This photo makes me physically ill. I experience a jolt of emotional trauma looking at it because it is erasing so much with it's imagery.
1. The hug is an action of reconciliation that implies that "both sides" young black boys and the police who shoot them all the time need to "change" in order for us to heal. I reject this narrative. When an innocent man is shot in a NYC stairwell or a child is killed in a Cleveland park the violence is going in only one direction. It's going in our direction. The violence goes beyond shootings, by the way-- its just harder to get press for the other forms of aggression the innocent black people face from police that view all of as guilty of something.
2. So many people I know are celebrating this photo and I can only assume it makes them feel better looking at it. This talk about racism has made a lot of people (mostly white people let's be honest here) uncomfortable. The priority seems to be to restore their comfort rather than solve the problem. Stay uncomfortable for a few more years, I say. We can hug each other when we get through a month without an unarmed black person being shot. Let's try that.
3. I would never let any black child I know get that close to a cop. NEVER. Not after a 7 year old girl was killed in her sleep and the cop just got administrative leave. Not after a boy was shot for playing with a toy gun without any hesitation. Not when there are studies that show that people in general ... and cops in particular see black children as years older than their real age and much less innocent.
Don't touch our children until you can be trusted. STAY AWAY.
4. There is a subtext to this image: if this image is positive then what are we to make of people who protest the police? They are negative. So, the subtext is: do not protest, forgive the people who have been killing you and degrading you and don't hold them accountable. Sadly, in addition to smoothing over the discomfort caused by thinking about racism, I think some people like this image because they feel it validates their hatred of people who protest police violence.
By the way, it's not that this happened at all that I object to. In some ways both of these people are very brave. These moments and conversations need to happen. It's the way the image is being used, the timing, in for-profit media and in social media that I find so disquieting.
"Let's feel good about this hug and forget."
I will not.