East Flatbush Writer

Let’s call it was it really is, hate! Racism and discrimination towards any group of people is hate. This is not exactly a conventional blog for Mother’s Day, but it may be the perfect day because Ahmaud Arbery’s mother is mourning the senseless murder of her son on a day that celebrates her. I am in Brooklyn, New York opening up cards and enjoying a beautiful plant given to me by my children. His mother is probably looking for some object of his that might help to stir a loving memory of Mother’s Days gone by.

On February 23rd of this year, Ahmaud went out for a run and was murdered before he could return home to his mother. She will never have the chance to touch his shoulder dripping with perspiration after a run. Or remind him to drink some water so he doesn’t faint from dehydration. She will never again rush him to the shower, as he drags his feet, jokingly so she can catch a whiff of the trail of sour smell that follows him. She will never be able to offer him something to eat because he might be hungry.

I certainly don’t know Ahmaud’s mother, but I am a mother of a 23 year old African American man who also likes to run. He runs almost everyday in our neighborhood and when he returns, I still get to harass him about drinking water so he doesn’t dehydrate. I still get to demand  he take a shower immediately because he’s smelling up the house. I also still get to put a plate of food in front of him and lovingly, or sometimes not so lovingly, argue about an issue of the day. These are some simple pleasures that every mother with a son who wasn’t murdered by hate gets to enjoy today.

When we continue to make excuses for hate, we become complicit with racism and its results. Hate always leads to death. Whether it is the death of our bodies, or even worse, our souls. Hate is what caused the senseless death by lynching of a 14 year old boy in the state of Mississippi in 1955. He was a mother’s only son. Hate is also what resulted in the murder of Ahmaud Arbery in the state of Georgia in 2020. A mother’s youngest son. Two mothers among countless others in the past 65 years, who no longer get to fully celebrate Mother’s Day.

Today, the heart of Ahmaud Arbery’s mother, Ms Wanda Cooper- Jones has been ravaged by the hate of racism. For hundreds of years, many in this country have justified this hate, made accommodations and gave excuses for it. As a fellow mother, what do we say to Ms. Cooper today as she looks out the window knowing that Ahmaud will never return from his last run?