This marvel of modern technology #matters more than a teen Black girl.

By now many of you have seen or heard about the #assaultatspringvalleyhigh

I am not going to link the video, be productive and google it yourself.  My rant today is about the value of Black women.

I have to explain this far too often. I have to remind even those with good intentions around me that as a Black woman I was this planet without respect or protection. I’ve watched as a school resource officer valued an inanimate piece of insured technology more than the human being he assaulted.

I am weary.

Let’s get some things out of the way first.

It does not matter what she did to “warrant” the teacher to make the call for her to be removed from the classroom.  Save your rebuttals on that for someone who gives a fuck about your opinion on that [Don Lemon], I do not nor shall I ever.

What is clear from the footage is that at the moment of the officers arrival the girl was sitting at a desk with a laptop in front of her.

Also clear in the footage is the officer moving the laptop off her desk to prevent the laptop from being injured. Seconds later after moving that laptop, he grabs the child – yes child – by the neck and flips her onto the ground with her desk.

Seconds later he grabs and throws and drags her away and attempts to handcuff her.

Let that marinate for a moment.

A child gets choked, slammed to the ground, dragged across a classroom floor and handcuffed.

There is no excuse for that behavior that translates to anything other than her worth as a human being to him was less than the cost of a laptop.

The computer was worth moving for protection and safety. The Black girl was worth dragging.

Her classmates remained seated.  This behavior was so familiar to their psyche that the idea of even getting up to prevent injury to themselves during this assault wasn’t considered.

Her teacher stood and watched. One day he may be, or possibly even is, the father to a Black daughter. He watched this treatment without even a verbal objection. Even if he never fathers a Black daughter, he comes from one.

The constant reminder of the plight of Black women in the United States continues for me as I see defense of this officer and blame to this child.

I shed tears wondering why being a Black woman is so horrible that defense of us is unimaginable.

I weep as I read “well she shouldn’t have ______” knowing that if this were a Black male child WE [Black women] would be organizing, protesting, picketing. WE see our men in peril and form like Voltron to protect. WE find ourselves in peril and excuses are made why it’s okay for the teacher not to utter even a word in protest. Mandisa forbid he attempt to physically intervene.

The “investigation” into this officers behavior is ongoing.

Where is the investigation about why when Black women are assaulted, targeted, brutalized, berated, bludgeoned, broken ……where is the investigation as to WHY we must stand alone?

Black men? Let me explain something to you. You’re defining your manhood and masculinity in the United States based on the European model of control and conquer while being systematically disenfranchised from that model by its maker. You cannot regain your manhood and masculinity by turning the tools of those who’ve oppressed you onto the women who’ve always stood by you.

Simpler: we didn’t take your “manhood” and you cannot regain it by shitting on us.

Non Black “allies”? Ignoring the treatment of Black women in this nation is not helping the cause.  You don’t get to buy a #BlackLivesMatter wristband and ignore the sexualization, victimization and dehumanization of Black women at the same time.

Black women?

I know not what to say here. I like you am torn apart from the inside trying to reconcile my desperation to protect and preserve our sons and brothers and fathers with the realization that to them I am not worth reciprocity.

 

Aphrodite Brown