UTSA Students Protest in the Aftermath of Brown, Garner Decisions

Sparked by the lack of indictments following the police-involved deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, UTSA students took to the Sombrilla to host a die-in on December 10, 2014. Reaction among students and alumni in the comments attached to photos of the event on the UTSA Facebook page was mixed, but it is worth noting that the students took part in both long-valued American traditions--assembling and peacefully protesting--and in a wave of recent protests sweeping the country and the world.

Though the lives of Mike Brown and Eric Garner were valuable in and of themselves, many activists are protesting the larger picture, one in which they argue that discriminatory, differential, and violent treatment of African Americans within the criminal justice system and at the hands of vigilantes has a long history that shows no signs of abating. They are also asserting, as evidenced by the increasingly popular slogan/hashtag #blacklivesmatter, that black lives (not just deaths)* have inherent value and that the loss (and poor quality) of black life should not be easily dismissed.

For whatever we may think of Brown and Garner (for example, a common argument is that their deaths are justifiable, in part, because they may have been/were engaged in criminal activity), we cannot excuse statistics that show that young black men, aged 15 to 19, are 21 times more likely to be "shot dead by police than their white counterparts." Perhaps the protests are the beginning of a much-needed national conversation.

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From the creators of #blacklivesmatter: "Black Lives Matter is a unique contribution that goes beyond extrajudicial killings of Black people by police and vigilantes. [...] When we say Black Lives Matter, we are talking about the ways in which Black people are deprived of our basic human rights and dignity."