Patrick Lyoya

Society Shows No Shame in Ignoring the Murder of Patrick Lyoya

From the fight for racial justice just two years ago, back to silence

Protests at the Grand Rapids Police Department following the release of a video showing the killing of Patrick Lyoya | Courtesy of WMrapids | Creative Commons/Public Domain

Many deep conversations were had in 2020 about racism, racial justice, whiteness, white privilege, systemic racism, and so much more. While those conversations didn’t provide the sought-after results, what they did do was highlight precisely what was happening before the murder of George Floyd and what’s happening in the current moment.

It’s like newfound allies went back to the default mode of silence in the face of injustice. Millions and millions of quotes were shared, books were sold, and influencers profited. Meanwhile, it’s no longer trendy to be aware of what’s happening on our streets. By our so-called police forces that target non-white groups. Primarily, Black people. Now, it’s trendy to be “anti-woke.”

Thanks to loud-mouth thinkers attacking “wokeness,” finding allies willing to stand and fight for justice is as difficult as ever. Looking back, it becomes more difficult to deny that voices like Bill Maher and Joe Rogan are promoting the same system of white supremacy that groups like the Proud Boys, the KKK, and white corporate America are trying to uphold.

They’re angry because we can’t address racial justice without talking about them or how they speak using coded language and have the same motivations as any eugenicist or Klan member. The difference is, they have platforms to protect so they use more subtle language. What they do is covert, yet more and more obvious every day. Looking at someone’s entire body of work speaks for itself. And when it comes to the Mahers and Rogans of the world, it’s hard to deny.

So here we are. Back to zero. To the place where the entire world watched a man get shot in the back of the head while in a vulnerable position. Everyone saw a police officer execute a Black man and no one wants to admit they saw it. Instead, they went from “don’t post the video of the murder” to not talking about it at all. Where we were before the murder of Trayvon Martin.

What felt like U.S. society taking ten steps forward ultimately resulted in most of the country taking twenty steps backward. After Joe…