The Quotable Black Scholar: Omotayo Banjo on the History of Violence Against Black Men
Omotayo Banjo, Assistant Professor of Communication, University of Cincinnati.
(Source: UC.edu.)
I was in my Penn State graduate computer lab when I learned of the death of Sean Bell. I groaned with disappointment and immediately expressed my frustration to my fellow graduate students who were Asian and white. I told them the story of a young man in New York who was shot 50 times by police when coming home from his bachelor party at 3 a.m.
The police thought he was someone else.
My fellow white, male graduate student replied, “Well, what was he doing out so late?”
I cannot forget the heat with which my blood boiled at this dismissive question. It was my first lesson in the paradox of the intelligentsia. One can study and read to be enlightened and still be very blind.
–From “UC Communication Professor: Eric Garner, Michael Brown stir echoes of Sean Bell, Emmett Till,” WCPO Cincinnati.
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