Major Racially-Charged Events in Recent History:
Teenager shot and killed by armed neighborhood watch volunteer while walking home from the store wearing a hoodie with a can of tea and bag of skittles.
Shot in the back while fleeing unarmed over unpaid child support from a traffic stop.
- Trayvon Martin (Sanford, FL) February 25, 2012
Teenager shot and killed by armed neighborhood watch volunteer while walking home from the store wearing a hoodie with a can of tea and bag of skittles.
- Eric Garner (Staten Island, NY) - July 17, 2014
Obese, asthmatic man choked to death by officers for selling untaxed cigarettes on the street.
- Michael Brown (Ferguson, MO) - August 9, 2014
Teenager shot by an officer for allegedly stealing cigars from a convenience store.
Facts are in dispute over whether he was shot while in altercation with officer or whether his hands were raised in surrender.
- Tamir Rice (Cleveland, OH) - November 22, 2014
Twelve-year-old shot by police after being reported for playing in a park with toy gun.
No first aid administered by the officers on the scene, and allegations of a rush to shoot rather than assess the situation first.
No first aid administered by the officers on the scene, and allegations of a rush to shoot rather than assess the situation first.
- Walter Scott (North Charleston, SC) - April 4, 2015
Shot in the back while fleeing unarmed over unpaid child support from a traffic stop.
- Freddie Gray (Baltimore, MD) - April 12, 2015
Killed by severe spinal injury received while in police custody.
He was refused requested medical treatment after surrendering without use of force in what is now potentially an illegal arrest.
These are merely a handful of the cases that we could choose to talk about. These are the cases that are being discussed all over the country by people of all kinds of different backgrounds. These are cases that are leaving some people very hurt and confused and feeling betrayed by their own nation. These are opportunities for Christians of all varieties to show compassion and empathy and reach out to their neighbors with the love of Christ.
These are all tragedies, though the details vary greatly. The point is not to simply assign blame and stop listening. The point is to grieve when life is lost. The point is to be willing to listen if the system is broken. Burying our heads in the sand of willful ignorance will do nothing but further the myth that our God is uncaring and oblivious to the problems we face.
Why are we as white Christians ignoring them and addressing them with sarcasm to downplay the deep pain felt by entire communities and families when we could be using this heartache to be reaching out with the Gospel?
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