My daughter is five years old. She is a lively, inquisitive child with curly hair and a spirit that lights up every room. As I imagine her future as a teenager, I can’t help but feel a wave of dread wash over me. I shouldn’t have to worry about becoming a grieving mother, standing over her lifeless body, as happened to Aaliyah Carter.
Can you fathom the pain that Aaliyah’s family is experiencing? Another young Black life has been extinguished at the hands of law enforcement. Predictably, the police department will roll out a barrage of excuses: “this wasn’t racially motivated,” or “the officer feared for his safety,” or “he was attempting to protect others,” or my personal favorite, “let’s wait until we know all the facts.” What more is there to uncover? We have a 16-year-old Black girl dead.
The primary responsibility of police officers is to ensure our safety, regardless of skin color or background. They are meant to be our protectors. Yet, when someone from our community reaches out for help—like Aaliyah likely did—we often find that the response is harmful instead. Each time an unarmed Black person is killed by police, it reverberates through our communities.
We have every reason to be outraged over another child’s death. Remember the names Adam Toledo, Tamir Rice, and Michael Brown? The prevalence of racist behavior within the police force is alarming, with far too many officers resorting to violence instead of de-escalation. They often make assumptions based solely on race, clothing, or music, labeling individuals as criminals before knowing anything about them. These biases lead to fatal consequences.
We may never fully understand Aaliyah’s state of mind on that tragic day, April 20th. Perhaps she felt threatened; perhaps she wielded a kitchen knife for self-defense. But the officer made the split-second decision to shoot first. A 16-year-old girl, shot four times in the chest, simply because she didn’t comply with his command to “get down.”
It’s irrelevant what transpired between Aaliyah and the other individuals involved. The officer fired at a child just ten seconds after arriving on the scene. Ten seconds! If this scenario involved a group of white teenagers, do you think the outcome would have been the same? Absolutely not. This tragedy reflects the institutional racism that permeates our society.
Consider how white mass shooters, like Nikolas Cruz or Dylann Roof, are treated with care and respect while Black individuals face the threat of lethal force for minor infractions or even for simply existing. This disparity is unjust and must end.
A study from the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health highlighted the stark racial disparity in police shootings between 2015 and 2020, revealing that Black individuals were killed at a rate 2.6 times higher than their white counterparts. Yes, we have a gun problem, but an even larger issue is the systemic racism that forces Black families to live by a survival playbook whenever they encounter law enforcement.
With the deaths of Sandra Bland and Breonna Taylor, the fear has extended beyond Black men to include Black women and now to our children. What can we do to change the hearts and minds of those who prioritize skin color over humanity? Lives have been irrevocably altered, and police officers often face little to no consequence for their actions.
I hope Aaliyah’s death serves as a wake-up call. She could easily have been my daughter. Until we see real change, that fear will continue to haunt me and countless other Black parents.
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