The epidemic of unarmed African Americans getting shot or being killed in other ways by policemen is not something America is proud of and many police departments around the country have started implementing reforms to correct the issue. However, for the people listed on the artwork titled “We Hold These Names to be Self-Evident,” the changes are obviously coming too late.

Since the year 2017, at least 867 African Americans have been killed as a result of faulty violent police responses to calls for different situations. A few have made headlines while most have not. What I refer to as ‘faulty responses’ have included: forced overdoses of the drug ketamine (most notably in the case of Elijah McClain), physical application of chokeholds (George Floyd) , violent beatings (Sandra Bland), and gunshots (Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery).

“We Hold These Names to be Self-Evident” is a mixed media fine art painting composed of colored text, digital photography, portraiture, and spiritual surrealism (To see complete image please click here). The central images of violent assaults and listed names are underscored by golden wings symbolizing release from physical-world concerns. Just as I was completing  this art-piece by adding what I thought would be the last name to go on it, word came that unarmed 47-year-old Andre Maurice Hill of Columbus, Ohio, had been shot dead by police while in a friend’s garage and holding a cell phone. It was the second such questionable shooting in the city in December following that of 23-year-old Casey Goodson Jr. a couple weeks earlier. After receiving multiple confirmations of details surrounding Hill’s murder, I squeezed in his name at the top of the list. The names overall have been compiled from public sources like the Washington Post Police Shootings Database, but many of the birthdates were culled from research published as part of a memorial created by Dr. Renée Ater.

I do believe humanity one day will evolve beyond the kind  of racial biases which have resulted in so much overwhelming pain and grief. But 2020 has not been that year. Police from different demographic backgrounds themselves have lost at least 44 men and women to gun violence while responding to calls for assistance. Some fatalities among their ranks are almost inevitable given the nature of the job just as any number of deaths among military personnel can be expected while training prior to battle. The case of fatalities among African-Americans at the hands of police has drawn international attention because in so many cases it was not inevitable. Yet it has been repeatedly documented that African-Americans (most frequently males) are 3 times more likely to be shot to death by policemen than members of any other demographic group.

Aberjhani
https://www.author-poet-aberjhani.info/