Tulsa teacher's Facebook post: 'put yourself in the shoes of a child of color'
On Sept. 16, Terence Crutcher was fatally shot by a police officer in Tulsa, Oklahoma, after his car stalled in the middle of a busy road. Crutcher, a 40-year-old father of four, was returning from a community college class.
Tulsa police officer Betty Shelby said via her lawyer that Crutcher didn't follow her commands, and moved his hands toward his car before she shot him. Shelby was charged with first-degree manslaughter by the Tulsa County District Attorney on Thursday afternoon.
Crutcher's death, captured on video by police cameras, prompted nationwide outrage and reignited debate over law enforcement officers' disproportionate use of deadly force against black men.
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An aspect of that conversation went viral Thursday after a teacher at KIPP Tulsa College Preparatory, a charter school attended by one of Crutcher's children, implored readers to feel empathy for children of color in the wake of such a tragedy.
"I want to share what I experienced with the kids today, because I am convinced that if you can put yourself in the shoes of a child of color in Tulsa right now, you will have a clearer understanding of the crisis we're facing and why we say black lives matter," wrote Rebecca Lee in a Facebook post.
In the 900-word post, which had been shared more than 105,000 times by Thursday afternoon, Lee explained that she helped facilitate small group discussions with students in the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grades.
Some spoke softly while others remained silent, Lee writes. They cried openly, and looked hardened. They registered the shock of the fact that this happened to a friend's father, on a road they know well.
Lee reported that they also posed a lot of questions, including: "Why did they have to kill him? Why were they afraid of him? Why does [his daughter] have to live life without a father? What will she do at father-daughter dances? Who will walk her down the aisle? Why did no one help him after he was shot? Hasn't this happened before? Can we write her cards? Can we protest?"
After giving her students "the space to process silently," Lee, who is white, writes that she "affirmed my love for them" by saying, "We have different skin colors. I love you. You matter. You are worthy. You are human. You are valuable."
Lee says she felt compelled to speak publicly about her students' experiences because of her privilege, and asked others to do the same.
"I share this story, because we are creating an identity crisis in all of our black and brown students," Lee writes. "We are shaping their world view with blood and bullets, hashtags and viral videos.
"Is this how we want them to feel? Is this how we want them to think?"
The Facebook page for KIPP Tulsa College Preparatory shared Lee's post, describing her as one of the school's "great leaders."
Lee concluded the post with a single request: "I ask that you love and love hard."
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Rebecca Ruiz is a Senior Reporter at Mashable. She frequently covers mental health, digital culture, and technology. Her areas of expertise include suicide prevention, screen use and mental health, parenting, youth well-being, and meditation and mindfulness. Rebecca's experience prior to Mashable includes working as a staff writer, reporter, and editor at NBC News Digital and as a staff writer at Forbes. Rebecca has a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College and a masters degree from U.C. Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism.
