Before you read this, full disclaimer: there are NO spoilers in this article! I encourage everyone to see this movie because it has a very dire message that is really for all people. Expertly acted with an all-star cast, this movie will tear at your heart and soul. As it should. As the movie poster states, it is time to change the narrative. What narrative is that? The one where a Black person comes into contact with the police, unjustified harm is done, and the police go on to live normal lives, usually with no consequences at all. 

This article is not a rehashing of the movie, but rather a dive into one of the points raised in the movie. As you might guess, one of the main points raised in the movie revolves around why Black people continue to be met with excessive and unjustified force when interacting with police enforcement. Routine traffic stops lead to arrests, beatings, and even deaths. Domestic calls to deal with the intellectually disabled or mentally ill lead to unnecessary loss of life. The rates of violent interactions are significantly higher between Black people and police in comparison to any other group of people. We all know this to be true. We march, riots happen, policies are created, yet we still see the same end result: unjustified, disproportionate violence in our community. 

We hear several responses to this issue. Namely, the “if Black people just knew how to act around police, they would have a better outcome” retort is used all too often as a “legitimate” solution. In a Huffington Post Poll in 2015, 74% of Black parents instructed their kids to use caution around police in comparison to 32% of white parents. So, there are efforts being made to keep safe by adapting social behaviors in the presence of police. What is very telling, however, is that there is a much larger urgency in the Black community to meet that need. 

Furthermore, thanks to the age of social media, we have all had access to numerous videos of white offenders resisting arrest, hitting officers, cursing at officers, and even threatening officers. Yet, they seem to have an unlimited number of chances to comply before the officers escalate, if at all. The same is not true for Black people. If that were the case, we would not have to mourn the deaths of people like Botham Jean (killed while eating ice cream in his living room) and Breonna Taylor (killed while standing in her hallway), both innocent people dying at the hands of police officers who entered the wrong homes. 

Even when there are offenders clearly in the wrong, there is a difference between Black and White people when interacting with police. For instance, when reviewing the data collected by the FBI on police killed in action between 1980 and 2013, more White offenders killed police than Black offenders. However, the number of Black deaths at the hands of police is disproportionately higher than White deaths at the hands of police. 

There are many variables that factor into how we have collectively arrived at this place: racism, prejudice, classism, and politics, to name a few. The solution has not come overnight due to this very fact. We march, we have movements, we lobby on Capitol Hill, we pray, we create art (such as the movie this very article references). It is now time that we come into the truth. The truth is that we will not see an end to this until we repent of our wrongdoings to The Most High. We must live according to all that He has instructed and be blameless. Then we will finally know true and everlasting peace. 

Posted by:Charlotte Roberts