Being an American in America is somewhat under heavy fire. For some people due to a flux of recent racial tension that has become one of the leading headlines besides “Russiagate”. The latest story that has been blasted across social media and television media is a story of a young man who almost became a hashtag.
Fourteen-year-old Brennan Walker woke up one morning not knowing that post events would forever change his life. As it happens with many children, he missed the bus for school and decided rather than play hooky, he would walk to school. Brennan a young black teen cut through a neighborhood hoping that he could get help from people in the area. Little did he know moments later he would be shot at and almost brutally murdered.
After knocking on a door in Rochester Hills, Michigan, he was confronted by an angry woman, her husband and a barrel of a shotgun.
Walker tells Fox 2 Detroit, “I got to the house, and I knocked on the lady’s door. Then she started yelling at me and she was like, ‘Why are you trying to break into my house?’ I was trying to explain to her that I was trying to get directions to Rochester High. And she kept yelling at me. Then the guy came downstairs, and he grabbed the gun, I saw it and started to run. And that’s when I heard the gunshot.”
For many people it was as simple as, “why doesn’t a teenager know his way to school” and for others many teens get on the bus and browse the web or talk amongst friends not really paying attention to the navigation of the bus driver.
It would seem this is a clear case of racial bias. Many people myself included, wonders if this would happen to say, a white American. I am an African American who just moved into a suburban neighborhood myself. As the “new kid on the block” I want to introduce myself to my neighbors and perhaps bring over a gift. Should I have to worry about whether I’ll be met with smiling faces or a barrel of a shotgun?
In this case we can say justice will hopefully be served. The shooter, Jeffrey Zeigler a retired fireman faces life in prison on the charges of assault with the intent to murder and a felony firearm charge. His bail was set at $50,000. I hope he will be an example to all registered gun owners and people with hidden racial biases that not ALL black people are monstrous despite Hollywood’s depiction and also that not ALL gun owners are reckless.
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