Jordan Davis (1995-2012)

How long, LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen? 

Or cry out to you, "Violence!" but you do not save?

-Habakkuk 1:2

February 16th, 2014 would have been Jordan Davis's 19th birthday. Instead of celebrating, his family mourned his death and grappled with the news that his killer would not be convicted of first-degree murder. 

Two years ago, Davis (17 years old, at that time) and his three friends drove to a gas station. Their music was loud, and Michael Dunn objected. He demanded they turn down the volume. They refused. He yelled, they taunted back. Then Dunn pulled a gun and fired ten rounds into their car, killing Jordan Davis. The boys never got out of their vehicle, and no weapon whatsoever was found inside.

Who gets to decide the difference between an obnoxious teenager and a dangerous criminal? Kill-At-Will laws (aka Stand-Your-Ground), and those like them, encourage citizens to shoot first, and ask questions later. In a world where black boys are stereotyped as violent criminals, race makes all the difference. 

Dunn initiated a violent encounter. He could have simply walked away and ignored the car's stereo. When the boys refused his request to lower the volume, he again could have simply walked away. Dunn chose a different option. 

It is worth asking why Davis's music so enraged Michael Dunn. Why did Dunn feel so put upon? Did he feel disrespected? Did he feel the need to put 'uppity' black boys in their place? 

Why is one scene funny & ironic...
while the other is deadly?
(watch TV ad)

Dunn objected to what he termed Davis's "thug music."  When some words become un-PC, they are often  simply replaced with new racialized dog-whistles. When is the last time a white person was called a thug? We need to understand what is really being said. Imagine the scene if the rowdy boys in the car had been a different race. Or what if music had been a different genre (see video: Retta Rolls on Conan)?  Would Dunn have been just as incensed? Maybe, maybe not. But the racial coding underlying the interaction is unmistakable. 

Jesse Williams notes that there “is a tradition in this country when people are able to go ahead and kill Black people because they got sassed, because we were inconvenienced, and we become a victim of a fantasy.” He went on to assert that "feeling threatened is not the same thing as being threatened”--and racial bias is key.

Davis's mother notes, "Jordan had no guns. He had no drugs. There was no alcohol. They were coming from the mall. They were being kids." He had a mother and a father who loved him, but a nation that feared him. Davis did not survive his encounter with Michael Dunn. And no amount of 'family values' or moral upbringing could save him.

So what about the rest of us? No, we probably would not have pulled a gun. But might we have turned up our nose and those boys in the car? Or maybe shot a bitter glare in their direction? Might we have clutched a purse? Or simply noted them as suspicious?

Read some of the statements that Dunn made in his letters from jail while he awaited trial. Then pray for all those like him who are fearful--who fear the youth who are the promise of our nation's future. Let us pray for ourselves that God may bind up our own fears and prejudice. And pray for our families and children that they may be shielded by God's protective arms as we go about our lives.

If a white man wants to lynch me, that’s his problem. If he’s got the power to lynch me, that’s my problem. Racism is not a question of attitude; it’s a question of power. 

-Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture)