A Dream Deferred

A year and a half ago I could not go to a news site or open up a newspaper without finding a story about Sean Bell and Barack Obama. One, Sean Bell, representing a persistent nightmare, a dream deferred if you will, that haunts black men in this country. The other, Barack Obama, signifying a dream reborn, that maybe, just maybe, one of our own will notch a victory in this game of life.

The campaigns surrounding these two men have lasted for about the same length of time. I have personally witnessed students on campuses and online, and people in my hometown of Jamaica Queens rallying in support of Sean Bell and his family with the same fervor associated with Barack Obama and his dizzying crowds. Few would have guessed that a decision would have been rendered in the Sean Bell murder trial before Obama's bid to be the democratic nominee for president was decided.

Both fathered two daughters. Both were athletic and excelled in two of this nation's sports, baseball and basketball respectively.

Sean Bell's past missteps should not have prohibited from fulfilling the majesty of his future--future--a word coincidentally enough that has become synonymous with Barack Obama in both reverential and derogatory ways.

Sean Bell was murdered the morning before he was to be married after engaging in something that American pop-culture leads us to believe is as American as apple-pie. Sean Bell was murdered leaving his bachelor party held at a strip club. Since he's running for President Barack Obama can not attend any bachelor parties, much less ones held at strip clubs. Their stories were really supposed to drift apart their--but seeing all those news headlines about these two men made it impossible for me to disassociate the two in my mind.

I turn 32 today, two weeks before Obama faces another tilt against opponent Hillary Clinton and the same day that the verdict in the Sean Bell trial was delivered. Today the conversation amongst my friends is not about saving Obama's campaign, but voicing discontent over the acquittals that were announced in the case of the three officers on trial. We are horrified about a life that was not saved. We went from the dream reborn to the dream deferred--which of course leads us to ask once again, what precisely is this dream?

Comments

[NABNYC]

I don't see any connection between Sean Bell and Barack Obama other than skin color, which is a pretty tiny thread on which to hang any philosophical conclusions about life in America. It's always terrible when a young person is killed. I'm going to bet that among young black and hispanic kids in this country, 5000 are killed by other young black and hispanic males to every one killed by a cop. Yet we don't see the community quite so up in arms, rallying, pointing fingers at the NRA and its supporters (Hillary Clinton hearts guns), getting up in the faces of the gangbangers and drug pushers who destroy neighborhoods building by building. The cops are an easy target.

I don't know what the charges were. I doubt anyone would suggest this was an intentional murder -- the cops decided to murder Sean Bell intentionally, on purpose, for no apparent reason. The question therefore is whether they acted with reckless disregard, or whether they had reasonable (even though mistaken) belief their own lives were in danger. Different people can reach different conclusions on that subject. I don't think this was murder. I think it was a terrible accident made likely by the widespread distribution of guns in our communities. Want to stop it? Get rid of the guns.

[jethrock]

Sean and his friends were unarmed. They were not committing any crime whatsoever. The cops fired 50 shots.

This is not the first time this has happened in NY. And it's not the first time this has happened in NY where the cops have gotten off scott free.

You should really do a little research before you make the kind comment you just did.

[halfdemhalfgop]

NABNYC I read all the other comments below and there are a lot of good points but no one has given a reply to your point.

"I'm going to bet that among young black and hispanic kids in this country, 5000 are killed by other young black and hispanic males to every one killed by a cop. Yet we don't see the community quite so up in arms, rallying, pointing fingers at the NRA and its supporters (Hillary Clinton hearts guns), getting up in the faces of the gangbangers and drug pushers who destroy neighborhoods building by building."

I will give a reason, there is political gain to be made by working up the intercity mass with that point.

[halfdemhalfgop]

My bad i intended to say no political gain to be made by working up the intercity mass with that point.

[WMichaelTenery]

I am a white man but this is a sad day for all Americans. I offer no excuse no remedy except a pledge to teach my children that all of us are equal, all of us have the same rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And I will do my best to elect representatives who understand that and represent those values. Those are the real values politics in America, not the pretend ones you here every four years when one party or another needs to pull people by the nose to the election.

[ann1]

May I add, Clinton's failure to capture the Black vote is the reason she hasn't closed the deal. You won't hear the media say that.

[Patriot0259]

This is more media spin at work. The media sets the supposed ground rules, then changes them at will. This is nothing about Obama...it's about us. If one must ask why Obama hasn't been able to "close the deal," one must start by asking why Clinton hasn't closed the deal when she had, and still has, the built-in race advantage over Obama. If large numbers of white people won't vote for a (half)black man, that's not his doing. It says a lot more about us than it does about him.

[Patriot0259]

Sorry about that -- I intended this for another column. Nevermind :)

[ann1]

Yes what happened to Mr. Beall was tragic and unjust, but I don't think it has anything to do with Sen Obama. We've got to stop attaching the Sen with every black issue and every black problem. I believe that Sen Obama will win the nomination and eventually go on to win the GE. Delayed does not mean denied.

[Ferentz LaFargue - Huffpost Blogger]

I agree with you that Senator Obama should not be aligned or associated with every incident that features a black person. That said, the overwhelming attention received by both Mr. Bell and Senator Obama conjures up a disturbing parallel for me as a black male. Mr. Obama's prominence represents a dream and Mr. Bell's tragic death, a nightmare. I am not suggesting that Senator Obama should comment or address Mr. Bell's case at length, but I do reserve the right to address that juxtaposing these two men's public personas conjures up a harsh reality to which black men are exposed.

Another way of thinking of this is to imagine reactions if a young woman soldier in Iraq were receiving the same press coverage distilled upon Britney Spears or Lindsay Lohan. If this were happening I would hope that we would reckon with the significance of this journey.

[Gogetter]

If you notice, after Rodney King, cases like this follow a pattern. First there's national media uproar; news reports, debates on news talk shows, republicans and democrats taking the expected sides, the police promise an investigation. Then the national news reports die down. A few months go by, maybe a year. Then there's a quiet trial that the national media doesn't pick up on; I didn't know that there was a trial until I heard the verdict. Then the media announces the verdict is if it's an afterthought, "Oh yeah, by the way, those cops where aquitted. In other news...". And if there's no reaction that's it.

[dollars2donuts]

Sean's fiancee and their two children....denied a loving husband and father, and for what? Please sit there and pretend to shoot 50 shots (and he reloaded!!!!!!)....it takes a really, really long time. If not murder, then please tell me what this was, and please tell me with a straight face, this verdict would have come down for any man who was not African American. Try.

[Desiderata]

I never knew Sean Bell.
He wasn't from my neighborhood,
My Town;
Even my state.

And 50 bullets denied
He was even a citizen of my country.

And what do we whites know about Sean?
Only that he died the night before his wedding;
Shot by cops who shoot first and ask questions later.
But not in our neighborhood.

These things don't happen to us,
So these things don't really happen at all
In any neighborhood, town and state
Of these United States of America.

"God damn America!"
Why would anybody say that?

[ckemp]

One small bit of hope about this: it is possible that Bell's case coming as does now may force us to think about it as we have never thought about such cases before, as a society. That the conversation that started in Philadelphia last month and got its second major chapter on Bill Moyer's Journal tonight may continue, and that we will never be the same again--for the better.

[wwja]

today really was a sad day in america. i'm trying to keep hope alive. Thanks for the thoughtful commentary.

[ljmck]

The dream put forth in this country was that all people were created equal, but it was always more a myth than anything. Created, yes. No doubt in my mind. Treated. Not in our lifetime.

It's a sad, telling day in America. Lately, it has seemed that there was a chance to make the dream live, but with the news this week, I'm not optimistic.

[wolfi101]

In some minds, people will never be equal. The only mind you are responsible --- is your own. The more you can explain to the next generation, why things should or should not be so, and the more, that this makes sense --- the more you will change the world.

The youth are coming out in support for Obama. And when you listen and talk to them, many don't think of him as even being 'black'. They like him, his style, his charisma, his platforms and ideas.

America is changing. It just takes time.