Black Representation Didn’t Get Tyre Home
By Amira Barger (she/they)
On January 25, Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis called the murder of 29-year-old Tyre Nichols, “heinous, reckless, and inhumane”. In the same statement, she pulled on threads of our linked fate by referring to herself as “a citizen of this community we share; I am a mother, I am a caring human being who wants the best for all of us.” Those things may not be untrue, but they serve a common assumption: increased representation leads to better results. Nothing could be further from the truth, and is one of white supremacy’s greatest deceptions.
Tokenized members of the global majority, when placed inside systems of oppression, are rarely successful in upending systems. I know this as a Black woman and a consultant in diversity, equity, and inclusion. Change on that level requires more than individualized efforts; the issues at hand are not the result of individual choices, but inherent to the institution.When placed in an oppressive environment, individuals are expected to adhere to the status quo. Going along becomes less a matter of conscious choice, but a sort of succumbing to the most basic instincts of survival. When the inherent system is built on anti-Blackness, survival in that system manifests as the perpetuation of anti-Blackness - no matter your skin color.
It was reported in 2020, that 42% of police chiefs (21 of 50) in our largest cities were Black. Despite these advancements in representation, an attempt at reform by well-meaning advocates, 2022 still saw more police killingsthan ever - with Black people three times more likely to be killed than white people. It’s no secret that law enforcement has a history of racist actionsand racist roots. U.S. law enforcement started as slave patrols. That the Memphis chief of police, and the officers who murdered Tyre Nichols, are Black is, in fact, further proof of systemic racism - not counter-evidence. A white body does not need to be present to perpetuate white supremacy.
Upon encountering this truth, many of us find ourselves in a pseudo-sociological quandary. Activists, organizers, and academics took to social media and various airwaves, attempting to educate the public on systemic and structural racism. Grassroots organizer Bree Newsome Bass tweeted, “The pro-policing establishment very clearly had the plan to put Chief Davis out front as a Black woman, as a representative of progress & reform simply because she’s a Black woman police chief. She is directly implicated in the violence & the initial attempt to cover it up.”
Chief Davis’ history of policing speaks for itself. In 2021, she oversaw the formation of the Memphis department’s now-disbanded Scorpion unit, after overseeing one in Atlanta - now defunct for similar misconduct. Initially, she defended the Scorpion unit following the public announcement of Tyre Nichols’ murder. And, in 2008, she was fired for mishandling a criminal probe.
With every murder at the hands of police, we are asked to believe that the actions are a result of a few “bad apples”. This is a distraction to keep us from noticing that the tree itself is rotten. And we haven’t even touched on anti-Blackness within the larger criminal justice system. Broadly, one of the first calls to action in these situations is more training. In my DEI consultation, I use principles of behavior change in training, that purport adherence to change falls off when the environment is not transformed to uphold the new behaviors expected of the person, and they regress. More behavioral training alone will not garner different results. Because behavior change, at its most basic level, requires a simultaneous transformation of person and environment; the actual solution requires that we chop the tree down at its roots.
It is why I reject out of hand the concept of restoration, reformation, or redemption of American policing. I’m resolved, even as a writer, that there is little more to be written regarding the repeated, sanctioned police violence against Black bodies; because we know all that we need to. Going forward, we must focus on solutions, including the abolition of systems that exist to ensure violence continues. I did not and will not watch the video. I was told that before he cried out for his mother, Tyre expressed, “I’m just trying to get home”. Such a simple desire has proven to be an unattainable one for too many people that look like Tyre. The representative presence of 5 Black officers did not serve or protect that young man, yielding only the same results we have seen time and again. The system is not broken, it operates as designed, and Tyre never made it home.
Amira Barger, she/they, is an executive vice president at a global communications firm, providing diversity, equity and inclusion counsel to clients. She is also an adjunct professor of marketing and communications at Cal State East Bay.