We must remember Jacksonville
OPINION: We cannot allow the mass murder of Black people to become the new normal where we cannot even shop for groceries, pray in church or enjoy an outing with friends for fear of being randomly gunned down by a racist intent on “exterminating” Black people.
Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
I know Jacksonville, Florida, pretty well. My maternal grandparents lived in Yulee, a beautiful small town just 26 miles north of the “big city.” My father’s family is from the Miami area, and even though they were geographically 350 miles south of the Jacksonville area, the northern Florida area always felt like the Deep South. So, it is sadly no surprise that after years of racist rhetoric from the Republicans — one of the nation’s two major parties — the defunding of education and Black history in schools, the easing of gun access and the proliferation of gun owners, and the defunding of mental health facilities and assistance, we have the tragic events in Jacksonville, where a racist gunman specifically targeted a Black community with the sole intent of taking Black lives.
Before the gunman went to the Dollar General and opened fire, killing three innocent victims: Anolt Joseph “A.J.” Laguerre Jr., 19; Jerrald De’Shaun Gallion, 29; and Angela Michelle Carr, 52, he attempted to gain access to Edward Waters University’s campus, a historically Black college founded in 1866 by members of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. The school was initially founded as a school to educate freedmen and their children and was the first independent institution of higher education and the first historically black college in the state of Florida.
The story of an aggrieved white man with a gun intent on murdering innocent Black people is eerily similar to other stories we’ve heard about in the last few years whereby armed white men attempt to gain access to HBCU campuses to live out their wishes of taking innocent Black lives but were thwarted by security guards who took their job quite seriously. Luckily for the thousands of Black students who attend these colleges and universities, those gunmen have not been successful. However, what we have seen are white (and now a growing number of Latino) men targeting Black people at church, the grocery store or even a nightclub. What’s even more horrifying is that these gunmen who have targeted and murdered innocent Black people span the country — from New York to South Carolina to Florida to Texas to California and far too many states in between.
We can no longer use the outdated language of “racially motivated”; these are racist acts. Nor can we see these men as “lone gunman.” These men are being radicalized somewhere. The consistent messages they are receiving from the Republican Party, from Republican presidential candidates, from the former president of the United States Donald Trump, from groups on the internet, and from right-wing media is that they must “take their country back.” They are being fed a steady diet of victimhood where equity of any kind feels like a loss.
They are being indoctrinated into a world where everyone is a boogie man to them and coming to steal what they have been told is rightfully and solely theirs. That is, the country is by and for white men and immigrants, Black people, LGBTQ+ Americans, Jewish people and many other groups do not belong, and in many instances, should not exist. Therefore, it is not surprising that the gunman in Jacksonville had a swastika on his gun. Antisemitism from these types of murders is often linked to their hatred of Black people, women and many other groups.
The men who now consistently target innocent Black communities have not been educated about the real history of this nation. The brutal nature of the founding fathers, the horrors of chattel slavery, the persistent inequities various racial and ethnic groups experienced and continue to experience, and the economic violence that has been waged on these groups. The policies of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis only make the ignorance and erasure of this history more palpable. As my colleague, Michael Harriot, astutely pointed out on an episode of “The Grio Daily,” the attempt isn’t just to erase Black history; the real attempt is to erase white history and the brutality that has been waged on every non-white group in this country since its inception.
Sadly, the horrific events in Jacksonville will not be the last. There is a persistent reticence on behalf of the Republican Party to support any substantive gun legislation or funding for mental health services in this country. There is even more silence from the party in calling out the violent acts of its supporters. The party will continue to offer thoughts and prayers, appear in a photo opportunity and turn around and sign legislation that restricts or removes rights for non-white groups in their states.
As the party looks more and more like a cult with each passing tragedy, we as a nation are becoming more and more numb to the reality of this targeted racist violence. We must not allow ourselves to let this become a new normal where we cannot even shop for groceries or pray in church or enjoy an outing with friends for fear of being randomly gunned down by a racist who believes it is his right to “exterminate” Black people.
Ron DeSantis is on a mission to end the “woke agenda,” and to that I say, we must stay woke and wake others. This brutal violence seen in Florida is as American as apple pie and baseball; that is a reality. Trying to erase the brutal past in the state of Florida is part of a longer continuum of conservatives who would like people to believe that this is a lone event. It is not.
What is also a reality is that our parents, grandparents and ancestors fought to change policies and laws in this country and we must do the same. We must continue to organize, vote and support candidates working to dismantle racist government structures and policies. We must do this work in order to honor the victims of this latest tragedy to ensure that fewer families and communities feel the pain of these racist acts.
Christina Greer, Ph.D., is an associate professor at Fordham University, the author of “Black Ethnics: Race, Immigration, and the Pursuit of the American Dream”, and the host of The Blackest Questions podcast at TheGrio.
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