Same Old America

It has now been over 3 months since 25 year-old Ahmaud Arbery was out for a run through a Georgian neighbourhood and was shot and killed after being pursued by vehicle by a pair of white men. Another white man was following in another truck, recording a video of the murder, which he later anonymously posted online. Ahmaud was unarmed, and did not do anything to provoke such a brutally horrific act of violence. This was clearly an act of racism, and I couldn’t help but draw the connections to what we are learning about in this civil rights movement.

I had been waiting to write this post as although the killing took place in late February, the case has seen all kinds of ups and downs as it worked its way through the legal system. The main issue with moving the case was that the man who fatally shot Arbery, Gregory McMichael, had previously worked in both the local police department, as well as the District Attorneys office. Because of this, there was significant conflict-of-interest, and combined with the current state of the world with coronavirus, things moved exceptionally slow. As things stand today however,  Gregory McMichael and his son Travis, have both been charged with felony murder and aggravated assault. The man who unrecorded the video, William “Roddie” Bryan, was charged with felony murder and attempt to commit false imprisonment.

Although the men involved have all been brought to justice, things are by no means settled. Ahmaud is still gone, and that will never change. The topic of racial profiling and racially motivated violence is one that runs deep throughout America. Although we hear about them consistently, it seems with all these tragic occurrences, not much changes. In fact, this act of violence has a striking resemblance to the lynching of Emmett Till in 1955.

What initially sparked my connection to the case of Emmett Till was a Twitter post by civil rights activist and writer, Shaun King, that read “This is the lynching of Ahmaud Arbery”. The only other lynching I knew about was that of Emmett Till, way back in 1955. After doing some research on both cases, the similarities between the two are certainly notable. The biggest difference however, is that the two men who lynched Emmett Till, Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, were not convicted of their crimes.

This got me thinking. I wonder how things would have gone if people had the ability to speak up and voice their stance on injustice the way people do today. With the news of Ahmaud’s murder, dozens of top celebrities took to social media to display both their disgust of what happened and their demand for justice. These celebrities were of all different backgrounds, both white and black among others. Now, I understand that its not neccesarily the lack of Instagram that made things the way they were back then. Racism was far more widespread than today. However, it is well-documented that numerous white celebrities of the 50s were firm supporters of the civil rights movement. This is what sparked my artifact for this post.

What I’ve done here is imagine if the same abilities of social media were present in the 50s for people to share their thoughts on issues and topics. Marlon Brando, one of the most famous actors ever was a supporter of the civil rights movement, and in fact attended the March on Washington 8 years after the lynching of Emmett Till. I can’t help but wonder if the unfortunate story of Till would have been different if services like Instagram and Twitter were available 70 years. Perhaps then the social climate of the country would have been able to unite and pressure the legal system in to convicting the men responsible.

Anyways, the point is that some things to do with the civil rights movement have certainly changed for the better, however there’s clearly still a long way to go before there’s no need for such a movement.