The U.S. must pivot from acknowledging the existence of police brutality against black people to enacting solutions, prominent Black Lives Matter activist and writer Shaun King said Friday in Little Rock.
A more than yearlong stream of cellphone videos of fatal shootings of black people by police has created a cumulative trauma that has put American cities on edge, he said.
"There is an ugly fascination with the violence that black people have experienced. I don't feel comfortable about it. I don't feel comfortable seeing these videos without any action [following up]," he said.
"I feel like our nation is an incident away from exploding. I say that because I feel that way. That's not even how I live," he said, saying that his wife and children were emotionally devastated after this summer's fatal shooting of Alton Sterling by police in Baton Rouge. "That's a new feeling for me. Our country has to pivot to some real, hard solutions."
The comments from King, senior justice writer for the New York Daily News, came during a panel of black activists at Philander Smith College discussing how the media portrays Black Lives Matter.
The panel, composed of activists from Memphis, Missouri and Arkansas, discussed how the media can improve its coverage of the movement and explored the possibilities of a future without police.
Founded after a Florida jury in 2013 returned an innocent verdict for the neighborhood-watch participant who fatally shot black youth Trayvon Martin, the Black Lives Matter movement proceeds from the belief that black lives "are seen as without value within White supremacy," its website states.
Accordingly, the movement seeks to end the poverty, hyper-criminalization and sexualization of black people, among other goals, its website states.
Friday's panel took place four days after civil-rights attorney and state Rep. John Walker and a fellow black attorney were arrested while filming a traffic stop in Little Rock. Police dropped misdemeanor charges of obstructing governmental relations against the two men this week.
"Little Rock was looking at Charlotte and other places, and said, we need to apologize, make it right," King said, referring to places that have seen recent protests over the treatment of blacks by police. "There is some connection between police and the community in this city, [although] some people would disagree."
Rae Nelson, co-founder of the Black Lives Matter Little Rock chapter, said the Little Rock group has begun to get involved in efforts such as an unsuccessful measure to require police officers to live in the city.
"What's so bad about Little Rock, that you can work here, but you don't want to live here?" Nelson said.
Organizer Ashley Yates said she lives in Oakland, Calif., where the Police Department accounts for 60 percent of the city's budget.
"Look at whatever percentage of your city's budget that your police take up, and I want you to ask yourself if they solve that amount of your city's problems," she said. "If they don't, we need to start imagining a world where we can create solutions that do, and I guarantee you it's probably not one that involves the police."
The activists said media outlets play a role in shaping the environment in which protests and police shootings occur. Richard Thompson, a former president of the Memphis Association of Black Journalists, said newspapers and the nightly television news lead with stories about crimes involving black people.
"It's because there's this expectation that black people are violent," he said. Not only does this pattern affect white people's perceptions, it affects black people as well, he said.
"You grow up thinking that one day, you're going to be a criminal," he said.
King added that media outlets in cities "almost always ... tell the police side in a story." Twitter and Facebook allow people to get out a more well-rounded account of events on the ground, he said, and hold print and television media accountable to get both sides of the story.
Metro on 10/01/2016