Walter Scott’s mother, Judy Scott, takes the stand in Slager trial
I have a confession to make, and it may ruffle a few feathers in the process.
Listen…I can handle the pushback I get from expressing my thoughts, but I have to get this off my chest because it is troubling me and bubbling up on the inside of my soul.
Let me preface my comments by saying that this – and please hear me out – this is not an attempt to express my level of disgust towards faith-filled people. I have a deep disgust with this seemingly warped paradigm and religious point-of-view that somehow the things that have happened to Black people in this country were ordained by God and are somehow His acceptable outcomes for His people.
Many people, who profess to follow God, tend to use scriptures to justify what happens to us and then turn around and seek to find comfort in a situation that God hasn’t ordained or found acceptable. Take the Walter Scott mistrial in South Carolina for example.
Unless you have been living under a rock, all of you have seen the horrific murder of 50-year-old Walter Scott running for his life before being gunned down by a White North Charleston police officer named Michael Slager. Slager didn’t know he was being videotaped at the time he let loose on Scott with a barrage of bullets, after having pulled him over for reportedly having a broken tail light. A broken tail light led to a discussion, which then led to Scott running away, which then led to Slager murdering Scott in cold-blood. Slager walked over to Scott’s lifeless body and planted his Taser next to his body, in an attempt to say he was forced to shoot Scott in self-defense after Scott took the Taser. Only thing is, it was a complete and total lie, and the videotape exposed Slager’s sick and twisted lie for the entire world to see.
Of course, with the way things have been going in America, we could only hope for justice, right? Well, we now know that Slager has temporarily got off due to a mistrial, in which one White juror refused to find Slager guilty of ANYTHING, despite the videotaped evidence that they were able to view like the rest of America.
Now, before you begin to shake your head in dismay and clinch your fist in disgust, I want us all to pay attention to something I feel is just as eye-opening to me – Scott’s mother’s response.
After the judge’s decision to declare a mistrial, Judy Scott, Walter Scott’s mother, emphatically made the following statement: “I want you to know why I’m not sad, because Jesus is on the inside, and I know that justice will be served because the God that I serve is able. I know, without a shadow of a doubt that God is a just God, and injustice will not prevail. I trust God. I believe God. I am encouraged because I know God is able. It’s not over until God says it’s over.”
Now, there is no way I could ever tell another individual who has experienced a deep and tragic loss how they should respond to that situation, but the one thing I can say is, there is no way you can convince me that God is pleased or okay with seeing His children suffer and experience the blatant injustice the Scott family has endured. I truly believe that anyone who lives in this country has to have faith in God, particularly when having to deal with the trials and tribulations we experience every day in America – especially the things Black people have to endure.
Delayed justice is not acceptable justice. Walter Scott and his family deserve swift justice.
Famed African American 19th-century abolitionist Frederick Douglass famously stated, “I prayed for twenty years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs.”
We have to believe and have faith, but we must always fight and demand justice in the process. To have a different mindset than one that demands justice, is both tragic and dangerous, especially if you are Black in America and believe that as a result of our righteous humility, it will drastically change our situation. That is so far from the truth.
So, is this the precedent for Black people in America now…Get screwed over, smile, quote scriptures and then thank God for a future victory, since He shortchanged us the first go round?
I can’t accept that as my reality…I’m sorry!
Can anyone show me in the Bible where God led His people into a battle or instructed them to do something, and then turned around and changed His mind about it? Can anyone show me in the Bible where God wanted His people to lose the first battle that He led them into, just to turn around and have them lose so that they could win the next one, after suffering major casualties, because that’s what pleased Him? I’m sure someone, in response to my religious questions, will use the Bible to provide me with some scriptures to answer my questions and justify the bad things that happen to us. I won’t buy it, however.
To me, seeking to justify a loss or a failure to render justice, is not only wrong, it is an insult to God’s sovereignty to the highest degree.
I believe that Judy Scott is holding on to the only thing that she has had to fight with in this country and through this unjust execution of her son – her faith; but, now it is time for her faith to be coupled with a fight for real justice, and a demand for accountability all across this country.
Too many unarmed people have been killed by law enforcement officials and have gotten off. And before you pushback with the “Black-on-Black” crime narrative, please spare me, and more importantly, if you are so concerned about Black people killing Black people, why don’t you help us out by ensuring that no more Black people are added to the list of the slaughtered by non-Black people or police officers, okay? Can you help us out on this one, please?
I find absolutely NOTHING celebratory or glorious about giving God praise and credit for the sick and twisted things that have and currently are happening to Black people in America.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had faith and believed in the power of prayer, but Dr. King also believed in putting in work. Many of us are so quick to invoke Dr. King and quote him when the time is convenient, but many of those same individuals aren’t committed to putting in the same level of work he put in or to respond to his call to action, even though he is no longer here living amongst us. If prayer was the only thing Dr. King was supposed to be doing, he would not have marched, protested and spoke out against injustice and spoke up on issues that disparately impacted Black people.
We can’t just pray evil away, quote scriptures and regurgitate memorized religious rhetoric when it comes to dealing with the issues that plague us in this country, because the devil is always busy on assignment; and sadly, the devil has found his way into the hearts of many people who are unfortunately using their positions, power or influence to make life difficult for Black people, and to even get away with the murder of unarmed Black people, as was the case of Walter Scott.
Here me when I tell you, America: God ain’t pleased with your treatment of Black people.
Jeffrey L. Boney serves as Associate Editor and is an award-winning journalist for the Houston Forward Times newspaper. Jeffrey has been a frequent contributor on the Nancy Grace Show and Primetime Justice with Ashleigh Banfield. Jeffrey has a national daily radio talk show called Real Talk with Jeffrey L. Boney, and is a dynamic, international speaker, experienced entrepreneur, business development strategist and Founder/CEO of the Texas Business Alliance. If you would like to request Jeffrey as a speaker, you can reach him at jboney1@forwardtimes.com