The term deja vu is used to describe the feeling of having experienced something before. You can be sure that people who’ve worked in the media for a number of years know that been there, done that, feeling well. Inasmuch as African-American News&Issues’ staff range from an almost 70-year-old living historian to a 24-year-old college grad, it isn’t unusual when a discussion about a current controversy becomes a Black History lesson. And that’s exactly what happened last week while we were scourging for issues for our Publisher’s News Analysis. We had almost settled on analyzing the unusual number of African and Mexican-American citizens being shot by police officers in comparison to their Anglo counterpart, when our living historian reflected on the sad fact that historically, Blacks and Browns have to be dying to coalesce. History certainly seems to repeat itself, because Blacks and Browns are once again coalescing because our people are dying.

More accurately, they are being killed by Greater Houston area police officers who appear to have returned to the era when Texas’ lawmen gained a national reputation as “shoot first and ask questions later” law enforcers. We got a bit sidetracked when it was officially ruled that Harris County Deputy Sheriff Shane Bennett was felled by “friendly fire.” We recalled a similar incident at TSU that impacted the lives of five students, including Atty. Charles Freeman, who was recently in the news in connection with a 9/11 suspect. Not surprisingly, when the conversation switched to the TSU tragedy, our college grad hadn’t heard the whole story before. However, it got her full attention because, ironically, her first assignment was attending the July 23, 2002 press conference that Quannel X called on behalf of the TSU Pharmacy grads that felt the school wronged them.

It certainly makes one feel old to talk about something that seemed to be almost like yesterday, that is now considered ancient history to America’s Class of 2002. However, that’s perfectly understandable when you live in a fast -paced society that barely has time to fully understand news breaking daily, if not hourly. On the other hand, there are few of us who haven’t heard the warning, “If you don’t remember your history, you’re doomed to repeat your mistakes.” Even so, most Texans under 50 would be hard pressed to remember the name Bobby Joe Conner, although his beating death by police officers could well be responsible for the first and most successful Black and Brown coalition ever.

Inasmuch as City Councilman Ben Reyes chaired a committed addressing police brutality, he had bonded well with Black leaders, and the roots of a Black and Brown coalition were already planted when the Joe Campos Torres incident inflamed the Hispanic community a few years later. Let’s not confuse Joe with Luis Alfonso Torres. But isn’t it ironic that a man with the same name suffered a similar fate in 2002 Harris County and evoked the very same reaction from the Hispanic community as Joe’s brutal death in 1977? It shocked the nation and was the catalyst that created a powerful Black and Brown coalition.

Until then the Hispanic community nervously watched African-Americans fight police brutality from a distance. The mainstream media had done a masterful job of depicting the “Black and Proud” generation as malcontents and militants. It wasn’t difficult for the media to convince citizens of good conscience that Conner, who lived in the Galena Park area, was just another arrogant, Black militant who provoked the fatal confrontation with arresting officers. The media also reported Joe Campos, a Vietnam veteran, was drunk, disorderly and disrespectable toward arresting officers too.

Nevertheless, those who remembered how Conner’s case had been swept under the political rug demanded an explanation why Joe had been thrown into the Buffalo Bayou handcuffed, after being beaten like Conner. City Councilmember Ben Reyes had no problem convincing his people that it was time for Blacks and Browns to join forces to fight police brutality. And the fact that the late Congressman George “Mickey” Leland spoke fluent Spanish certainly sanctioned the coalition. However, just as Hispanics had offered only lukewarm support in police brutality cases involving Blacks, African-American civil rights groups offered only token support when Luis Torres died in police custody.

Unfortunately, only after cops shot 23-year-old Christopher Menifee on July 15, 2002 did a serious Black and Brown coalition evolve. On July 24, civil rights groups, including the NAACP, LULAC and ACLU called for a citizens review board independent of police to investigate the shootings to determine if officers acted properly in over a dozen fatal shootings of citizens in Harris County/Houston. Our older minority leaders surely remember their long and futile effort to create a citizen review board, that was somewhat distilled after Mayor Kathy Whitmire hired Dr. Lee Patrick Brown to become her first minority police chief.

Needless to say, Brown, just as any other police official, abhors the idea of citizens sticking their noses in police business. Brown instead did the next best thing and instituted his nationally recognized “Neighborhood Policing” concept. Zero tolerance policing in minority communities aside, history is repeating itself in the Greater Houston area and Blacks and Browns are again dying to coalesce. Consequently the local chapter of the NAACP and LULAC, and others are talking about a community summit on excessive force. We think that’s an excellent idea, even if we do have a Black mayor and police chief.

With that said, we would like to know why African -Americans and Hispanics fail to realize that a coalition would greatly empower a people who share the same problems politically, economically and in many instances socially. As catchy as our editorial’s head is, it doesn’t address the issue truthfully. Politicians have done an excellent job of dividing and confusing Black and Brown leaders, who truly believe that we’re adversaries, competing for the same economic and political crumbs. Are our Black and Brown leaders so politically naïve (or greedy), until our unjust system have to kill their people before they have sense enough to coalesce?

AFFIRMATIVE ACTION must be taken by African-Americans to seek retribution against public officials who oppose reparations.