Is a stereotype worth taking a life?

I have been disturbed recently regarding the Michael Dunn trial. For those of you who don’t know, Michael Dunn is on trial for the murder of Jordan Davis and attempted murder of three other teens because they allegedly wouldn’t turn down their loud rap music. The word, wow, comes to mind when I watch CNN or read the case information. How could this happen? What drove Mr. Dunn to commit such a heinous crime? Was it because he felt disrespected by the teens’ refusal to turn down the music, or was it because he felt immersed in a stereotype that violence would immediate follow the derogatory exchange of words between a white man and black teens? Let’s open the door…

It is the current society norm to associate black teens to disrespect, bad attitude, cursing, rap music, saggy pants, violence…the negative list could go on and on. Sadly, it is a list that describes young men and young ladies in every race, however, it is a list that is associated with black youth more often than not. When I query members of an audience when I speak to see which stereotype is associated with which ethnic group, most admit that they were raised thinking the negative list that I previously mentioned is associated with all black people. As a race relations advocate, it is my job to knock down and erase the stereotypes that cause division between American ethnicities. When I breakdown the stereotypes with those misguided individuals, they feel ashamed to have lived their lives by stereotypes. I have had many approach me or email my website, http://www.breakingthelinebooks.com, to tell me how their mind has been opened and of their continued effort to bring that same way of thinking to their family and friends. I or my staff dutifully send them a “pat on the back” so to speak, to motivate their decision to bring racial change to their personal world. After all, one rock is all that is needed to create ripples.

Now, in saying all that I do not condone the actions of Mr. Dunn, nor do I seek to give him justification for his crime. What I do as a race relations advocate is look at a negative or positive racial situation to see what can be done to bring awareness to it or motivate a change. Could the situation have gone differently had Mr. Dunn not felt the white privilege of telling a black person what to do and having his orders taken immediately or adhering to the negative stereotype of black teen = violence? In my humble opinion, yes, the situation could have been resolved by each party turning and walking away. Whatever went down before Mr. Dunn pulled a gun was not worth taking a life.

A couple of years ago, I sat at a liquor store in South Dallas waiting on a friend to exit the store. A truck playing loud rock music pulled up next to me with a group of white men in it. I can remember thinking that the music was loud and obnoxious, but I also remember raising my windows and turning up my own music. I glanced their way to see the men in the back licking their tongues in a gross manner at me. I turned away and, suddenly, their music seemed to get louder. I glanced back at them to see them all smiling, laughing, and shooting me the middle finger or making obscene gestures. My friend exited the store at that time to see their actions; she cursed at them and made her own obscene gesture to which the white men laughed. I drove away and never gave that situation another thought until today. In reflection, I wonder what I would have done if I hadn’t been raised with racial tolerance and acceptance. Would I have felt disrespected or intimidated enough to take violent action? Knowing myself, I probably would have chalked the white men’s behavior up to ignorance and kept ignoring them. Ah, if only everyone had my colorblind vision.

Oh, well, I guess it doesn’t matter now because Jordan Davis’ young life was ended, and we cannot live in the should have, could have, or would have. I can only pray that at some point–whether it is now or in the future–all cultures become intelligent enough to see past the stereotypes and experience a world without color before more lives are lost to senseless killing. After all, we are not born with the knowledge of stereotypes, it is learned.