Fruitvale Station

A week and a half ago, I watched the movie Fruitvale Station on the life and death of Oscar Grant. Specifically it follows him on the last day of his life, which ended at the hands of a BART police officer. 

The film was beautiful, because it captured the reality of living in West Oakland without hitting you over the head with guilt. Here was Oscar with a bag of weed; here was Oscar being fired from his job at the grocer. Oscar, the family man, trying to pay the rent. 

What my thoughts during the movie were: which is the crime? Nonviolent offenses committed by the poor, or a structure of systematic exploitation that puts the poor in do-or-die circumstances? 

I had a conversation with a friend once that revolved around whether I would beg or steal if I had no other choice. The really sad thing to me was how impossible of a choice that is. A society that would punish poverty/homelessness by reducing choice to those two options. 

So while the injustice committed at the end of the movie was clear, what wasn't was that we share responsibility to make sure outcomes improve for all of our brothers and sisters. The real injustice is insidious; it occurs when we make the complex simple. When we look the other way when a strand of human life is cut from the web of the whole. We are one web. We all suffer when one falters.

What I think can change the game is the investment of time and energy into the neighborhoods we label the ghetto or the hood. Again, it's an opportunity to join the losing team, as Geoffrey Canada said in our commencement speech. And I wish I could say it's easy, but if it were I would be doing more, volunteering more, and caring more. But the upside, at least I say to myself, is that I will find purpose in helping people, in being less self-centered and being able to become a part of the world I do not really understand.

I talked about Give and Take in my last post. I finally finished it. The most powerful message/image I got from that book was 'a tribe of enthusiastic givers.' A band of people, working in synergy, encouraging others to give, ultimately winning people to their side. Infectious, life-changing giving. And what a tribe. To think what kind of change is possible when selfishness is replaced with teamwork. It's the human formula. Now let's make sure all the variables are accounted for.