It hit me tonight.  I saw another post about a variety of black men killed either by police or white vigilantes.  On it were pictures of these men as innocent kids from the past juxtaposed with mug shots or gang poses of their more immediate present.  In the past, I bemoaned the fact that the media always posts these innocent pictures of these men instead of some of the pictures in which these same men, now grown, are posing as hard and often flashing gang signs and such.  It felt like we were being duped into a false narrative that all these young men were completely innocent.  Maybe that was the intent, but tonight, I understand from different eyes. 

They show these young men in cap-n-gown after graduation to show they were willing to make something of themselves.  They show these young men in jerseys to show that at some point these young men had dreams and lives just like every other kid their age.  They show these kids clean-cut and hopeful for life to show these are anyone’s kids…if not everyone’s kids.  They show these kids innocently because that’s what they were, at least until they realized the system doesn’t work for them; until they realized their hard work and their hopes and dreams would go unnoticed and unfulfilled by a world tailored to other kids who simply won the racial lottery at birth; until they realized to simply survive they would have to compromise their own integrity to try to live in a world that has very little of its own.  These young men, full of potential, full of hope, realized the world wouldn’t even recognize them as men.  The world wouldn’t see their value or celebrate their potential.  The world wouldn’t think their lives mattered for anything. 

We should be shown these innocent pictures.  It’s only then that we might finally realize, like I did, that the system we enjoy, the system we take for granted, the system we support—that system broke these young men—that system is itself broken and dysfunctional.  That system took their innocence and spoiled their dreams.  That system killed them.  And that system is self-promoting. 

It continues to convince us white people that their lives don’t matter every time we look at their guilt instead of the innocence they once enjoyed.  It continues to convince us white people that their lives don’t matter every time we look at prison statistics without putting those statistics in the context that the system pushed them down the road of survival rather than the road of flourishment that we enjoy. It continues to convince black people that white people hate them or don’t see that their lives matter.  It continues to convince police officers that black people are inherently dangerous because they constantly deal with young men whom the system has failed and stolen their innocence.  It continues to convince black people that the police are out to get them because time and time again, their children, who were once innocent, have died at the hands of another officer whether they were guilty or not. 

I’m sure there are people reading this thinking, “Well, they still made the decision to go down that road.”  It’s one thing if you’ve grown up with every opportunity, every possibility, every advantage, and then chosen to walk down that road into darkness.  It’s a completely different thing to grow up with limited opportunities, few possibilities, and every disadvantage just because you are different and walk down that road because you are hopeless.  When you don’t think your own life matters, why would you care what anyone else thinks?  When you think your whole life is going to be a struggle, why would you care how you walk through that struggle?  When you think you are just trying to survive, why would you care about the rules of civilization?  Your context shapes you.  Your mindset shapes you.  These men have been shaped, and this inadequate system shaped them. 

Am I denying the guilt of those who actually committed crimes? No, but I am saying we definitely need to look back and see how many have been treated unfairly and convicted unjustly.  Am I saying we should open the prison gates and set everyone free?  No.  I’m saying we should mourn those who’ve been shaped into guilt.  I’m saying we should mourn a system that shapes them for guilt.  I’m saying we should mourn lives lost—lives that mattered.  I’m saying we should recognize our own part in their guilt.  It’s easy to blame the shooter, but when do we blame the one who gave the shooter his ammo and a reason to shoot? 

We need to be shown these innocent pictures because it is the system that is guilty, and through our association with it, it is we who are guilty.  We may see ourselves just as innocent, but as long as we willingly keep our heads in the sand and our hands in our pockets, it is we who need to look in a mirror and see a mugshot.   It’s time we convict a system designed to favor one man over another.  It’s time we put that system where it belongs—in the prison of history books that look back in condemnation.  It’s time we build a new system where truly Black Lives Matter as much as everyone else.