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Why Did Philando Castile Die in Vain?
Three years later, there are still more questions than answers
Everybody in the Twin Cities saw the video of Philando Castile dying, whether you wanted to or not. I barely remember pictures of Philando alive, but there is no way for me to forget the amount of blood that stained his white shirt; the face of his girlfriend recording; the four-year-old child in the back of the car; and outside, the frantic, shrill voice of St. Anthony police officer Jeronimo Yanez, who shot him dead.
This July will mark the third year since Philando’s murder. Three years should be enough for some sort of change, but it has meant nothing to the inflexible landscape of the Twin Cities. Both Minneapolis and St. Paul masquerade as liberal areas where everybody is safe to exist, but the mask is almost always prettier than what’s found underneath. When Philando was shot, it had been less than a year since we occupied the street in front of Minneapolis’ fourth precinct in response to Jamar Clark’s death. Those of us who gathered outside the corner where Philando was shot knew better than to be fooled.
In the middle of the night, the assembled crowd relocated to outside of the Minnesota governor’s mansion. There were evenings when I slept outside with other Black youth protesting Philando’s murder. We would lie down on yoga mats and blankets and stare up at the sky enduring the night’s particular heat. I watched as Black youth with nowhere else to go showered in the rain. I sat in chairs and twisted people’s hair. When I didn’t feel like looking at my phone, I tracked my time with prayers. I’d make wudu alongside my friend with donated bottles of water. These small acts of kinship existed in a space of mourning.
Three years should be enough for some sort of change, but it has meant nothing to the inflexible landscape of the Twin Cities.
We were “peaceful” protesters until we took the highway less than a week after Philando died. News accounts of the night said the protesters turned violent, as if people throwing rocks at a deadly police force is a spontaneous event. We were only violent because we didn’t have the power to say otherwise. But I stopped the cars on…
