There Is No Comfort in Death

©2012 Maryam Ismail

Within the past month or so, African Americans have been killed either by police or self-defenders protected under the law.  Trayvon Martin was killed on February 26^th, According to a New York Times report, on March 24^th, in Pasadena,  California, Kendrec  McDade was shot at eight times and killed as he reached for his waistband, believing their lives were in danger. In Chicago, on March 22^nd, Rekia Boyd died after being shot in the head by an off duty police officer while hanging out in the park. These murders have pierced the heart of the African American community.

Add to this the murder of Shaima Alawadhi or racial profiling of Muslim students and mosque goers, and you have a common thread.  These are two groups of people that we (those who are participating within the structure of white supremacy) are not comfortable with you around us the way you presently, look, act, dress, talk or pray, etc.  In essence until you change so that we aren’t afraid of you, you shouldn’t be here.

 At the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair, on Saturday, Wajahat Ali, head researcher of the report, Fear Inc., stated that “Before it was Arabs or Muslims, but now Islam is the enemy.”  Knowing that this sentiment is pervasive, the story of Shaima Al Awadhi remains at the lower end of the spectrum in terms of coverage.

Also, the murder of Shaima Al Awadhi has seeming been pushed aside by the coverage of Martin and other killings of African Americans because, unlike hers, it’s a single incident. Another reason is that although some are suspecting her death as a probable hate crime it’s not one that involves the state or laws that justify vigilante justice which are now being used in incidents where racism comes into play.

 Nevertheless, this doesn’t mean that hate crimes against Muslims don’t happen. I’ve seen it happen shortly after 911. A man attacked a woman in the supermarket claiming that she (the representative of all Muslims world-wide) blew up the World Trade Center.  Little did he know that she had back up, my husband and his friends and I created such a fuss that the guy and his wife were escorted out of the store. The owners, the Corrado Brothers of Corrado’s in Clifton, New Jersey, were not going to let anyone disturb their customers. They were among the few that I’ve seen who would stand up for Muslims during that time.

The Martin case, has caused such outrage is mostly because of the circumstances around it clearly point to wrong doing. A kid visiting a relative in gated community, and was then approached by someone who didn’t live there. Listening to the recording of the phone call made by Martin’s killer to 9-1-1, we hear him being told, to not follow Martin; basically, leave him alone.

 I don’t know what went through George Zimmerman’s mind as he followed Martin. What I do know is that Martin’s death is a lynching. One that in the eyes of the law, is ok. It’s as Wild West as you could get; if you don’t like the way someone looks you can just kill him and get to go home.

“Stereotypes of a black man misunderstood, but it’s still all good,” rapper The Notorious B.I.G so aptly put it. But it wasn’t all good.

This is was especially the case in aftermath of the seemingly endless brutal violence in New York City duringthe 1990’s. Eleanor Bumpers, Michael Griffith, Gavin Cato, Aamadu Diallo are some of the names of the fallen. In retrospect, can’t help but see a pattern between what happened to him and New York during the tenure of Mayor David Dinkins and these final days of the Obama administration.

 Dinkins, the first African American mayor of New York City, whose skin color and history (race) proved to be more salt in old wounds then a healing balm of the African Americans living there.  Most of you may not know the many names of those who died during that decade in New York City alone, but they represent the terror of the 1990’s. Many were victims of perception. In 1994, Dinkins was followed by Rudolph  Guliani. He had a different approach he used paddy wagons that rounded up everyone who look like they didn’t belong on the streets of New York.

During the Guliani administration, 1999,  Ahmadu Diallo a Guinean college student,  was shot 41 times by off-duty New York police officers as he reached for his wallet (they assumed it was a gun).  Initially, his killers were indicted by a Bronx grand jury, but after a ‘change of venue’ which moved the trial to Albany, where they were acquitted.

 This Saturday on the Melissa Harris Perry Show, Diallo’s mother came out to speak about the similarities between the killing of her son and Trayvon Martin. One element has been the attempts to portray Trayvon in a negative light, something that Kadiatou Diallo called “Heartbreaking. First suffering the loss of a child, then having to go out and defend his honor.”

I have two sons in the US, both African American and Muslim and I pray every day for their safety. I listened to the terrifying howling of what is now being said to be the voice of Trayvon Martin, and then, I heard the sound of a gunshot. I felt it bounce off my heart. After that, I didn’t hear anymore howling.