remember being kids and going to the
store with your parents and really
wanting something and that might have
been a candy bar or a video game or
t-shirt I’m not sure how your parents
responded to you but my mother who’s out
there somewhere today hi mom hi mom she
when I asked her for something that she
didn’t want to give would sort of
her head to the side and say yeah well
people in Hell want ice water now
sidestepping the fact that my suburban
Maryland childhood was being compared to
one of Dante’s circles this was also
completely out of line with the somewhat
demanding always determined to get what
she wants and feel she deserves woman
that I knew nothing illustrates that
more than our time it drive-through
windows my mother would pick me and my
older brother Ryan up from burger king
where excuse me up from daycare and we
would head to Burger King and before we
even placed our order they would already
be at strike one because the line was
too long and it was moving too slowly we
get to the second window and we would be
charged for french fries that we didn’t
order and that was strike two now at
this point me and my brother looking at
each other in the backseat hoping and
praying that the somewhat demanding
always determined to get what she wants
and feel she deserves woman that we knew
didn’t reveal herself at the next window
many times in my childhood this prayer
would unanswered we would get to the
third window and like clockwork I would
be given a coke instead of a sprite now
I’m sitting in the backseat trying to
reason with her saying it’s okay I can
drink the coke because quite frankly I
was eight years old I just wanted a
sugary drink anyway but she would ignore
my protest from the backseat she would
her head to the side and look out
of her car window and say you know what
I want to speak to the manager and she
would proceed to tell the manager not
just what was wrong with this specific
visit to Burger King but what was wrong
three weeks ago and how maybe this was
indicative of a larger problem and how
she felt she deserved to be treated as a
customer at this establishment as I grew
up and out of being an embarrassed
eight-year-old this became one of the
things I most admired about my mother
but needless to say this was in direct
contradiction with this idea that I
can’t have things that I want because
people in Hell want ice water let’s
think about what that statement really
means there are two parts one there are
people out there somewhere presumably in
health who desperately wants something
that they are never going to have access
to the unspoken extension is why should
you have what you want what makes me so
special the second part of that revolves
around this idea of being grateful and
it’s a reassurance that actually you’re
not inhale you’re just in Virginia in
the middle of August and yeah it’s hot
but it could be so much worse in fact it
could be so much worse that you should
be grateful and that even when I can see
better when I can reach better I
shouldn’t ask for it because people in
Hell want ice water that leads me to the
question that I want to ask you when is
it hot enough when is something bad
enough when is wrong wrong enough for
you to not just know that somebody
somewhere should say something but for
you to be the one who speaks up I had to
answer this question for myself during
my second year at the University of
Virginia that year I was the political
action chair of the Black Student
Alliance and if you recall from july to
august of 2014 a black man was killed by
law enforcement agents every week
culminate
in the death of Michael Brown and
Missouri needless to say by the time we
got back to grounds at the end of August
black lives matter and eliminating
police brutality where my main focus as
political action chair and if there was
a movement than we were in it we had
rallies on the lawn we marched through
libraries we had a die-in on president
Sullivan’s steps but still there was an
undeniable feeling of distance between
what was what this larger problem was
and where we were you see police
brutality was something that happened in
New York and something that happened in
Cleveland and something that happened in
Ferguson it didn’t happen here but stand
in solidarity we did and before I knew
it was March now at UVA on st. Patrick’s
Day students go out the restaurants have
discounts and the bars have drink deals
and kids congregate on the corner to
partake in the festivities that st.
Patrick’s Day a friend of mine asked
whether or not I would be going out to I
told him that I wouldn’t that I had some
work to complete but that he should have
enough fun for the both of us the next
morning I woke up and the first thing I
did was check my phone I opened the
group message of the Black Student
Alliance and the image that hit me was
one of a black boys busted head and
blood-stained shirt I squinted at his
shirt at his chest first to make sure
that the blood on his shirt was not
indicative of a more deadly wound then i
splinted at his face because surely this
couldn’t be the boy who I’d seen not 12
hours before until to have enough fun
for the both of us but it was Marty’s
Johnson and I would soon find out that
his body was pinned to the red
cobblestone and his ankles and wrists
myself joy the venn BSA president and VJ
the president of the n-double-a-cp at
uva at the time got together and we knew
that we had to do something we decided
that we would have a dialogue talking
about yes what it happened to marty’s
but also the larger problem that was
facing our nation we booked Clark Hall
which should sit about 200 people and as
soon as we got there about 20 minutes
before the event was set to begin we saw
a line snaking out of the door and mobs
of people still descend
in that direction and we knew it
wouldn’t be big enough so someone made a
phone call to a university administrator
and we booked a Newcombe ballroom within
minutes Newcomb ballroom fits four
hundred and still as we got there and
watch people pile in we knew that this
space wouldn’t be large enough either
this must have been apparent to the
crowd as well because without myself or
VJ or joy telling anyone to do anything
they began to move over their own accord
towards the outdoor amphitheater at this
point me and VJ are running just trying
to catch up to this crowd that we’re
supposed to be leading and we realize
three things we have no microphones no
speakers and nothing to say still we get
to the amphitheater and we’re standing
on the grassy area in front of it and
after the only part of our originally
planned program has finished the reading
of an excerpt from James Baldwin’s
letter to my nephew no one wants to take
this megaphone that someone graciously
gave us joy says you and Vijay are the
ones who like to do this public speaking
thing one of you should speak Vijay
holds the megaphone like his hands are
on fire and he says you guys know that I
pre write all of my speeches Aaron’s the
one who likes to talk off the top of her
head until they hand the megaphone to me
and I know that I don’t know what to say
but as I look out at this crowd of a
thousand people standing in front of me
I realized something but they don’t
really know what they came to hear they
just know that something went wrong and
that they want to be a part of the
solution I knew that for my mother the
difference between a coke and a sprite
was reason enough to always say
something and so surely I could do so
about my friends busted head so I spoke
I apologize that we’d had to change
locations three times but that we’ve
been talking about police brutality
since August and never before have we
had a crowd that was more than two or
three hundred people i talked about how
yes there were a lot of unfamiliar faces
in that crowd of all colors but it
didn’t matter if you would come to
events like this before what mattered
was that they were there now and that
they kept coming back I talked about how
when they did come back yes we should
talk about Marty’s because what happened
to him was
I ibly horrible but we should also talk
about the society that we lived in that
was bigger than Marty’s and bigger than
UVA and bigger than Charlottesville and
bigger than Virginia it was nationwide
and we needed to dissect why it was that
so many charge to protect and serve hurt
their citizens in the coming days we
would hear a lot about how marty’s was
lucky to have lived and how we should be
grateful that it wasn’t worse and of
course we were grateful but we didn’t
want to spend our time listing off all
of the reasons that we weren’t in hell
trying to justify injustice instead we
wanted to figure out how we could get to
heaven so we wrote towards a better
University a 26-page document that
outlines recommendations for how to
create a more racially harmonious UVA in
Charlottesville community in a year and
a half since its publication we have
seen increased black faculty the
introduction of directors of diversity
in each school in each department we’ve
seen the introduction of an engaging
difference component to the curriculum
we’ve seen pamphlets given to citizens
about how they can know their rights
when dealing with police officers so
that’s how I came to answer this
question of when is wrong wrong enough
thanks mom for inadvertently teaching me
to be a little bit less grateful and to
and to everybody here if life is a
metaphorical burger king then just know
that a little bit of wrong is always
wrong enough to go ahead and ask for the manager thank you