`It feels like deja vu all over again…’
Sean Yoes (Courtesy Photo)
At the conclusion of what in the minds of most was a horrific 2015, the year of the Baltimore uprising after the death of Freddie Gray, many of us hoped and prayed things would get better in 2016. Remember in 2015, even before we witnessed the camera phone video of Gray’s mangled body being hauled into the back of that police van, more camera phone video evidence of horrific police brutality had surfaced days earlier in South Carolina. On April 4, in North Charleston, Walter Scott was gunned down by police officer Michael Slager, as Scott ran away from Slager following a traffic stop. A little more than two months later, also in Charleston, S.C., White supremacist Dylann Roof slaughtered nine Black people on June 17, as they prayed at Emanuel AME Church. Meanwhile, Baltimore was speeding towards a record 344 homicides. So, there was no way 2016 could get worse right?
Wrong.
As 2016 winds down the dreadful specter of 2015 still lingers; the murder trial of Slager recently ended in a mistrial (one juror reportedly refused to convict Slager despite what seemed to be overwhelming evidence) and Roof’s videotaped diabolical musings to police investigators following the murders of the Charleston Nine were recently made public, as his capital murder trial begins.
But, 2016 has crafted it’s own combustible alchemy of fear, loathing and rage.
The murderous phenomena of mass shootings, perfected in America continued.
On June 12, 2016 Omar Mateen killed 49 people and injured 53 others at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., in the deadliest mass shooting by a single gunmen in U.S. history.
And there were more shooting deaths of unarmed Black men by law enforcement around the country (Terrence Crutcher, Philando Castile and Alton Sterling, among dozens of others). And there were several law enforcement officers gunned down ambush style (in Dallas and Baton Rouge most notably), possibly in retaliation for the general practice of police brutality and misconduct waged primarily against Black, Brown and poor people.
In Baltimore, the six police officers indicted for the death of Gray were all set free, even as the city continues to grapple with the devastating Department of Justice report on the Baltimore Police Department, which concluded the BPD systematically violated the civil and constitutional rights of mostly Black, mostly poor people for decades. And Baltimore has surpassed the 300 homicide mark…again.
In 2016, among the famous and infamous who passed on, we lost two men (just two months apart) who lived mythical lives and inspired millions across the globe for generations; Muhammad Ali and Prince.
And then there is the ascension of Donald John Trump.
To be real, the vast majority of Americans (including me) did not believe it was really possible Trump would defeat Hillary Clinton and become the 45th President of the United States, especially those who voted against him (including me). And indeed, Clinton leads Trump by more than 2.5 million votes. However, the results of the (many argue archaic) Electoral College prevail and Trump will become the next president (barring a seemingly implausible action by the presidential electors).
As the reality of an apparent Trump victory began to sink in during the early morning hours of Nov. 9, it didn’t take long for the essence of Trump’s toxic candidacy, fueled by sexism, racism, xenophobia and intolerance to manifest.
In the ensuing days we have witnessed hate crimes directed at people of color, Muslims and LGBT people spike significantly.
We have witnessed a president elect seemingly disinterested in receiving daily intelligence briefings. And we have witnessed the top four Trump cabinet positions occupied by White men for the first time in 27 years, as well as the selection of White Nationalist Steve Bannon as Trump’s Senior Counselor to the President.
The great Maya Angelou said, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.”
2017 will open with the looming inauguration (January 20) of the 45th President of the United States (which Time magazine dubbed, “The Divided States of America,” in its issue, which named Trump, “Person of the Year”) with the very real possibility of millions amassing in Washington to protest his presidency. Then the Trump era will officially begin, the culmination of the hopes and fears of millions.
But, 2017 has got to be better than 2016, right?
Sean Yoes is a senior contributor to the AFRO and host and executive producer of, “AFRO First Edition,” which airs Monday through Friday, 5-7 p.m on WEAA 88.9.
