Abstract
This chapter focuses on the solutions that both the author, politicians, activists, educators, religious leaders, etc. have proffered throughout the literature review and the analysis of the issues that have been discussed throughout this book. These solutions act as a salve to the wounds of injustice throughout the world. Many of these solutions are not panaceas or end all be all solutions. Some of the solutions are short-term remedies while other solutions are long-term remedies. To be frank, it is impossible to return land masses – in complete, return the dead to life or to heal all the wounds from the emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, and spiritual abuses that have occurred worldwide. It is also impossible to salvage some of the cultural losses via identity as well as artifacts. None the less, an examination and discussion of said solutions may bring about a better understanding and a better solution.
“Support them, but my hope is not in law enforcement” -KB, Dark Skin (2021)
“I wish it need not have happened in my time.”- Frodo, The Fellowship of the Rings
“So do I, and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”- Gandalf, The Fellowship of the Rings
Figure 1.
Centerpiece regarding Miranda Rights, National Law Enforcement Museum, Washington, D.C. 2022
TopIntroduction
For many Black people who were slaves, they, like Frodo in Lord of the Rings, wished that it had not happened in their time or to them. Yet, some form of slavery has occurred and been experienced by almost every people group on earth. Slavery appears to be the precursor of police brutality (Baker, 2021). This is one of the key issues that is discussed in this book as it relates to Black deaths in custody. In examining solutions, it must be noted that conversations must take place. However, how those conversations take place will dictate how much truth is discussed.
At the end of a clip where Malcolm X discusses the difference between the House Negro and the Field Negro (i.e., the parable of the House Negro) at a talk he gave in Detroit, Michigan at King Solomon Baptist Church on November 10, 1963, he described James Baldwin, a famous Black author (Columbia University, Center for Teaching and Learning, n.d). Malcolm X discussed the conversation and how White people often try to control the conversation for their own benefit (Malcolm X, 2012). He stated the following: “No, it was a sellout. It was a takeover. When James Baldwin came from Paris, they would not let him talk. ‘Cause they couldn’t make him go by the script” (Malcolm X, 2012, [21:47]). In order to bring systematic change, it is necessary for freedom of speech (1) to be able to prevail within the borders of the United States of America.
In business, they often say – there must be an ask. What is it that you are asking for support, funding, etc.? In James Baldwin’s Artist on Fire by W.J. Weatherby (1989), James Baldwin stated the following: “I suspect, though I certainly cannot prove it,” he wrote ten years before he died, “that every life moves full circle …toward revelation” (p. 1). Well, James Baldwin made a hidden ask many years ago while speaking on a TV Program known as the Dick Cavett Show in 1969 (NPR, 2017; Peck, 2017) that may have moved us all towards revelation. He stated the following: “If any White man in the world says, “Give me liberty or give me death (2), the entire White word applauds. When a Black man says exactly the same thing, he is judged a criminal and treated like one, and everything possible is done to make an example of this bad nigger so there won’t be any like him” [Magnolia Pictures, 2017, [0:05]. For a country that speaks of liberty and allegedly celebrates uniqueness – an apropos example is its system of capitalism; for many Black people defiance is the only way to bring about social change.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Lynching: The killing of a person usually by a mob and usually the person(s) dies by hanging. An act that was commonplace down South and the punishment for perceived slights that Black people, usually did by White people.
Institutionalized Discrimination: Unfair and unequal treatment that is usually hidden that operates or group membership and affects institutions on a daily basis.
Public Spaces: any area such as an alleyway, a street, a park, etc. that is in the public and accessible to the public.
Parable: a moral or spiritual insight usually hidden and told within a story.
Equal Justice Initiative: An organization that fights to put an end to excessive forms of punishment and mass incarceration. Founded by Bryan Stevenson in 1989. See https://eji.org/about-eji/ .
Monument(s): any structure, usually a building or a statue used to commemorate a person, etc.