Houston’s bayous have lengthy been described as town’s arteries—carrying its rain, its runoff, its reflections.
However these days, they’ve additionally carried too many Black our bodies. The unsettling rise in deaths of Black folks present in Houston’s bayous has sparked whispers, questions and fears.
Some surprise if that is the work of a serial killer. Others insist the deaths are tragic coincidences.
However whether or not these deaths are the results of foul play or not, the bigger and extra enduring concern stays the identical: America’s historic disregard for Black life—and demise—continues to form how these tragedies are mentioned, dismissed and handled.
Dismiss dismissiveness
For a lot too lengthy, Black humanity has been handled as an afterthought. When Black folks elevate professional issues concerning the security of our communities, we’re too usually ignored, ridiculed or instructed to “settle down.”
That sample was on full show just lately at a Houston Metropolis Council assembly when revered group activist Travis McGee dared to ask questions concerning the bayou deaths. McGee, who has spent years advocating for safer neighborhoods and authorities accountability, voiced what many in Houston’s Black group have been considering: May these deaths be related? May there be one thing sinister at work?
“We’ve to seek out out what’s actually happening in these bayous. It’s not regular for folks to only preserve popping up inside a five-day span,” McGee instructed Mayor John Whitmire and council members. “I’m simply certainly one of many Houstonians who’re very involved. I don’t suppose it’s good for us to imagine that everybody is homeless, everyone seems to be suicidal, everyone seems to be dying of pure causes. We preserve listening to we shouldn’t be alarmed, however when ought to we be alarmed?”
As a substitute of being met with empathy or curiosity, McGee was scolded and dismissed. The tone of the trade carried an outdated, acquainted message—that Black folks don’t have any proper to query, no proper to be heard and no proper to demand accountability with out being handled as agitators.
The irony is bitter: For greater than 400 years, Black people have needed to cope with nefarious actors—slave merchants, lynch mobs, police brutality, environmental neglect and systemic indifference. For anybody to behave as if such suspicions are unreasonable is to disregard the historical past written in our blood, sweat and tears.
A legacy of disregard
This isn’t merely concerning the bayous. It’s concerning the bigger panorama of indifference that has lengthy surrounded Black life in America. When our youngsters go lacking, their circumstances obtain much less protection. After we die mysteriously, our deaths are rapidly labeled “accidents.” After we demand justice, we’re labeled “troublemakers.” That’s not paranoia—it’s a sample. And patterns, when ignored, flip into pathology.
Houston’s bayous are crying out, and never simply due to the our bodies discovered inside them. They cry out as a result of they replicate the way in which this metropolis—and this nation—usually refuses to see Black folks absolutely. The bayous mirror our collective conscience. They ask us, `What number of extra will you let sink earlier than you begin to care?’
The actual killer: Anti-Blackness
It’s not simply the deaths that ought to disturb us—it’s the response to the deaths. The debates on social media, the speculative chatter, the finger-pointing—all of it displays how simply Black ache turns into a public spectacle relatively than public concern. As a substitute of compassion and collective problem-solving, we get gaslighting and gossip. As a substitute of transparency from officers, we get silence and deflection.
To be clear: Whether or not there may be or isn’t a serial killer at work, the true killer stalking our group is apathy. It’s the identical anti-Blackness that allowed Reconstruction-era lynchings to be photographed as group picnics. It’s the identical anti-Blackness that lets redlining, mass incarceration and police killings go unchecked. It’s the identical anti-Blackness that lets elected officers (as in the event that they aren’t our staff) converse right down to us once we dare to demand solutions.
As Black folks, we can not afford to soak up that very same inhumanity. We can not internalize the message that our lives—and our deaths—don’t matter. We can not enable ourselves to be bullied or disrespected into silence. After we lose our potential to query, we lose our potential to guard.
We should keep in mind that caring for our folks—each dwelling and useless—is sacred work. Our ancestors constructed whole rituals, songs and societies round honoring the departed as a result of they understood the deep non secular fact: How we deal with our useless says every part about how we worth the dwelling. If we settle for indifference towards Black demise, we invite indifference towards Black life.
Name to motion
So, what should we do?
Demand accountability and transparency. The Metropolis of Houston owes its residents clear, constant communication about these deaths—who’s investigating, what sources are getting used and what safeguards are being put in place. Metropolis leaders should have interaction with group members with respect, relatively than reprimanding them.
Educate and defend ourselves. Black Houstonians ought to study security measures across the bayous—keep away from strolling close to them alone at night time, let family members know your whereabouts and advocate for improved lighting, signage and surveillance in susceptible areas.
Reclaim the narrative. Don’t let others outline our fears or our hopes. Use our platforms—church buildings, group facilities, podcasts, social media—to inform the reality about what’s occurring and why it issues.
Honor our misplaced brothers and sisters. Arrange memorials, artwork installations and libation ceremonies on the bayous the place lives have been taken. Say their names. Mourn them publicly. Have a good time their humanity. Refuse to let their tales wash away unseen.
Love each other fiercely. Test in on our elders, our youth, our neighbors. The identical spirit of unity that sustained us by slavery and segregation should now maintain us by these trendy storms.
Rise, bear in mind & reclaim
The bayous could carry away our rain, however they need to by no means carry away our folks—or our will to battle for them. To heed the cry of the Houston bayous is to listen to the echo of our ancestors urging us to rise, bear in mind and reclaim our humanity. As a result of till Black life—and demise—is handled with the dignity it deserves, none of us can really name this metropolis residence.
