can no longer tolerate institutional racism\u00f0. <\/span><\/li>\n
  7. Call out those who say, \u201cI have black friends,\u201d or \u201cmy partner is black,\u201d or \u201cthose\u201d people, \u201cthem,\u201d \u201cI don\u2019t know why they are constantly complaining\u201d \u201cwell why was he in the park?\u201d \u201cDidn\u2019t his mother teach him that he is a threatening body and shouldn\u2019t play with toys in the park\u201d or \u201cwell he wasn\u2019t a small child\u201d or \u201cI can see both sides\u2026.\u201d \u00a0START THERE with that person. Protest. Meditate. Educate<\/span><\/li>\n
  8. Liberate the minds of those too privileged to need to worry.<\/span><\/li>\n
  9. Do not talk about good cops versus bad caps and \u201ca few bad apples!\u201d Understand that rhetoric completely dismisses institutional racism and places the onus on individual decisions made by choice individuals who are \u201cincompetent, ignorant and bad at their job\u201d versus dismantling an entire system that allows and promotes innocent killing.<\/span><\/li>\n
  10. Explain that to your friends who say this is an exception and \u201cthis\u201d officer should be punished versus seeing how the entire system corroborates in atrocities happening MORE than once a day.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Even if you don\u2019t care about a 12 year old boy being killed for being Black, playing in a park, and doing what children do, then do it for selfishness. When there are no more little black boys left to kill, who do you think they will come for next?<\/span><\/p>\n

    \u00a0Dr.\u00a0Amber Johnson<\/span><\/a> is an Assistant Professor of Communication at St. Louis University<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

    \n

    Donate to the Work of R3<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    \n

    Like the work we do at Rhetoric Race and Religion? Please consider helping us continue to do this work. All donations are tax-deductible through Gifts of Life Ministries\/G\u2019Life Outreach, a 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization, and our fiscal sponsor. Any donation helps. Just click\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0to support our work.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    by Amber Johnson The contextual and physical resemblance between Tamir Rice and Emmett Till is striking. It doesn\u2019t seem coincidental at all. History repeats itself. The nerve of the city to actually ask \u201cwhy was Tamir in the park?\u201d and use it as a part of any defense proves how dire this situation and many […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4598,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[158],"tags":[346,61,30,342,347],"class_list":["post-4597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guest-contributions","tag-amber-johnson","tag-black-lives-matter","tag-racism","tag-tamir-rice","tag-white-people"],"yoast_head":"\n#TamirRice: 10 Things White People Can Do<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"by Amber Johnson The contextual and physical resemblance between Tamir Rice and Emmett Till is striking. It doesn't seem coincidental at all. 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