Why Black Lies Matter

 

 I walked down the sidewalk on a typically hot Texas summer day. We all know the sidewalk is intersected by a street every block in your average neighborhood, and this was your average neighborhood.  Average for many reasons, including for the fact many blacks live here in peace,  including the one who was riding down the sidewalk on his bike.  Now I was walking in his direction and he was riding in my direction on the sidewalk, and we were separated only by the street which interposed perpendicularly between us. 

In the street a car was idling at the stop sign.  I saw the driver was staring down at her phone, probably pulling up directions.  It occurred to me that she might be so preoccupied with her directions that she might start pulling out into the intersection before looking up again.  So
I crossed with a wide berth behind her vehicle. 

Now the black rider saw something different.  Instead of seeing the driver, he saw me.  He saw me going out of my way to avoid something.  He thought that something was him.  Of course I mind my business when out, so he initiated contact by yelling “Yeah! Go all the way around the black man!” 

As he said this he rode into street at the same time the car pulled out, just as I had feared would happen.  I yelled back “look out!” but it was too late.  The driver pulled out and tossed the rider from his bike.

He struck his head on the pavement and it opened a fountain through the freakishly large gash.  I rushed to his side and tore off every article of clothing decency could allow to cushion, comfort, and stanch the rush of blood. As we waited for the ambulance, he told me something I’ll never forget. 

“All my life I have looked for white racism everywhere I have gone.  Now that today has come, my life will end because of it.  I regret that I looked for racism instead of the threat which was really confronting me.  Don’t let my death be a waste too.  Tell my people that the lies we tell our children are killing us.  Tell them Black Lies Matter.”

 

That boy died out there on the street that day.  While he may be gone, the lesson isn’t. 

 

Seeing white racism where it doesn’t exist is not just innocent fun, it has deadly consequences.