Jason Wilson, founder of The Catta in Detroit creates an amazing narrative changing the perception of young Black males in America.
If you don’t know who Jason Wilson is, he is the founder of a program for young Black boys in Detroit. The Mission of The Catta (The Cave of Adullam Transformative Training Academy) is simple. It is a Christian martial arts program is devoted to improving the lives and education of the Black boys in its care. Helping them not only with emotional issues but helping them improve in school as well. The founder of this school dropped an all too truthful narrative of how Black men are seen in this country. Asking the fundamental question, why don’t they deserve the same humanity that other races receive while dealing with the authorities.
In this bite-sized social media film, Jason Wilson explores how young Black men are seen when they flee from police. Starting off each sequence with “What do you see?” Wilson discusses the complicated history of Blacks in America while defending their humanity. When young Black men run, they are no different than anyone else. Yet even when unarmed or in non-offensive postures they are gunned down in the screen.
Thoughts quickly turn to Antwon Rose II who was shot by a suburban Pittsburgh officer. He fatally shot an unarmed 17-year-old hours after being sworn in on the local force. Rose who ran when police stopped a vehicle that was suspected to be involved in an earlier shooting. CNN reported that Allegheny County officials on Thursday identified the officer as Michael Rosfeld.
There are two main issues with Michael Rosfeld who was charged of criminal homicide. One his timeline and recounting of the shooting was flawed leading authorities to believe he shot Antwon knowing he was unarmed. Two, he was previously dismissed from the University of Pittsburgh Police Department when he used unnecessary force on patrons at the campus bar and when surveillance tapes showed he lied about his interaction.
The key to this incident isn’t about Antwon Rose’s innocence. As Wilson’s video points out, it would be his right to be brought in without lethal force to due process and fairness under the law. Neither of which he will ever see.
Wilson’s video ends with a chronology of the mass shooting and homegrown terrorists who are Caucasian that were apprehended alive in the last few years. Shooters like James Holmes who shot up a movie theatre during a screening of Batman in Colorado; Dylann Roof who opened fire inside of an AME church killing 9 people; Dimitrios Pagourtzis the Parkland, Florida shooter and the list goes on.
The underlying message of the film is that Black men deserve the right not to suffer judge, jury, and executioner at the hands of police and survive long enough for a fair trial. He claims there is no difference in the humanity of all these men involved in multiple deaths and black men being killed unarmed no matter if they are actively involved in a crime or not. So why is it that men of other races are apprehended without incident as active shooters survive all their police interactions, and unarmed Black men do not?
America we have to do better.
