Ma’Khia Bryant’s Death: A Tragedy And A CRT Narrative

Ma’Khia Bryant, a 16-year-old living in foster care, was shot and killed on April 20, 2021. Mainstream media has painted the picture of a sweet little girl who was just in a typical fight with other teenage girls when a racist white man came along wielding the power of the badge and shot her down in cold blood. However, if you take even two minutes to look into the scenario, then you will see yet another narrative has been spun to convince the public of a great police threat that just isn’t there.

Ma’Khia Bryant Was Not Innocent

There have been conflicting reports at the time I’m writing this concerning who called the police. Some say Bryant called because she feared for her safety. Others say she was why someone called for police. I won’t presume to say I know, but I am certain she was not innocent.

At the time of the incident on the bodycam footage, Bryant was not in any sort of danger. In fact, seeing a police officer on the scene would have been a wonderful reason to stop fighting and let the cop deal with the aggressor if she had been threatened. In any case, she appears to ignore police presence and attack a young woman wearing pink with a knife. This was not an act of self-defense. Bryant charged this person and lifted her knife to stab while the individual in pink attempted to guard against the impending blow.

What Did The Girl In Pink Do To Set Her Off?

I’ve seen the accusation that the teen in pink must have done something to lead to Ma’Khia Bryant attempting to murder her. Nope. That’s not a thing. Maybe Bryant had been set off. I don’t know the private interactions between these two ladies, but I know that stabbing someone is not the correct (or legal) response to a past offense. Self-defense and I’m-gonna-get-her are two very distinct mindsets. Bryant seemed to be working from the latter.

It Was Just A Knife Fight…So Typical

The media want to tell us that fights between girls using knives is fairly ho-hum. The last I looked, knives are deadly weapons. Also, I would venture to say that most people are not inclined to stab someone when they are upset. This was not typical. It was a life-threatening action taken by a young woman in front of a police officer.

Bryant Was In Foster Care

Yes, Ma’Khia Bryant was in foster care. Children who are “in the system” are at higher risk for learning disabilities, depression, developmental delays, and a myriad of behavioral problems among other things. No one can look at her life and situation and say she did not have struggles. I would imagine her inclination to extreme physical violence in that moment had a lot to do with her upbringing and living situation. Everyone keeps talking about #accountability, but they seem to forget that Bryant needed to be held accountable for her actions, too.

A hard life does not give anyone a free pass to act out in violent and potentially deadly ways. Sometimes we just have a bad hand in life and need to rise above that. Her foster parent, counselor, and other adult role models would have ideally helped Bryant through her struggles.

Bryant Was Just 16

Bryant’s age makes the whole thing sadder. She had so much time left to grow into a mature woman and be anything. At 16 we have the whole world open to us, but at 16 we are also capable of making devastating choices. I didn’t know Ma’Khia Bryant, so I don’t know if this incident was indicative of who she was. Maybe this was the moment she broke and just uncharacteristically lashed out. Her death is all the more tragic if that is the case.

But being 16 doesn’t remove the severity of her behavior. She was putting someone’s life at risk, and teenager or not – Bryant had to be stopped.

The Cop Should Have De-escalated The Situation

You’re not even being serious about this incident if you suggest the police officer should have attempted to de-escalate things first. The cop received a call about a female with a knife and then walked in on a young woman attempting to murder someone with a knife. Was he supposed to talk her down mid-slash? Get real! He had approximately ten seconds from when he approached the scene to when Bryant attacked the teen in pink.

The Taser!

Why not use a taser? First, the officer had already pulled his gun. I think a switcheroo would have slowed down his response too much. Second, tasers don’t always get the intended response. It is not unheard of for someone to be tased and not be deterred. The officer didn’t know if Bryant was on drugs or so hopped up on her own adrenaline that she would just continue her attack. I mean, c’mon, a police officer’s presence didn’t seem to stop her. Third, Ma’Khia Bryant was endangering the life of the young woman in pink. Police can and should use deadly force when someone is attempting murder. Right?

The police officer had mere moments to assess the scene. He took decisive action and saved a woman’s life. A Black woman’s life… I know the media wants him to be a racist, but the truth of this situation doesn’t quite jive with that.

My Story

I had a “friend” who frequently bullied me in elementary school. Looking back I can see she had one of those childhoods that creates a lot of dysfunctional thinking and behavior. At the time, though, I was just a kid. I didn’t know.

One day she really had it out for me. I think she was jealous I had spent time with a friend without her. Whatever it was, she was laser-focused on making me pay for it. She got off at my bus stop after school, and my heart dropped. She had been trying to physically assault me on the bus and threatening me. I thought I would be safe when I got off the bus. I was wrong.

She followed me and grabbed me by the hair, dragging me into the apartment building’s dumpster area. There, she tried to put trash in my mouth. Finally, she tried to cut me with a shard of glass. I broke free and ran into my apartment, but no one was home because my mom was still at work.

And Just Like That…There’s A Knife

I did not shut the door to my apartment because she was so close behind me that she would have reached me while I tried to shut the it. And I knew she was much stronger than me. She ran inside and immediately grabbed a kitchen knife from the knife block on the counter. I’m telling you, this escalated quickly.

I ran from her and locked myself in the bathroom, cowering in the corner while she tried to knock the door down. She threatened to kill my mom when she got home if I didn’t come out. I had never been so frightened in all my life. I opened the door, and she lunged at me with my own kitchen knife. Suddenly, she started laughing. Then crying. Then she left.

What If?

There was no police officer there to protect me. I was alone. I would have given anything for someone to help me. Thankfully, I was lucky that day. She may not have left in a fit of tearful giggling. How could I know? I’m not sure she knew what she would do. My mom could have just as easily come home to my dead body. If a cop had been there and needed to shoot her, that would have been devastating. However, would it have been more devastating than if I had been murdered? Most people would have understood an officer’s action to protect someone in danger of losing her life. They would have said it was sad, unfortunate, and tragic. People would have also said it was justified and necessary. That officer would have been a hero.

Critical Race Theory Rears Its Ugly Head…Again

How come the officer involved in Ma’Khia Bryant’s death has been vilified? I’ll tell you. Systematic racism. That’s right, folks. Again, we are being told that cops hate Black people, and the justice system is concerned with keeping White America in power. Critical Race Theory (CRT) proponents are so committed to their cause that they will try to normalize a teenage girl wielding a knife in a murderous rage while demonizing a police officer for saving a Black girl’s life because another Black girl died in the process.

This illogical, race-baiting, and anti-gospel rhetoric has only made me double-down on Christians’ need to reject CRT completely.

What Does This Have To Do With Christianity?

You might be wondering how this post fits on this particular blog. The Set-Apart Walk: Faithful, Obedient, and Counter-Cultural Christian Living. CRT is pulling this country apart. It’s pulling the Church apart. A loud group of believers say you aren’t a good Christian if you don’t walk in solidarity with people of color (POC) and repent of the great sin of being born White. People who look like me are told to accept the blame for every bad thing and bad feeling anyone non-white has ever or will ever experience. The current culture demands this. Meanwhile, CRT is absolving POC from any personal responsibility because if it’s bad it must be racism.

Christian, this is not the way. God made a perfect world where racism did not exist. Sin brought that into the world. God is the opposite of sin. Psalm 5:4 “For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: Neither shall evil dwell with thee.” So, He surely wants perfect race relations, fairness, and justice. But I have bad news for all the CRT loyalists in the Church.

Jesus did not walk the earth, die on the cross, and raise from the dead for social justice. That’s focusing on the here and now. His sacrifice was for our eternity. Our mission is to tell others about Jesus and disciple them in the knowledge of the Lord. What difference will a social justice victory make without Jesus? What good have we done if we fix all the race issues in the world but no one is saved? I feel like a broken record here, but real change can’t happen without a heart change through being born again.

Final Thought

Ma’Khia Bryant’s death was a tragedy. I suspect many people failed her throughout her life. Those failings paired with her choices led to a terrible end. It was an end no one should have. Those who loved her are mourning, and we ought to have compassion for them. We should pray for her family, this country, and for Christians not to be swept up in narratives that only cause divisiveness, extinguish love, and treat the gospel as useless in times such as these. Let’s take our eyes off social justice and put them back on Biblical justice.

Check It Out!

Christian, It’s Time To Reject Critical Race Theory

Image courtesy of Clay Banks via Unsplash.