In Anna Deavere Smith’s play, TWILIGHT: Los Angeles 1992, one of the characters mentions Eula Love, whose death at the hands of the Los Angeles Police Department on January 3, 1979 was not recorded on anyone’s cell phone. If it had been, no doubt it would now be being replayed as yet another one of those galvanizing moments when the surplus of power becomes wanton, and police officers cannot resist the temptation to use provocation as a basis for summary execution.
I am including below the statement of the California Faculty Association, the union I belong to as a professor at California State University, Long Beach. In regards to recent events, it invokes “a long chain of similar transgressions and murders,” a reminder that the readers of my blog might think is unnecessary. However, it is only when we remember that this chain is centuries old that we can comprehend that Eula Love’s death is relatively recent, though it may seem to belong to another era, the one between the assassination of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. and the horrific death of James Byrd, Jr. on June 7, 1998.
CFA Statement on the Murder of George Floyd
George Floyd’s public execution is shocking, but not surprising given the persistence of anti-Black racism and white supremacy that dehumanizes Black people. It is one in a long chain of similar transgressions and murders, most recently including Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, and people are taking to the streets because the United States has failed to address this. CFA is a union representing faculty in the California State University System, one that is dedicated to anti-racism and social justice. As scholar activists, we have an obligation to address the structural racism that shapes policing in our society and that resulted in the murder of George Floyd. It is not enough to condemn this public execution that calls lynching to mind. Against the backdrop of a pandemic that does discriminate, resulting in disproportionate deaths to Black people, disproportionate economic burdens to Chicanx/Latinx people, decimation of Native/Indigenous people, and acts of violence and hatred against Asian Pacific Islander communities, we must take this opportunity to call on our leaders to not only condemn racism and white supremacy, but to announce programs to enact systemic change. In the coming days, we will issue a broader statement to highlight our anti-racism and social justice campaign and invite your participation.
Finally, as a follow-up to Rashid Cannad’s monologue, I include a link to this commentary by Michael Strahan.
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/michael-strahan-being-black-man-030505228.html
About Bill Mohr