The birth of my blog was influenced by my travels and my evolving perspectives based on experience. I am back home in Cincinnati and have witnessed a large amount of events surely to be written in future textbooks. Once I had returned to America, I did not feel the need to vocalize my experiences as they did not seem as flashy and exciting, yet sometimes the ugly nature of mankind needs to be addressed. That being said I have now broken my silence on this matter. Here are my thoughts regarding the University of Cincinnati Police Officer, Ray Tensing's fatal shooting of Sam Dubose.
Shock and disbelief were among my first thoughts once hearing of this event. I have been a UC student for the past 3 years and during my time living off campus I have never heard of such an injustice. I stayed off social media regarding the matter at the time, as I knew I would become frustrated by people's poorly researched opinion statuses. I watched the video in it's entirety and followed the news only informing myself of the basics. When Tensing's indictment and the video were released to the public our UC President, Santa Ono, made the call to shutdown the university. The city did not know what the public reaction would be, so the streets became patrolled by SWAT teams. All while Dubose's family pleaded no matter what the outcome of the ruling or what was seen on the video, to remain peaceful. Once Tensing was indicted for murder, I witnessed and online outrage from the UC and Cincinnati community. People were angry about what happened. They wanted answers. They wanted justice. The universal consensus was that Tensing was in the wrong for his actions. The most common questions I had seen related to why Tensing felt the need to shoot an unarmed man who was pulled over for not having a front license plate. Why was this seen as a priority of a university police officer? When it came down to the bottom line, discrimination of race was the most accepted answer.
Today on my first day of classes one of my professors brought up this issue and invited the class to express their thoughts and emotions on the matter. I was taken aback as this class was Visual Arts Education. My professor brought up the importance and the issues with race that are involved in the urban, low-income education field and that we as educators should work to ensure that every child has the same access to a quality public education. The first person to speak about Sam Dubose was a white female fine arts major in her final year of undergrad. She explained how shocked she was at the matter, yet it did not feel real to her as she did not experience any of the events first hand as she was living in Denver at the time. The next student to speak was a white male fine arts student. He expressed shock as well since he knew Ray Tensing and he "seemed like a normal guy." He further explained how he has several friends in the UC and Cincinnati police force. Our professor noted how it's interesting how one action can label a human being. Such as since Tensing shot and killed a man he was deemed evil in all of his actions. She then turned to a African American male student in the room asking him if his race came into play into any discriminatory event in his life. He said he accepted it as it is and tries to live in life without it getting in his way, he's accepting of being labeled the "token black kid." He wants to live the same life as anyone else. He also briefly noted that he, himself was followed by a UCPD officer from campus to his home off campus in an act of racial profiling. He then expressed his frustrations in the shooting, as he personally knew Sam Dubose. The room filled with a tension in the air as if there was a pitting against the student who knows Tensing and the student who knew Dubose.
Our professor then took us to The Philip M. Meyers Jr. Gallery on Mainstreet, UC campus. The exhibit was titled drawn and described as "A space dedicated to the students, faculty and staff of the University of Cincinnati to draw together in the wake of the shooting death of Samuel Dubose." The room was covered in black vinyl chalkboard sheets with chalk encouraging students, faculty, and staff to express thoughts. Thoughts sparked by hanging banners with news lines regarding the matter, each banner was black on one side and white on the other. In the center of the room were chairs placed in a circle allowing for conversation, as well as texts regarding racial profiling and the justice system. To say this exhibit was emotional would be an understatement. Reading these handwritten thoughts and made everything seem so much more real than a standard news article. A quote that caught my eye was, "I don't want to be another hashtag because the color of my skin and the stereotypes associated with it," which referred to the popular hashtag #BlackLivesMatter. Another interesting quote was, "If you ever wondered what it would be like to live in the civil rights movement and what role you would play, you are right now." More included, "Don't stop asking questions!" and "Why is there a default response to blame the victim?" The distraught transcended immensely through each and every statement written on those walls. It was clear that no one was in any way happy with this matter.
What I saw next changed my perspectives of human nature. I had a preconception that humankind was not exactly good, in fact I believed we are cruel. Yet, after today that changed. I looked outside the window of the gallery and saw the two men who knew Dubose and Tensing conversing. They seemed to be in the middle of a discussion, yet in no way an argumentative manner. As I observed the conversation, it transitioned into a friendly manner and the two were smiling and laughing by the end. I was truly amazed by this exchange, I'm pretty sure that half of the class was expecting an outburst from the two students. Seeing my fellow classmates come together to form a common ground from this situation made the event more real and solvable. In Cincinnati and at UC we are a community. Events like this should in no way drive us apart. The 'writing on the wall' analogy came to mind when viewing drawn. It cannot be ignored no matter what may try to cover it up. We are experiencing history our children will be reading about in textbooks. Education should be implemented now more than ever. Educate yourself on both sides of the matter. Try to understand your privilege or lack thereof based on the color of your skin. Look to the future, yet don't forget the past to recognize our culture. Make educated decisions when it comes to the next step to reform issues regarding racial profiling in the justice system. Everything is not what it seems. Digging deeper rather than only observing what is on the surface is the answer.
