Erica Brown (photo from her website by Marilyn Stringer)
Erica Brown on Facebook, 8/28/20: It’s 3:30am, and I cannot sleep. I need to be up in a couple of hours to get to work. I awakened with thoughts in my head of the horrible place my People and my family are in in this America. My sister related a story to me last night of an evening a little while back when she and her son were returning from being out, and drove their car up to her condo complex, remarking on the fact that there were police lights not far from where they were, and wondering what was going on.
They were suddenly approached by two police officers who blinded my Nephew, who was driving, with a flashlight and roughly asked what they were doing there. My Sister said that she lived there, and that her son was dropping her off. She looked over, and saw a second officer standing just behind the first, with his hand on his service revolver.
The first then asked the question again, and she repeated her statement. The first officer demands to see identification. As my sister is getting her ID out, she drops it on the floor of the car. My nephew, who has advised the officer that he can’t see to get his ID because of the light in his face, looks over as my sister drops her ID. He slowly advises the officer that his mother has dropped her ID, and he wants to help her find it, and also get his own out of his wallet. His hands are in plain sight on the steering wheel.
Before the officer can answer, his walkie-talkie blares with a message… Shots fired!! Shots fired!!” The first officer roughly commands them…”just get in your house!!” And they hurriedly leave. My sister and her son sit for a moment, and try to take in what has happened to them. She then kisses her son and goes inside. My Nephew carefully drives away.
This scenario could have easily turned tragic, had those officers decided to escalate the situation further. I am painfully reminded of Philando Castile. I am painfully reminded of the Black children terrorized at the Safeway on Krameria Street [in Denver] who had guns drawn on them because of a supposed “report of a man with a gun” I am horrifyingly reminded of the Black family with young children handcuffed in broad daylight and made to lie on hot asphalt because of a “mistake”.
Have you ever taken a drink of water, and it “went down the wrong pipe” and you choked and gasped till you could regain your breath? Multiply that by probably about a million, WITH NO WAY TO FIX IT, and you have a fraction of what George Floyd felt as he lay dying, crying for his Mother. Have you ever been ill and thrown up, and felt the awful heaving in your chest, and the terrible nausea that accompanied it, ‘til whatever was wrong was out of your body? Multiply that by a million, and you have the choking, WITH NO WAY TO FIX IT, that [musician/violinist] Elijah McClain felt as his body reacted to the inability to breathe. Can you imagine how his body struggled? My heart aches, and my eyes sting with tears for the horror of their last moments.
It’s so easy to sit on a keyboard and talk about “what people should have done” when confronted with a life-threatening situation. You are the same people who would look in that grieving Black Mother’s face and say the same thing. “Well, if he had just complied”… The soullessness of what it takes to do that is beyond me. Yet, I personally know some of you who say those things, and would stand with your righteousness proudly waving. Yet you also say you love me. How can you stand on such belief and live with yourself?? NOTHING justifies such a harsh response, if the Police are “in charge” of a situation. “To Protect and SERVE”. I’m waiting for that to NOT include terrorism and death. And until Police stop killing US, it will be our reality.
Good Morning, White America. In a few moments I will leave home to face an uncertain day, where anything could go wrong, SIMPLY BECAUSE OF THE COLOR OF MY SKIN.
It’s 4:26 am, and I cannot sleep.
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Miss Erica Brown is a Singer, Songwriter, Recording Artist and Actress based in Denver, CO.
She has been singin’ the blues all her life and has truly seen and lived the Blues. As she shares her gifts with the world, the world has taken notice, from publications like Living Blues and Chicago Blues Guide in the US to Blues Matters in the UK, and Rootstime in Belgium.