Grieving while black does not come with protocols. Policing, however, does.
Stevante Clark‘s anger these days runs deep, like most black people after the news that yet another black life has been snuffed out by unjustified police violence.
His brother, Stephon Clark, was fatally shot by Sacramento police officers on March 18 in his grandmother’s backyard. Stephon was only 22 years old, and the father of two young children. In the days that followed his brother’s death, 25-year-old Stevante has been outspoken in TV interviews and led blistering protests.
His vocalness and tactics, however, have resulted in the criticism of Stevante, with some deeming him a loose cannon. But why does losing a loved one, as in Stevante’s case, require such respectability?
On March 27, he disrupted a city council meeting with a procession of young black men, chanting “Stephon Clark,” while he seemed to dance to the beat of the grief in his heart. At one point, Clark perched himself on the council room dais as he spewed expletives and shouted to his cohorts to speak his brother’s name, saying: “Louder! Louder! Louder!”
His gut-wrenching performance of young black pain is reminiscent of a church mother catching the holy ghost before she is “slain into the spirit.” It is loud, spontaneous, energetic and moving. It is also a realized visual of what the late James Baldwin told us in 1963: “To be black and conscious in America is to be in a constant state of rage.”
In recent TV interviews, he’s expressed his hurt by shirking apologies from the media and vocalized how he’s found the coverage of his brother’s death to be callous at best. An interview with CNN anchor Don Lemon on March 28 came to an abrupt end when Stevante, sitting with a hollow demeanour, ice-grilled Lemon and demanded the “CNN Tonight” host say Stephon’s name.