Its hard to stomach that yet another young man has had his life cut short by the barrel of a police officer. For those of you who may think I’m talking about young men such as Mike Brown or Trayvon Martin, I’m not. The most recent killing occurred to that of a young man named Jordan Edwards. According to the most recent news clippings on Twitter, Edwards was a 15-year-old high school freshman who was fatally killed after a police fired into a car full of teenagers.
When people first look at this young man, I wonder what they expect? I know when I first looked at him, I saw the heartbreak of a family who now has to bury their youngling. I for one couldn’t fathom having to bury a family member especially one so young with such a bright future ahead of himself. According to clippings on twitter, Edwards was a straight “A”, student that flourished in the classroom and amongst his peers.
Now I know you’re probably asking yourself, what does his GPA have to do with anything? The most recent topic stirring from Edward’s death is concerning his GPA instead of his actual death. People are taking to social media to flaunt around this young man’s grades and GPA as a way of saying that he didn’t deserve to die because he was a successful young man in the classroom. I know people mean well when they are discussing his grades, but his grades nor anyone else’s grades should have nothing to do with if they should stay alive or not.
If he were a below average or even a failing student in the classroom the police officers actions could still not be justified. The officer took the life of a young man point blank. If the past deaths of those like Mike Brown or Trayvon Martin should have taught people is that no matter how the media or your family tries to paint you to the public they will always find a reason as to why you deserved to die.
I think the biggest thing we can all take way from this is that another unarmed black teen has lost his life due to everlasting ping of racism that lingers within our society. Even when the years have passed where Blacks were owned by Whites and public display of racism was justifiable not much has changed with how racism is handled. My Black brothers and sisters are still racially profiled and stereotyped , which leaves them defenseless against a system that would rather see them with bullets in their chest rather than cap and gowns draped on their heads and backs.
