Black Joy and Sacredness
A lifetime commitment
Jul 19, 2016
Words by Junauda Petrus
Art by Deborah Saul
The story behind “Could we please give the police departments to the grandmothers?” by Junauda Petrus. 

I wrote this piece after Micheal Brown’s murderer was let free. He said he murdered Michael because he was afraid of him and that was enough for our justice system to justify this teenager’s execution. Philando’s murderer killed him because of his nose and because he reached for an ID he was being asked to produce. A majority of the cops I see are White men who don’t live in the communities they work in. This is white supremacy and domination, funded by us. Why are people who are murderously afraid of Black people, armed and policing Black People? Why can’t our elders who love us be salaried and pensioned to protect and serve us? 
 
As I walked around the block into St. Paul’s Cathedral heading into the funeral for Philando Castile, there was a group of brothers, handsome and as clean as could be in all white tuxedos and shoes. Looking like solemn groomsman outside of one of the church doors. I assumed them to be his friends and today, his pallbearers.
 
Never to actually ever be his groomsman. 
 
These were men who knew his voice, his laugh, his humanity and divinity. They will never be with their brother again.
 
I was a stranger to Philando and yet I am broken at the loss of him from this world. I didn’t know this brother before he was executed by police in front of his family and the world. Before a cop shot him for being Black. So many of us knew him briefly as we were brought into one of his life’s most intimate transitions: dying and death. 
 
My lifetime commitment is to end the police state and abolish prison. Because my nieces and nephews have to be coached on the ways that they must sublimate their beauty and dignity for the fragility of armed whiteness that is the police. That hurts me in this way that is soul crushing. Why do rich White boys get to trust that the law will protect them from whatever sick deeds they do and Black folks get put on trial for their own brutal murders? One of my nephews drew a picture of himself in a hoodie with antlers. It was to depict how he felt like fair game. And he is. Another nephew, 12 years old, did a documentary on the history of police brutality for a school project. He said because he feels that people don’t seem to care. 
 
The police state and prison industrial complex are the slave patrols and slavery of our time. They serve the same function that those institutions did: to serve and protect whiteness and wealth. I am focused on their complete disappearance and a mass healing in their aftermath. As long as they exist they will come for my loved ones and lynch Black people out of fear. And then put the victim on trial, while the murderer gets protected and celebrated. 
 
Black is Sacred and it is time for this country to love and protect Blackness for the sweetness and soul it has gifted, despite the violence and deracination of Black people. Philando is another unnecessary martyr and should be with us. He should get to be snuggled up with his loved ones and being the humble and sweet caregiver to children he was. Us being witness to his passing, makes us responsible to his stolen life. May the ancestors guide us.
 

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Posted by Junauda Petrus on Jul 19, 2016

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