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The Serial Theft of Black Childhood
12-year-old Tamir Rice, and 14-year-old Emmet Till, are Black boys who were murdered decades apart from one another, yet their deaths share a disturbing number of commonalities. The White men who committed these murders, or those justifying their violent crimes, claimed neither Tamir nor Emmitt were boys.
It is reported that one of the men, responsible for torturing and killing Emmitt, in the early hours of August 28th, 1955, claimed he was no child, but instead “He looked like a man” (1) Emmitt’s last moments of life was those of terror, desperation, and pain, as these men tortured him to death.
Those seeking to exonerate Rice’s murderer, Timothy Loehmann, deliberately sought any pictures they could find to make this Black boy appear older and more dangerous (2). An FBI agent at the scene claimed Rice appeared to be 18 or 20. Loehmann openly lied about his part in the incident, claiming he repeatedly gave orders for the child to drop the fake gun. Video evidence proves he instead opened fire after 2 seconds (9). Tamir’s last few moments of life was that as a confused, frightened child with an adult aiming a gun at him.
Finally, despite being the victims of murder, the characters of both Black boys were immediately put on trial, by exposing any potential misdeeds of their parents (3), all to exonerate the White men who murdered…
