In Person Report
March 2000

Organizing in Albany: Justice for Diallo

by Barbara Smith

Editor's note: When the trial of the police officers who murdered Amadou Diallo was moved from New York City to Albany, N.Y., activists in Albany immediately organized. Barbara Smith, Black lesbian-feminist writer, thinker, socialist and revolutionary, has been involved in the Capital Region Justice for Diallo Committee. In the days before and after the shocking verdict, Feb. 25, exonerating the four New York City cops who murdered Amadou Diallo, she reflected on the meaning of the trial, the verdict, and the organizing around it.

The verdict makes me feel like, once again, my life as a Black person isn't worth anything in this society. There are two parallel worlds in America: the world of clueless white people, and the world of Black people. The murder of Amadou Diallo is about race, but not the way the press said the case was "racialized." The white power structure is absolutely oblivious to the racial nature of this case. The true race content is that the police consider every Black person a dangerous criminal, and that Black people are right to fear for their lives in this society. I think Amadou Diallo was terrified that night. But the police couldn't even read that as a possibility: they just saw his race, assumed he was dangerous, and started shooting.

"If police can shoot an unarmed person 41 times and it's not murder, then what is murder? From the change of venue, to the unbelievably inadequate prosecution, to the judge's rulings limiting the evidence-the entire criminal justice system came together to protect these officers from answering for their crime. When you look at how quick that same system is to put young people of color in prison, we are convinced there is a double standard by race in this country." That's what Vickie Smith, a spokesperson for Capital Region Justice for Diallo Committee, said in our press release.

The positive in the picture is in our organizing here in Albany around the case, which provides a dynamic example of lesbian-feminists of color-who virtually invented multi-issue political organizing in the late 20th century-putting our politics into practice. The fact is that there has been lesbian-of-color leadership around this issue. Vickie Smith was one of the first to get word of the change of venue from lesbians and gays of color who were active around the Diallo case in New York; we immediately helped form the coalition, Capital Region Justice for Diallo Committee.

It marks a new day in some ways that we as lesbians of color are being recognized as proactive on an issue-police brutality-that is not driven solely by sexuality or gender. Every Diallo rally has had speakers making connections between issues that concern lgbt (lesbian-gay-bisezual-transgender) people of color and people of color in general. These mark real and practical challenges around homophobia, because we are there on the ground doing the work on an issue that matters to everybody.

This is creating a real context for dialogue in the Black community here around issues of sexuality. This doesn't mean there has been no homophobia in the organizing; there has been, and we've been the targets. But I'm pleased that we've been able to expand the definitions of what lgbt work looks like. We also had a youth day with participation from the Audre Lorde Project in Brooklyn (a center for lgbt people of color).

What does all this mean? Police brutality is the leading edge of repression, showing us where white supremacy is and what crimes it is capable of. Every community I've visited lately, and all across the country, I notice more and more police brutality being reported. The gunning down of an unarmed 14-year-old in Hartford is ruled "justifiable homicide." In Providence, an off-duty Black police officer went to help other officers who were in pursuit of suspects; his "fellow" officers, including one who had been in the same cadet class with him, shot him dead. All they saw was his race, and his race meant to them that he was a dangerous criminal. This is what a recent issue of the excellent magazine Color Lines referred to as "domestic militarization" of communities of color.

I'm struck by how pandemic it is. Activists in Seattle have been trying to get a civilian police review board. We are trying to do the same thing in Albany. We've had people dying "mysteriously" in custody and many examples of police misconduct and brutality. The fight against police brutality is a cutting edge issue for all communities that are fighting racism.

The question now, after the verdict, is: what do we do next? Here in Albany, we did an excellent job of organizing in the Capital Region Justice for Diallo Committee. We brought people and communities together who had never worked together before. The struggle continues.