We Matter Read online

  I also had to teach him about Emmett Till, James Byrd Jr., Amadou Diallo, Sean Bell, Oscar Grant, Rodney King, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Rekia Boyd, Philando Castile, Sandra Bland, Michael Brown, Terence Crutcher, John Crawford, Alton Sterling, and Freddie Gray.

  I had to teach him these things for his own safety. I wish I didn’t have to take away his innocence, but for his own well being, I had to.

  I started taking my son to panel discussions to hear different perspectives. He has met Jahvaris Fulton (Trayvon Martin’s brother) a few times, and each time Malcolm was hit hard. One of those panel discussions took place at the Congressional Black Caucus. I was on a program with attorney Benjamin Crump, and the Martin family came in between their own panels and listened. After the event, Malcolm went up to Jahvaris and hugged him, and I saw his eyes tearing up.

  Later that day, Malcolm and I had the following exchange:

  Malcolm: “Dad, I understand why you do these panels that you do where you combine different athletes and celebrities with people like Jahvaris who have lost a brother or a family member to the police, but why aren’t these panels shown on TV?”

  Me: “Why do you feel they should be on TV?”

  Malcolm: “Because everyone needs to see how they are affected by what has happened to them, and people need to keep saying how wrong this is. I get why you have the celebrities and the athletes too, because people know them and they draw the people there because they want to hear the athletes talk, and while they are there, they hear them talk about issues like what’s going on with the police and society and schools and everything you all talk about. You should keep doing these, Daddy. They are really helpful. In fact, I want to write another poem that I can perform because I want to help too.”

  I was very moved by the impact that Jahvaris Fulton had on my son. I was also pleased that Jahvaris then allowed me to interview him for this book, and appreciative that he spoke with me so candidly about everything that he and his family have had to deal with in the aftermath of their tragedy.

  Me and Malcolm showing our support for Trayvon Martin.

  Interview with Jahvaris Fulton

  (Brother of Trayvon Martin)

  Etan: On March 23, 2012, the Miami Heart released a statement in support of your brother. What has been the impact of that statement?

  Jahvaris Fulton: It was just all shocking, to be honest. Because we never expected anybody to really say anything, let alone LeBron and the team . . . I am not sure if this has happened before. Not like this. Where this many athletes come out and support. I mean, my brother was not the first one to have this happen to him. But there was this connection to my brother that pushed them to all come out in support. So we really didn’t expect it would turn into this. And definitely not with the president. I mean, President Obama, we figured had to make a generic statement about it, but he personalized it. He said, If I had a son . . . I feel like my brother was the tipping point. This has been going on for a while, and people have been seeing them get away with it, and they just grew tired. Like this is enough. And the terrible thing is it’s happened before him and is still happening after him . . .

  Millions of people watch NBA games, NFL games, hockey games, every single week. So the volume of people that have the ability to touch just by making a statement is astronomical . . . We were definitely appreciative of the different athletes speaking out on our behalf because, to be quite honest, it couldn’t have happened without you guys . . . and the tremendous amount of support we received from the community. Everybody had to come together in order for it to be a movement. People around the world know my brother’s name. I don’t know if a lot of people know this, but in the beginning, the news outlets didn’t want to run the story.

  Etan: Oh wow, I didn’t know that.

  Fulton: We had to literally fight for this to be a story. We had to almost beg and plead for local news to cover what happened to my brother, and they didn’t want to do it. But when athletes started talking about it on their various platforms on social media, and when they took that picture in the hoodies, it almost forced the media to cover it and it forced people from around the country to take notice because these athletes were talking so passionately about this. So if it weren’t for you guys, I honestly think people would never have even heard the name Trayvon Martin. I remember one time, my parents were literally pitching the story to different stations and they had the attitude that this isn’t news. Just another dead young Black man isn’t newsworthy enough for them to run a story. Now, there was one reporter who tried to help and I can’t remember her name . . . You have to excuse me because, as I said, so much from that time is a blur and I’m trying not to lose it even recalling that time period now . . .

  My emotions just flow differently nowadays and I kind of cry at the slightest hint of anything. But . . . she was the only one who at least tried to help and tried to run a story on it, but nobody really wanted to.

  Etan: Dwyane Wade talked about why this hit him so hard and LeBron spoke passionately about it, and you saw a lot of athletes pose with their sons in hoodies. I myself posed on social media with my son Malcolm in a hoodie.

  Fulton: The personal connections that I saw were really amazing to me for a lot of reasons. Sometimes people think that athletes are so far removed from things that go on in the community or that you can’t relate to things that happen in everyday life, and I think one of the things that was so striking was so many athletes talked about your sons, and the fact that y’all are Black men, and that this could’ve happened to anyone, and it made you all scared for your children, not just outraged. That was really . . . words can’t even express.

  Etan: Tell me about all of the work you have been doing since then.

  Fulton: I’ve been doing a lot. Currently I work for the young men’s initiative out of the mayor’s office. Mayor Bill de Blasio here in New York. Our job is to create opportunities for young people of color throughout the city. Mentoring programs, tutoring programs, programs for court-involved youth. There’s programs for young fathers . . . A lot of young people of color aren’t given opportunities, depending on where they live, and their household income, and resources that are in their neighborhood, it’s just not a level playing field. So, we provide those opportunities . . . and introduce them to the networks that wouldn’t give them a second look, or bridge those gaps where some of these hard-working, aspiring young men and women get a better chance at life.

  Etan: Talk about the Trayvon Martin Foundation.

  Fulton: Both of my parents wanted to create a space that was healing for parents, so that’s why my mom brings in the mothers, and they have their circle of mothers and it’s just relaxation and healing. And my dad’s is more about talking in actions. There is definitely still healing there as well. And the overall goal is to support other families that are like us. So many people call the office and they want to know what they should do next.

  And I see my brother in so many of the people we help, and we only have so much time here on this earth and everyone should feel the need to help someone else. But sometimes it takes a tragedy for someone to step into their purpose . . . And I am starting to sound like my mother, but it’s true, she always said that with great power comes great responsibility . . . Essentially, I have been given the tools, so not to do anything with them is just wrong. I wear this bracelet on my wrist and on this side it says, I Am Trayvon Martin, and on the other side it says, You Are Trayvon Martin, and I keep this as a reminder of my brother. Not to say that I’ll forget, I am always reminded of him. Like I said, I see him in so many of the young men we serve. I see young men on the train who remind me of him in some way; they may walk like him or laugh or smile like him. So how could I not help these young men who remind me so much of my brother?

  Etan: I’ve seen your family speaking everywhere: the Congressional Black Caucus, the National Action Network, the NAACP, the Urban League. That takes a lot of strength because you are pouring yourself out at a time wh
en you are still grieving.

  Fulton: I try not to do a lot of public speaking in front of audiences, because honestly, it’s tough for me. But my strength with their strength only comes from above . . . My best friend’s mom passed away toward the end of last year and she asked me how I made it through this, and I told her, “You should keep people around you that are good people, people you enjoy being around . . . not negative people.” And I think for my family, that’s something that I noticed from the beginning that we kind of did . . . The family we had just stayed around. After my brother passed, it was months before it was just me and my mother in the house alone. Every day, there was family over with us. And that was invaluable. I think if we had stayed in the home by ourselves, we probably would have gone crazy. We stayed busy, we still kept things going.

  Etan: What can athletes and people in general do now to help?

  Fulton: I guess now we are ready for action. I do think we have talked and talked, and I think we will always talk, but now it’s time for action . . . What I like to tell people from what I have seen from my experiences is to speak with your elected officials. I have seen it. They listen to who comes in the office . . . They are the ones making the rules and making the laws, so if you could get a group to go and sit and talk with your congressperson, that can really be impactful.

  Malcolm and Jahvaris after a panel at the Congressional Black Caucus.

  Interview with Emerald Snipes

  (Daughter of Eric Garner)

  I first met Emerald Snipes when I invited her to a Black Lives Matter panel discussion I put on during NBA All-Star Weekend in Harlem in 2015. The year before, her father, Eric Garner, was choked to death by NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo. She was nervous and didn’t know if she wanted to speak. I told her not to worry at all, that just her presence was enough, and I wanted her to feel the love from the community. I told her that she didn’t have to say a word unless she wanted to. There were over 2,500 young Black and Latino men in the audience. At one point she gave me a signal that she wanted to say something. I was glad that she did. She kept it short and sweet and really just thanked all of the young men for supporting her and said that she wanted them to make sure they listened to what all of the panelists were saying and that no matter what anybody tells them, their lives matter. She received a standing ovation. I could see that she was completely overwhelmed by the amount of love and support she received from the audience.

  After a few months, she reached out to me to share that she and her sister had been invited to a town hall forum in Washington, DC, with President Obama. What she really wanted to share was her experience meeting Alton Sterling’s son, Cameron, who was also invited to the town hall. Cameron told Emerald that he saw her speaking at the Black Lives Matter panel we held during All-Star Weekend, and it gave him strength. His father had been killed by police in July 2016. He thanked her for being a symbol of courage for him. She told me how she was completely blown away because at the time, she was extremely nervous about speaking publicly and didn’t feel very strong at all, but here was this young man who was inspired by her. That’s when she told me that she was ready to do some more speaking. “I’m ready now,” she said.

  After that, we started appearing at events together. We spoke at a rally for Colin Kaepernick outside of the NFL headquarters. We had a panel discussion for Harlem schoolchildren. We put together our plan for “The Children of the Movement,” which in part was going to be a speaking circuit for people like herself who have lost their loved ones to the police. I had my daughter Imani and my wife Nichole sing a duet before the panel in Harlem; they sang a rendition of J. Cole’s “Be Free.” During the panel Emerald leaned over to me and said, “Okay, why didn’t you tell me your wife and daughter could sing like that? We’re going to have to have them do that before every event.”

  In this interview I ask Emerald about the significance of having NBA players speak on behalf of her and her family, and really the entire country, and her plans to continue fighting for justice for her father, to use her voice to inspire others, as she did with Cameron.

  Etan: When you saw various NBA players wearing the I Can’t Breathe shirts over their warm-ups before the games, what did that mean to you?

  Emerald Snipes: On Facebook someone had reposted the video . . . and I thought it was Photoshopped. I didn’t think it was real. And more and more people starting texting me and e-mailing me about what was going on. It was really overwhelming because I felt that my voice is being heard. I am in New York, but people in California or all the way in a different state are hearing our cry for help. And they are responding with support. That made my heart warm. I was completely overwhelmed because . . . I’m just this regular person from New York, and you want to support me? And you are going to have consequences for doing what you are doing . . . going against the dress code of your job, your livelihood, how you support your family, and you’re risking all of that for my father? It was really overwhelming. I was so thankful to them for doing that because they didn’t have to, and I am sure there were people telling them not to. That it would be bad for their image or that it would upset their fan base or it may affect their endorsements or if a team would pick them up the following season. In spite of all of that, they made this public statement for my father, and words cannot express how thankful I am.

  Etan: Okay, so let’s go back to the panel we did in Harlem during All-Star Weekend. It was absolutely amazing. Over two thousand young Black and Latino young men at Canaan Baptist Church all in Black Lives Matter shirts, and we had a really powerful lineup. I just wanted you to come there, listen to the different athletes on the panel speak, and just feel the support from the community. You did decide to say a few words and you got the standing ovation. They all wanted to show their support for you. Talk about that feeling.

  Snipes: It was so overwhelming. That’s the only word that describes it. And like you said, I wasn’t planning on speaking at all, but then I heard the poems from the different poets. Your little son Malcolm . . . to be so young and to be so woke, and I saw how engaged the young men were in the audience, and I was like, No, I have to say something. I have to give them a piece of my heart. And these young men were so locked in and asking questions and saying that they didn’t want to be the next Eric Garner, and they saw the tape and how much it bothered them . . . I wasn’t too much into social justice before my father was taken from me, but I was aware of Trayvon Martin and everything that was going on. But I wanted my voice to be heard, and of course it’s sad, the circumstances surrounding what is allowing my voice to be heard, and I definitely did not ask to be in this position. But I just couldn’t sit there quiet and not say anything and not pour into these young men. I’m sure there were kids in that audience who have gone through something similar with a loved one. Maybe they had someone brutalized by the police or maybe they themselves have been brutalized and victimized.

  Etan: It really was amazing. The fire marshal was actually going to shut it down because we were way over the building’s capacity, but it’s not like we could tell them no or turn them away. The funny thing was, the teachers beforehand said that three hours was way too long and that we wouldn’t be able to keep their attention. But they were all the way wrong on that.

  Snipes: Oh, they were definitely wrong, those kids didn’t want to leave even after the three hours was over. And then the questions that they had. I was like, Oh my gosh, these young people are really following everything and aware and woke. All of the athletes who shared advice, shared stories, it was just a really, really beautiful event. And you did that yourself, right? The NBA didn’t help you?

  Etan: (Laughing) No, the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association weren’t too comfortable with a Black Lives Matter event with all Black and Latino young men right after everything that happened with your father. Actually, a few people from the NYPD and several other organizations didn’t want the event to happen. I had to fight to be able to do the event the way I w
anted to do it. So I called the different athletes myself and they were all eager to support.

  Snipes: I didn’t know that. Wow, that makes it even more special.

  Etan: Well, it was meant to be. Now, from that event, we are putting together the Children of the Movement. We saw how this can be a real support group for y’all. And all of you, at the same time, want to pour into other young people. Making sure they know their rights, that they get home safely when stopped by the police, etc. Talk about what we want to do and what our overall goal will be.

  Snipes: Our main goal is basically first to help us have an outlet. We want to be able to use our tragedy and form this platform where we can help other people. There are so many young people who need help and are not getting the help they need. What about the other people whose fathers are killed by the police and there is no video and nobody knows about it? Those whose tragedies don’t make the news?

  There are so many people in our community who need therapy, which is what a lot of these panels will be—therapy sessions for the panelists just as much as they are for the audience. And we need that. I can’t afford actual therapy . . . People don’t understand how we feel once the cameras go away. We are just left there, standing there, with all of this on our hearts, our minds, our souls—like my soul hurt after my father was taken from me . . . I know there are a lot of young people who are going through that same hurt. We may not be able to help everyone, but we will be able to help as much as we possibly can.