For Trayon Christian and For Us: Sip That Liberation KoolAid

The Recipe for Liberation KoolAid

Earlier this week, the news broke into my FB feed that a 19 year old Black College student, Trayon Christian, was arrested for buying a $350 belt at Barney's.  To clear the record, Christian was not apprehended by a Barney's employee, but by undercover officers. In a private store. Let that marinate. Y'all mad yet, or nah?

In any case, I'd like to sip some tea with y'all. Actually, not tea. Let's get some KoolAid. I'll hold the poison. I ain't Jim Jones. What I offer here is KoolAid to keep ya throat moistened as you ask your OWN questions. Let's begin with....

2 parts water—We must use our outrage to liberate ALL people.

We have an odd tendency to remind people that we engage in activism. We insist that we are "down for the cause". We marched for Trayvon. We marched for the Anniversary of the March on Washington. We marched for red fish. We marched for blue fish. We marched for one fish AND two fish. Certainly, we are engaged, thoughtful, well-intended folks. But the mere insertion of a "not that it matters but why was he buying a $350 belt?" disclaimer is not enough. In this Work, it is not enough to carry the flag of Feminism if we are not ready to fight against the mistreatment and disregard of Women in our every day life. It is not enough to say we're here for Social Justice if we are not ready to read between the lines of EVERY problematic interaction. Race is EVERYWHERE. If the following statement TRULY does not matter, do not say it. It is distracting. And distractions can be dangerous.

Speaking of Dangerous Distractions, let us remember that in Trayvon Martin's (how eery that he and Trayon Christian have similar names) story we had peripheral conversations about attire or “black-on-black crime” Here's the trajectory of how those peripheral conversations went:

Can you believe that? à Poor boyà Poor familyà I'm sure he was a good kid, but this is why we need to have the conversation about sagging pants today.

OR

Can you believe that? à They just don’t value our lives à We have to value our lives FIRSTà Well with all this glorification of gangsta culture, you have to wonder why anyone would respect us in the first place.

No. Well, not really.

Yes, it is important for us to have parallel conversations about what WE do. We are quite capable of thinking, acting, behaving, dressing for ourselves. We're civilized. And you know what? Sometimes we have to say that out loud, cuz folks don't take our word.

There is this underlying idea in our World that in order to be respected, you must be worthy of respect. It is the same reason why we look at women’s clothes and point a finger, saying they “asked for it”. We have an obsession with placing and misplacing blame.

But in the middle of a discussion in which a White man follows and tracks down a Black boy and shoots him, that conversation is inappropriate. Is the conversation necessary and worthy of exploration? Absolutely. Does it need to happen in the same train of thought as this one? Must it serve as a catalyst on TODAY? Nah. When we do this, when we open up the discussion for "our fault" and "our responsibility", we give Those Who Have Wronged a Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free card. We should instead, have a larger discussion about Gun Control and our obsession with gore, masculinity, and asserting power over others. That’s what Zimmerman was really doing. We rationalize and empathize with those who should be ashamed of their stupidity. We give them more ground to stand on. And unfortunately, that ground is weighing heavily on the trigger of a gun. Aimed at us. Pressure. Click click boom.

There is far more power in taking unfortunate events like Trayvon Martin’s death and turning them into discussions about Everyone’s Liberation, not just the liberation of Black folks. It ain’t just about Saggin Pants and Hoodies, y’all. It’s about our Obsession with Guns. And THAT KoolAid serves errybody.

1 part sugar—Acknowledge that Capitalism is the American Way. Now disrupt it.

For those of us who have been asleep since high school civics, let us remember. America is Capitalism. In fact, it is the one of the few things that unites us as a country. As a country of many peoples, languages, religions, histories, and identities, on the shortlist of shared meanings we have of American Identity is the Almighty Dollar. We know brands. We know experiences. I say “I’m loving it” and I’m sure 73% of you have imagined the Golden Arches of McDonald’s. It’s actually what we do best as a country.

We talk about money in a way that many other cultures do not. It is not uncommon for folks to talk about how much they make, how much their rent is, or how expensive their car is. And if no one ever shared his or her living costs/income with us, we have an infatuation with knowing it anyway.

President Obama said it, not me. There is not "a White America" or a "Black America". There's one America. And here in America, we talk MONEY.

When one has been systematically AND personally disinvited from these money talks, we have created a situation in which folks will do ANYTHING to be seen or heard. It is the core reason why Love and Hip Hop features LOUD Black women who sit at expensive restaurants but still throw drinks like they're at the hood-spot. It is the core reason why Jay-Z and Kanye's most recent music sounds more like a commercial for expensive luxury brands, and it is the core reason why you will always see lines of Black folks lining up for Jordans when they come out. Not because they are irresponsible. Not because their priorities are misaligned. But because here, in these United States, we tell folks that they are only worthy of attention if they can prove their worth. Everyone wants, no, everyone needs to feel special. So what happens when a certain group of Someones is systematically excluded from that very real need? Needs ain't being met. And that's a recipe for disaster. 

In the American context, you cannot own something until you buy it. That goes for knowledge (college tuition), love (wedding expenses), and even religion (prosperity gospel preachers who ask for 40 dollars a month to "sew your seed and reap your blessing"). Let's face it. Money absolves things. It's like being baptized.

I think the most popular DOPE critique of this news story is “Why have we not arrested Barney’s for selling a $350 belt?”. Y’all silly. Still worthy of exploration. We are kidding ourselves if we only see one half of this story. Yes, this story is about a young Black man who bought a $350 belt. But it is also about a society that places value on those who own things. Before we criticize this man for buying a $350 belt, it is our responsibility to challenge the evils of capitalism. 

A splash of ginger ale-- Rules apply to EVERYONE. That's why they're called rules, not conditions.

I do not believe in a colorblind approach to identity politics. In fact, I think seeing identity frees us. We are able to see and do more when we get the whole picture.

Today, I saw three Black men in a BMW who were stopped by police in Bed Stuy. Being mixxy as I always am, I asked an older Brother standing in front of the Laundromat what he saw.

Brother Old Man: Man, they ain’t even have a reason to stop him. He was  driving reg-uh-luh and they just stopped him.

Me: Wait, just now?

Brother Old Man: YES. They threw the sirens on and they got out the car. You already know why they did that. You young, you black, you ain’t ‘posed to have  sh*t. You ain’t sh*t. So when they see you with sh*t, they say “Oh sh*t”.

Basically.

I remember in high school, my friend Stephanie had a birthday dinner. Her mom let her borrow the credit card to pay for everyone’s meal. We sat, we enjoyed, we had a grand old time. When it was time to pay for the dinner, this OBVIOUSLY under-18 White girl with blond hair passed the waiter a credit card. He thought nothing of it.

My college was a super rich, super WASPy, super Keeping-Up-With-The-Jones’s school. On campus, most of the student jobs were filled by students of color (which says a lot about notions of service, financial aid, and educational equality). If White students had jobs that helped them pay for the expensive Barbour jackets, the Bean boots, the fancy watches, and the vacations during reading days, those jobs were not as visible.

I’m going to make an assumption inference.

Many White folks have things they do not personally earn. They buy things with cards from parents, they have uncles who give them nice wads of cash, and cousins who send them bomb birthday checks. That’s cool. I ain’t knocking it. But we never question them.

Many Black folks, in order to be taken seriously and to avoid being patronized, prove beyond all doubt that they have worked to EARN something. It’s a wonderful trait. And still, we question.

The more we learned of this story, we found that Christian saved his money from a part time job while at school. He earned the belt. Whether or not it was a smart decision, whether or not he could have bought textbooks with $350. He earned it.

Yes, Black folks historically have a complicated history with wealth and finances. We do not have the luxury (as a demographic Block) of spending money in the ways our Paler Sisters and Brothers do. Let’s be real, though. Have YOU ever said, “Man, I really deserve this manicure”, “Dang, I really should take myself out” , or “I want to go to the movies”. We make decisions to do things for ourselves, even when we know there are other things we could/should be doing.

Especially in our community, we wait until someone snaps to give them the Grace to take a personal day. We wait until someone feels overworked and undervalued and snaps in the break room until we offer them a piece of candy. We wait until someone hurts himself or herself (or someone else) before we pretend to care about their emotional well being. If this $350 belt was all Trayon Christian had to make himself feel good, let him have it. THEN, we can have the discussion about capitalism and its way of feeding on our very mental health.

The Lemon Garnish-Give thanks for the small victories, and think about the challenges that exist elsewhere.

What we’re not talking about, though, is the fact that Trayon Christian is a college student. With the statistics of Black men in college looming over our heads, we have to congratulate and support him.  I would venture to say that Trayon Christian is going to be fine, regardless of what happens to him. He has already beaten several odds. We have to realize that for every Trayon Christian we have in our circle, there is also a Trayvon, a Kashief, a Jayden, a Marcus. A boy who will be stopped before he gets a chance to explain. A student who will have to prove he is completely harmless in order for White students to stop calling Campus Safety on him. A teenager who is pushed out of school because he does not have uniform pants for the third day in a row. A son who is labeled with ADHD before being professionally evaluated. If Trayon Christian can be arrested for Shopping While Black, we have to think about all the other ways that Identity can either free us or oppress us. 

Still thirsty? Me too. Let’s keep talking. *Sips KoolAid* Ahh.