When different organizations separately invited Race Matters author Cornel West and Erica Garner, daughter of Eric Garner, slain by New York police, to speak at events in Oakland on Thursday night, no one could have known that the nation would again be enraged by a video of a police officer killing a black man, this time in South Carolina.
Yet, West and Garner said, the killing was not surprising — even if the video is shocking. It’s proof, West said, before a speech at Allen Temple Baptist Church, that racism and white supremacy still exist.
“You live in a society where black lives have such a low priority that people think you can just shoot them like a dog, go home and drink tea,” West said. “White supremacy is alive in the U.S. and we have to hit it head on.”
Garner, speaking before more than 100 at the Betti Ono Gallery in downtown Oakland, said the police choking death of her father — as he said “I can’t breathe” over and over and also captured on video — turned her into an “overnight activist” intent on holding police accountable for unjustified killings of black men.
“It’s crazy how those cops can get away with things,” she said. “If the chief’s not going to hold them accountable, if the grand jury won’t hold them accountable, if (internal affairs) won’t hold them accountable, who will hold them accountable?”
Garner’s talk was part of an event that turned into a session to help Oaklanders cope with the trauma of another high-profile police killing of a black man. As several in the audience live-streamed and tweeted the session, she pointed out the power of technology, like video cameras in cell phones, in combatting police brutality.
“We are our own media,” she said. “We don’t have to go on the words of what those officers said.”
Garner said she’s been asked whether she considers the arrest of Officer Michael Slager, the South Carolina officer who shot and killed Walter Scott, gives her confidence that things are changing.
“No,” she said. “Justice for one is not justice for all. ... If this guy really goes down, that means something is happening. But they would need to continue that change and look at my dad’s case again.”
West, a noted academic, activist and author whose work focuses mainly on race, met with a handful of reporters before speaking on social justice and eliminating inequities in health care at a fundraising event for a Samuel Merritt Universityscholarship program for black and Latino health care students.
He scoffed at people who figure that a nation with a black president, attorney general and secretary of homeland security can’t have a problem with race. And he praised what he called a growing resistance movement, especially among younger people.
“They’re marching and they will not stop,” he said. “It brings a smile to my face.”
West supports a planned “National Shutdown Day” protest on Tuesday, and said he is encouraged by the rising din of dissent,
“I think we’re moving into uncharted territory,” he said. “We ought to have a righteous indignation channeled through love and justice rather than through hatred.”
Michael Cabanatuan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.
com Twitter: @ctuan