--- title: When You Condemn One Black Man as a ‘Thug’ You Condemn Us All description: A divergence in African American culture has made it easy for people to categorize "good" and "bad" blacks separately—and that's a huge problem canonical: https://time.com/3620678/eric-garner-mike-brown-protests/ author: Victor Luckerson article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-12-05T19:13:43.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:41:39.690Z article:section: Ideas og:title: When You Condemn One Black Man as a ‘Thug’ You Condemn Us All og:description: A divergence in African American culture has made it easy for people to categorize "good" and "bad" blacks separately—and that's a huge problem og:url: https://time.com/3620678/eric-garner-mike-brown-protests/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1bf97f7d34ea48a8/69876d09524fc0e973deb352/garner-protests.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5674 og:image:height: 3192 og:image:alt: Grand Jury Declines To Indict NYPD Officer In Eric Garner Death og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: When You Condemn One Black Man as a ‘Thug’ You Condemn Us All twitter:description: A divergence in African American culture has made it easy for people to categorize "good" and "bad" blacks separately—and that's a huge problem twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1bf97f7d34ea48a8/69876d09524fc0e973deb352/garner-protests.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # When You Condemn One Black Man as a 'Thug' You Condemn Us All > Sponsored content. 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Ferguson's Protests Through the Eyes of a Teenager](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/fStAJZ1s.m3u8) (5:27)  _Published 2014-08-16. TIME followed a teenager as residents of Ferguson, Mo. turned out to protest peacefully on Aug. 16_ by [Victor Luckerson](https://time.com/author/victor-luckerson/) ## Victor Luckerson Dec 5, 2014 7:13 PM UTC  Demonstrators walk together during a protest December 3, 2014 in New York. Protests began after a Grand Jury decided to not indict officer Daniel Pantaleo. Eric Garner died after being put in a chokehold by Pantaleo on July 17, 2014. Demonstrators walk together during a protest December 3, 2014 in New York. Protests began after a Grand Jury decided to not indict officer Daniel Pantaleo. Eric Garner died after being put in a chokehold by Pantaleo on July 17, 2014. Yana Paskova--Getty Images by [Victor Luckerson](https://time.com/author/victor-luckerson/) ## Victor Luckerson Dec 5, 2014 7:13 PM UTC My parents sent me to an all-white elementary school when I was 4\. I speak and think differently than them because of it. This is a small, common tragedy of black life that we don’t talk about: the best way for me to find success in my own country was to be immersed in a culture entirely different from my parents’ and adopt it as my own. But that experience taught me lessons that I now find intuitive–how to find common ground with different people, how to come off as non-threatening to others, how to chalk up racist statements to a misunderstanding. You could probably label me [clean and articulate](http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1895156%5F1894977%5F1644536,00.html), like my President. There are a lot of black people like me now who grew up straddling two different racial worlds. _Blackish_, the only comedy on broadcast TV featuring a prominent African American cast, is centered on this increasingly prevalent concept of black identity. I don’t want to paint my experience as some painful upbringing. I had a big, loving family and, eventually, great friends of all races. But I fear some people are learning the wrong lessons when they meet black people like me–that I am somehow more acceptable or less problematic than other black folks. That Mike Brown, Eric Garner and Trayvon Martin should have behaved exactly like me to avoid being killed. This bifurcation of black people, particularly black men, into good and bad categories has been going on since the days of house and field slaves. Chris Rock articulated the modern version of it in a classic [‘90s standup bi](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3PJF0YE-x4)[t](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3PJF0YE-x4) that expressed some of the unsaid thoughts of the rising black middle class (Rock has since [r](http://www.cbsnews.com/news/rock-bring-on-oscar-safety-net/)[etired](http://www.cbsnews.com/news/rock-bring-on-oscar-safety-net/) the rant because he thought it gave racists too much ammunition). What’s worrying now is that a lot of white people know and like just enough black people to absolve themselves of discriminatory thoughts or actions. No one “hates” black people anymore—just the “[thugs](http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/03/politics/ferguson-mike-huckabee-michael-brown-shooting-thug/?hpt=po%5Fc2)” like Brown, Martin and Garner, who were not polite when a person with authority said they should be. But here’s the thing: there’s not a black man alive who hasn’t been viewed as a “thug” at some point or another in his life. It can happen because you lost your temper. It can happen because you crossed a person with more power than you. It can happen because you were simply existing at the wrong place at the wrong time—like a time I tried to buy beer at a gas station by my college campus with a white friend and a cop on the scene berated me for dragging her through the store (that is, holding her hand). Another white friend had to vouch for me. When people argue that Mike Brown being high and stealing cigarillos or Eric Garner arguing with the police [led inevitably to their deaths](http://nypost.com/2014/12/04/eric-garner-was-a-victim-of-himself-for-deciding-to-resist/), they’re creating a cultural threshold past which a black person’s life becomes less valuable. And when they do that, they are damning all of us. Some people are reticent to show their frustration and anger over the Brown and Garner deaths because these victims, like all humans, have flaws. But it’s time to stop searching for martyrs or angels—just mourn for people whose lives intrinsically have value. That is reason enough to be upset about how these recent deaths have been handled by the justice system. The older I get, the more I think about that decision to send me to a white school. How different would my life be if I had not learned to navigate that world at such an early age? For blacks who’ve grown up in communities segregated in the opposite way, it’s not as easy. Learning to deal well with white people can help you get far in life. But it shouldn’t be a requirement for holding onto your life. That is the era my parents grew up in, and I don’t want it to be mine too. ## Transcript [ NOISE ]. [ MUSIC ] This where we going out here man, it's crazy out here though. Man he shouldn't. He shouldn't have, he didn't deserve to die. I mean he didn't deserve that many shots though. Like you can shoot something in their leg to stop them from running. You can somebody in they leg to stop them from running but you ain't gotta shoot then down bro. Why you gotta shoot him in the head? He ain't even got no gun on him. That's crazy. I feel like they should keep protesting till it's over with. And if it ain't, and if he don't get justice then, that's just what's gonna happen man, we gonna be out here every day until something happen. Come on now let's keep walking. I saw Trayvon Martin, I saw George Zimmer get away with it. Now, now, now its another case now if these police get away with it now I'm telling you man this aint Florida this is St. Louis Missouri. Come on brother. [ MUSIC ] Quit talking bout my R bird. He was so young man. Man, he was gonna go to college like, what if that was me man. If 14 I'm just now going to school and stuff. Like, what if that was me gonna go to college. Like and then the only person in my family, and then I die right before the day the school starts [ MUSIC ] What is that all about, what's that? He was 18, he was too young to die.. What is that though? I dunno what that is, that's them. Lemme ask you something, if it don't make a point then why do it? They put this on here, i'm trying to scrape it off so I can write on it. But that's what i'm saying, why put it on that? When you can go get a piece of paper and put it on that. Mike Mike made a statement in time, you know what i'm saying? And we've got to keep his memory alive by not defacing property. And this is what they want y'all to do. This is defacing property. Look at this, this don't een say nothing no more. When the rain comes it can be washed away. But this right here, will never be washed away. All of these people out here will never be washed away. But I bet if you get out there in the middle of the street they gonna see you because your age. Its all about its just like fighting with your with your mind fight with a pen or a paper or a marker you know what I'm saying make it bigger. In every way, so they could see it. All right. [ MUSIC ] No peace. No peace. Don't shoot. Hands up >> Don't shoot . >> Hands up >> Don't shoot . >> Hands up Don't shoot. Hands. Don't shoot, hands up. Don't shoot, hands. Don't shoot, hands up. This is how we all gotta unite bird, all of us african american. To the night, this what it lead us to me. Everybody holding hands everybody showing love. Everybody saying here to support, that's what going on right now. This what we gotta do to get respect, like. And what's so crazy about it that, ain't nobody hear us until we do ****, until we do stuff like this. Like from the riot, everybody breaking stuff. Didn't nobody trip off of that until everybody started breaking. Though, it was all on BET, CNN. Everyone wasn't worrying about the Michael brown death. You got bigger and better, bigger and other things to worry about than people breaking into these stores. I understand what they did was wrong, but you gotta realize if the law gonna sit there and shoot this man like that, we wouldn't go through none of this. The stores wouldn't have gotten broken into. Broke into, footlocker wouldn't get broke into, this wouldn't get burnt down, if it weren't for them. And this is where we go. 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