Edit desk: Names shouldn’t be hashtags

Wascar Ramirez

I shouldn’t feel the need to have my white girlfriend with me for protection.

It sounds weird hearing someone who used to play football and place at wrestling tournaments need his 5-foot-2-inch partner — and I’m not trying to perpetuate any gender stereotypes — for protection. She shouldn’t have to act as a cloak shielding me from aggressive racism.

I experienced racism over winter break during a trip to the mall. I was standing behind my girlfriend while she was looking at makeup. She was holding my hand so she could lead me to where she would go next. A white woman saw and told her partner, “Look! She’s domesticating him!”

That, along with the never ending racism depicted on the news, has led me to change the way I do certain things.

I used to speed quite a bit. I would drive down the highway at speeds where I should have been pulled over. I don’t speed anymore, and not because I don’t care for the wind blowing through my hair, but because people who look like me have been assaulted, and even killed, when they’re pulled over.

I shouldn’t be scared to drive alone, but I am. There shouldn’t be this paralyzing feeling when a cop car rolls by when I’m going to get groceries. I 100 percent should not have to feel the need to have my girlfriend with me so I can be safer if I do get pulled over.

Sandra Bland. Alton Sterling. Rekia Boyd. Eric Garner. Philando Castille. Tamir Rice.

These names have been used as hashtags on social media to raise awareness of police brutality against people of color. If you do not recognize these names or their stories, I suggest you come out of your bubble, educate yourself and realize the world isn’t gold for everyone.

The country’s culture often creates a need for power in some individuals. This drive for power can be seen in some members of law enforcement. I’m not sure why having power or being in control is so high on people’s list of things they need to accomplish. What I do know is that people are losing their lives unnecessarily at the hands of officers who feel their power is threatened, especially when it comes to people of color.

I’ve noticed the pathetic excuse, “I was scared for my safety,” time and time again. How is a grown man who has undergone extensive training supposed to be scared of an unarmed child in a park? Why would Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton release a statement saying Castille would still be alive if he were white?

Let that sink in.

Yes, I understand not all cops are like this. I understand many cops don’t partake in such detrimental behavior — I’ve met a couple of the LUPD officers and they’re pretty cool — but there is enough violence that this issue needs to be continually addressed. Do not take this as a declaration that I abhor the police and feel as they should all die. I simply need to bring attention to the broken policing system in this country.

It’s not fair that in America — the land of dreams, opportunities and equality — there are those of us who don’t feel safe with the police around, which is contradictory to the very function they are supposed to stand for. It’s not fair that my mother left El Salvador escaping a civil war just so I could be harassed for one of the most integral parts of my identity.

As Jesse Williams said during his powerful BET Awards speech, “We know that police somehow manage to de-escalate, disarm and not kill white people everyday. So what’s going to happen is we are going to have equal rights and justice in our own country, or we will restructure their function and ours.”

Looking past the sad reality of the first statement, I take this to mean that those of us facing oppression need to stand taller, speak louder and fight harder for our demands. Police departments also need to be demilitarized and focus on crime prevention and youth programs. Training absolutely needs to be changed, so officers who feel threatened and the need to draw a weapon reach for a taser instead of a gun.

Years ago, I watched a video about Navy SEAL training. Trainees spent a week in a room where they had a bag over their heads. They had only a second to determine if the instructor in front of them was harmless or an insurgent when the bag was removed. This exercise seems like a necessary item for police to complete given they are more likely to deem black individuals as harmful compared to their white counterparts.

Historically speaking, many police departments rose from slave patrols who would round up and punish runaway slaves. These groups were created with the intent of abusing people of color, and unfortunately, that hasn’t completely gone away. I can only hope in the near future names will just be names of the people they belong to, not trending hashtags needed to bring awareness to a struggle that should have ended long ago.