Don’t Forget Ahmaud Arbery

The case of Ahmaud Arbery recently went to trial in Brunswick, Ga. The point of this post is to alert and encourage you to pay attention as this case unfolds. His murder while out jogging in February 2020 is a reflection on all of us and needs to be indelibly written on our conscience.

This is the tragic case of a young Black man who was chased down and brutally killed by three white men on February 23, 2020, in Brunswick, Georgia. Arbery, who was not far from home, was simply out for a run and was well known in the community. He was unarmed and had committed no crime. His death says much about race relations, especially here in the deep South.

In two previous posts in these pages, I’ve cited and quoted from an article by Jim Barger, an attorney on St. Simons Island. It was published on May 14, 2020, almost three months after the murder and entitled “Ahmaud Arbery Holds Us Accountable.” I was down on St. Simons when this awful event took place. I remember that some said that it was tragic and then everything seemed to move on and the murder was ostensibly forgotten. Or, at least, that’s how it seemed to me at the time. It certainly has not received the publicity the George Floyd case received. Barger’s comments made a strong impression on me and left me with a sense of guilt for all of us.

Here is the concluding paragraph of Barger’s article.

“As we demand justice for the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, we must also seek absolution for ourselves. We cannot bow our heads and call it “tragic” and leave it to the authorities and the politicians who will never protect our neighbors and us unless we require it of them. Rather we must own Ahmaud’s murder and its cover-up as both an individual and collective sin that stains all of us. Then we must humble ourselves by accepting forgiveness and vowing henceforth to do everything in our power to ensure that it never happens again.”

I understand that we are all busy living our lives, but let’s take time to think about this so that we become part of the solution. Barger is correct in his observation that such tragedies will never be erased until the larger community says “no more!”

Please take the time to read, “Ahmaud Arbery Holds Us Accountable,” bittersoutherner.com, May 14, 2020.

And please pay attention to the ongoing Arbery trial.