The Jacob Blake Shooting: A Raw Reflection

This is Bennett, he is three years old. He loves watching Paw Patrol and enjoys hitting golf balls with his father on Thursday evenings. Despite his size, his personality is that of a 40-year-old man’s, and he has a sense of humor that is comparable to a teenage boy’s. He admires his older brother dearly, watches every step he takes, and often mimics his dance moves when his favorite Fortnite song plays. His brother and father are his world, as much as he is to them.

Bennett is also a Black boy.

Bennett is 2.5 times more likely than a White boy to die during an encounter with the cops. This sweet, Paw Patrol loving boy; naive to the deep racial and ethnic inequities that exist within the US structural system today. Naive to the fact that even the smallest “mistake” can result in us, his family, having to bury him before he is able to ever make his mark in the world.

As mentioned before, Bennett is three. The same age as one of Jacob Blake’s sons who watched his father be shot in the back SEVEN times, repeatedly.

Three years old.

As I write this with tears in my eyes, imagining my sweet baby brother witnessing a horror that he shouldn’t even be watching in movies and TV shows, my heart hurts. Imagining my father and 16-year-old brother who both fit a cop’s description of a “criminal”, being shot at SEVEN times, pains me.

Jacob Blake, though alive, is paralyzed from the waist down. His life, changed forever. His family’s life, changed forever. His sons, traumatized forever. There is a likely chance that he’ll never walk again. He will never be able to play ball with his sons the same way. Driving his sons around in his car just like he did that day he was shot, will never happen again. I don’t care if there was a warrant out for his arrest, his criminal history is irrelevant to the fact that Rusten Sheskey attempted to murder him because of the sole reason that he is a Black man. To shoot at a helpless human being with the intention to kill is the ultimate crime, not Blake’s resistance.

Resisting should not result in being shot repeatedly, I mean look at the President; the fact that he is responsible for the many deaths of ICE victims, has committed numerous accounts of fraud, has been accused by 25 different women of sexual misconduct and there are people who still label him as a “good man”.

The fact that he is still in office.

For those who ask, “Why is everything about race?”

This is why.

"The double standard is that BIPOC are held to a different standard that is based primarily on the color of their skin."

Why is it that when we hear of a BIPOC person being a victim of police brutality their past is often brought up as if to justify the unequal response where others of a non-marginalized group are given the benefit of the doubt? In these cases, we are asked to pause and hear the “full story first”. Why was Dylan Roof able to go to Burger King after a racially motivated mass shooting while Tamir Rice was gunned down within the first 2 minutes of his encounter with a police officer...all because he was playing with a toy gun?

Two months ago at my first protest after the killing of George Floyd, I held up a sign that read “I’m tired”. I was truly just tired at the time. I felt helpless. I felt small. I felt the world was against my Black brothers, sisters and I.

This time around, you’d imagine that I am exhausted; however, I am quite the opposite: I am energized.

"I am energized because I know that it will require ENERGY to bring change. I know that it will take ENERGY to come to a solution in regards to legitimate reform and structural change within the system."

I am ready to do whatever it takes to make sure that my father and brothers are guaranteed the right to enjoy and take advantage of life in its entirety.

I know that it will take the whole nation’s energy to see REAL change, not just my Black brothers and sisters’.

So, will everyone please step up?

Oh, and vote.

-Kenedi Facey

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