Letter to Editor | Say my name

— from Sherry Vinson —

I’m wondering if I have the right to even write this letter; a privileged white woman living a privileged white life in a privileged white community.

If Sean Bell were white, rowdy from hosting a bachelor party at a strip club the night before his wedding, he wouldn’t have tried to get away after police started harassing him. They pumped 50 bullet holes into his car as he tried to flee.

If Tanisha Anderson were a mentally ill white woman, she wouldn’t have been slammed down on the pavement, while her family watched from the window of their home. That slam killed her. 

Too bad Tamir Rice, 12 years-old, was playing with a fake pistol in a park near his home. He was black, and he was shot dead. 

George Floyd, well, his story is still fresh in our minds. Yeah, bummer that he passed a counterfeit bill to buy a pack of cigarettes. And for that, he was caught in a chokehold for so long that it killed him. That he was black is still fresh in our minds as well.

We’re so used to the phrase “police brutality” that it no longer gets through to us, if it ever did. 

To protest is to act. What if we white folk formed a line, two deep, in front of all protesters of color. Would our whiteness squelch the pepper spray tear gas rubber bullets?

Say Their Names.