Black and White, worlds apart (Or Muslims and Europeans apart?) By PAT WATSON
The difference between police descriptions of the man and that of those
who knew Delroy George Daring, shot dead in the courtyard of a Scarborough
housing complex last Thursday, speaks volumes about the oppositeness of how we
perceive each other in the beleaguered Black community, and how others view us.
With the news of Daring's killing came additional information; that he was a
'good guy' who organized "No drugs, No violence" barbecues for children in his
neighbourhood; a ladies' man who also looked after all 10 of his children and a
neighbourhood fixture. The police version of Daring -- otherwise known as
shooting victim number 32 in this "Summer of the Gun", or Toronto homicide
number 48 -- includes information that he was, as the saying goes, 'known to
the police'. There seems no dispute that he had been involved in the illegal
merchandising of drugs sometime in his past. But it seems that police are
unhappy with the depiction of Daring as "a wonderful,
wonderful guy" by one of his acquaintances in a recent Toronto Star story. In
that same story, Detective John Biggerstaff is reported to have said: "I have
reason to believe that the idea (Daring) was, say, a completely upstanding
person promoting non-violence, non-drugs and non-guns is not fair. The
activities which brought him to this courtyard are inconsistent with someone
promoting (no violence and no drugs)." Those of us who did not know Daring
are left to wonder. Yet we know that one community's good guy is another
community's felon. Some years ago, following the violent death of one of her
sons, a poor, struggling mother was heard to lament that of all the ones to
have been killed she wished it hadn't been that son, since he was the one who
brought money and food into the household. In a depressed neighbourhood where
unemployment is high and future prospects are low, the actions and
characteristics that make someone a 'good guy' are determined by the need to
survive. If a man sells drugs illegally but is supporting his children, he's a
'good guy'. If he shares his good fortune with his 'bredren', he's a 'good
guy'. If he is providing for his mother, despite his illegal source of income,
he's a good son. While the powers that be go back-and-forth over whether to
legalize marijuana, sale and possession of the substance have made criminals of
many small-time dealers who have very few employment prospects otherwise.
Daring, for example, was an unemployed furniture mover; an unemployed furniture
mover with 10 children to take care of. How do we get White suburban-dwelling
police officers to understand any of this? After all, their job is not to
interpret the law, it is simply to uphold it. It's no wonder that there is a
call for more police hiring from within the community. If only that were a real
solution. Recently, The Star ran an intriguing feature written by
psychiatrist and poet Ron Charach examining the use of the
terms 'Black and White' to describe racialized groups. While the feature
examined terminologies for any number of groups, interestingly, the writer
still managed to refer to racial slurs only for Black people - of course, all
within context. The author mused about the aptness of referring to groups as
'Black and White' and concluded that the terms only serve to create divisions.
What he did not say, though, is that the terms aptly describe the contrasting
realities that so-called Black and White people live in. John Howard
Griffin's seminal book, Black Like Me, which described one White man's
experience 'passing' for Black may yet be the closest any person from the
privileged classes has come to getting a view of what these terms mean
literally. It means of course that because of mutual mistrust and
institutionalized advantage-taking and privileging, the lives of African and
European descendants in the Diaspora really are as different and as opposite as
black and white;
not unlike the difference between how Delroy Daring is viewed by his community
and by the police.
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