Sonya Massey's Murder and America's Readiness for a Woman of Color as President
Sonya Massey called 911 because she was concerned she was in danger in her home.
When police arrived, she was in danger.
Massey was executed in her kitchen by officer Sean Grayson, a man who had been previously discharged from the Army for serious misconduct, had pled guilty to two DUIs, and been referred to take “high-stress decision” classes by a past police department.
Not only did Grayson and other responding officers woefully fail the 36-year old mother of two teenagers when she was at her most vulnerable, they killed her without any efforts to deescalate the charged situation that they themselves created, and they showed a complete disregard for her after her death.
And in a week where my social media feeds exploded with boundless enthusiasm over Kamala Harris’ announced presidential campaign, Sonya Massey’s name and face were far less prominent, especially among white people.
Most sharing their grief and anger at such a clear display of the sickening consequences of systemic racism were other Black women, reminding us that this nation has never been a place where people of color have felt truly safe in the presence of law enforcement—and for good reason.
The lack of visible and vocal white outrage at Sonya Massey’s murder has me asking the question:
Is America truly ready for a woman of color as president?
Are we expecting too much from a nation that still seems more invested in white supremacy than in Democracy, as evidenced by Donald Trump’s steadfast support among White Christian conservatives?
In an America where people of color do not feel protected by white law enforcement, can Kamala Harris galvanize enough white voters who are truly burdened to dismantle the racism embedded in our foundation, one we have been complicit in and benefitted from?
Honestly, I confess that I have my doubts even as there are encouraging signs that renovation is happening.
It’s been a beautiful surprise seeing the way the Vice President’s candidacy has been embraced by White people, with the #AnswerTheCall and #WhiteDudesForHarris movements among a number of high-profile efforts to mobilize voters. It was something we might not have seen a few years ago, and that in itself makes this moment feel different, giving us all cause for cautious hope.
I want to believe this nation has finally reached a collective moral clearing: that after nearly two hundred-and-fifty years, we are ready to reject misogyny and racism once-and-for-all and to elect a qualified, poised, intelligent woman of color to our highest office.
But that aspiration is tempered by the reality that Sonya Massey should be alive right now and by the realization that power and prejudice combined to violently end her life in her home.
The relative silence in the face of her murder, makes me question if enough white Americans are truly ready to face the ugliness of who we have been, who in many ways we still are, and to build something better together.
The only way that a more humane version of our country will be possible is if enough white people condemn and oppose the dehumanization that visited Sonya Massey and that still shows up millions of times a day in less visible or glaring moments.
We need to inventory our own hearts, directly engage those in our circles of influence, and confront the darkest parts of our nation.
Every time we see and hear and speak and share about Kamala Harris, we should remember and talk about Sonya Massey. We should grieve her death and feel fury over the way she left this place.
On the campaign trail, Kamala Harris has confidently declared that we are not going back as a nation.
With every fiber of my being I hope she’s right.
And if she is, Sonya Massey should have lived to see it.
I'm horrified by Sonya Massey's murder, and yes, African American and Hispanic people have a much higher incidence of being killed or seriously injured in a police encounter, especially in the last few years, while the number of white people has stayed fairly constant. I believe there are factors other than overt racism, however, in how these tragedies occur. I believe that policemen are being encouraged to use firearms and deadly force a lot more than they used to, when it's not really necessary for a situation like this. Police seem to shoot first and rationalize/explain later. They also may not be adequately trained to deal with mental illness, alcoholism, drug addiction, or even people who are verbally abusive. The blame also rests on police departments who keep people like Sean Grayson or Derek Chauvin in their organizations, especially when a policeman has a history of excessive force, has improperly fired their weapon or has been let go from other jobs for misconduct. These homicidal poliecemen, and probably many others, were already problematic, yet they were kept on, maybe because cops are in short supply these days. As much as I try to respect all police, I believe some of them are bigots, some of them are paranoid of being injured, some have PTSD, or they could just be on a power trip, using their authority to mete out their own kind of frontier justice. Fortunately, we still have many good cops who do their job admirably and fairly, putting their lives on the line and saving others. Police departments should be held accountable for finding the red flags in personnel files and for weeding out bad cops. Their partners also have a responsibility for doing the right thing and for stopping a bad cop from doing harm.
I hear you on this.
I don’t think the lack of vocal response reflects a lack of moral outrage.
My son and I spoke of this despairingly recently. We haven’t joined any online outrage group, and we don’t publish remarks on Facebook, but the gravity of this event nonetheless impressed us.
Again, these are such complex issues that people try to solve with soundbites. It is difficult to be a law-enforcement officer. As someone recently noted, in Europe, the training is over a year whereas in the United States it may be substantially shorter. We have a very different culture about guns and we an underlying white supremacy culture. Just as our troops returning from Vietnam, experienced derision from the American public, so have our law-enforcement officers, and that includes those whose career choice was to protect the citizens they serve.
The issue of mental health is another complicated issue that is poorly understood and even less well funded. While our legislators in Texas feel the issue is no, unlimited access to guns but rather psychological problems, they don’t fund mental health care nor pay the professionals for their life, saving skill set so we are chronically understaffed.
I hear your outrage and I feel it as well as I am sure many do. We will hopefully enable significant change by voting for Kamala.