What makes human beings unique in the animal kingdom?
It isn’t the capacity for Reason — we know ravens and other creatures can solve problems and use tools.
It isn’t a tendency to display compassionate behavior — we know chimpanzees share food in lean times and care for abandoned young when their mothers die.
So what is it?
One possibility is that humans are unique in our ability to rationalize murder. Animals kill because it’s their nature, because it’s a tool for survival. Humans kill because it’s a convenient solution to our most inconvenient problems.
No matter how many triumphant, inspirational, so-called “first-hand” accounts of “white lights” and “warm feelings” populate bookstores in America, there’s absolutely no scientific evidence for an afterlife. Deep down, we know it’s the end. But we try our best to forget about that fact — particularly when our violent natures get the best of us.
If we weren’t so good at rationalizing murder, we probably wouldn’t be so quick to use violence to solve our problems. If the phrase “s/he’s in a better place now” wasn’t constantly on our lips, ready for the next disaster, we might think twice about actively condoning violence and actually look for an alternative to Perpetual Warfare.
But because we’re so damned good at rationalizing murder, at forgiving it, almost instinctively, we’re plagued with the sort of headlines we’ve seen in recent weeks, months, years, and decades: another unarmed black man shot by white racists. Another angry black man taking potshots at police officers in (alleged) retaliation.
Murder — not discourse, not Reason — has become our tool of choice.
Indifferent to Death
The recent, completely unnecessary murder of Philandro Castille in Falcon Heights, Minnesota is only the latest example of our indifference to death. Before that, there was:
– Alton Sterling — Tuesday, July 5, 2016 — Baton Rouge, Louisiana
– Sandra Bland — July 10, 2015 — Prairie View, Texas
– Freddie Gray — April 12, 2015 — Baltimore, Maryland
– Walter Scott — April 4, 2015 — North Charleston, South Carolina
– Tamir Rice — November 23, 2014 — Cleveland Ohio
– Laquan McDonald — October 20, 2014 — Chicago, Illinois
– Michael Brown — August 9, 2014 — Ferguson, Missouri
– Eric Garner — July 17, 2014 — Staten Island, New York
The above individuals are the ones we remember by name, but more than 100 unarmed human beings with dark skin were murdered by police officers in 2015 alone.
Let’s make one thing abundantly clear: Taking to the streets to point out BLACK LIVES MATTER is not a denouncement of white lives. It’s not a declaration of war against cops. It’s a very simple statement: one that should be abundantly obvious to any emotionally mature adult with both a brain and a heart. If you come across the phrase BLACK LIVES MATTER and your first thought is anything other than, “Yes, of course they do,” you’re probably a terrible person. You’re not a traitor to your race for acknowledging that murder is wrong.
One more thing: yes, of course, white folks are shot and killed by police officers on a regular basis as well. No thinking person would dispute that. But if you run the numbers for yourself, you’ll find the mathematical fallacy in this type of rationalization. Black people account for just 13 percent of the US population, but account for 24 percent of police killings.
That means black people are 2.5 times as likely to be killed by police officers than white people are. This isn’t an imagined problem — it’s not the result of some victim complex. It’s the kind of hatred we can literally calculate.
The Pantomime Continues
How’d we get here? How did we become so indifferent to death? Why are we so comfortable, so talented, at equivocating about murder, about sweeping it under the rug, when Mother Nature is already so capable of ending our lives for us? Those of us who live in disaster-prone areas of the country recognize the pragmatism in assembling a disaster preparedness kit or funding FEMA with tax revenue collected from American citizens. So why do we balk at taking measures to prevent disasters of our own making?
Consider what usually happens in the immediate aftermath of each of our high-profile murders:
1. People close to the victims call for “peace” before the violence escalates even further.
2. The President stands in front of the nation again to denounce murder again and ask us again to look for other ways to solve our problems.
3. Our deeply Conservative Congress offers “thoughts” and “prayers” instead of taking any tangible actions that might help curb similar explosions of violence in the future.
It’s like we’re running in a maze of our own design, totally unaware of our spectacular, shared failures. We keep committing the same atrocities, offering the same empty platitudes and forgiving all the wrong people — again and again and again, as though doing so is not one of many possible definitions of the word insanity.
I’m not here to tell you that religion or supernatural beliefs lie at the heart of this problem, but I’m not shy about telling you they’re not helping. One of the oldest purposes of religion is to explain the things we don’t understand — and death, even today, is at the top of that list. But because we tell ourselves death is all part of The Plan, and there’s no real consequences for these Heaven-bound “heroes” who got caught in the line of fire, we in turn rob ourselves of any real reason to change.