When we talk about race, we speak carefully knowing that we live in a very particular manner of privilege. So, to talk about it competently, we have to measure our words from the higher ground we're standing on. 

A year ago today, Eric Garner died from heart failure in an ambulance after being subdued by an illegal chokehold at the hands of NYPD's Daniel Pantaleo on Staten Island. 

Pantaleo had apprehended Garner for allegedly selling illegal, untaxed cigarettes, and said he used a takedown maneuver he was taught by the police department to restrain Garner.

While Pantaleo held Garner on the ground, Garner yelled, "I can't breathe!"

When we talk about white privilege, we’re not strictly speaking about the disparities of means and opportunities; economic, educational or otherwise. 

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In the stories of Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Freddie Gray, Walter Scott, Akai Gurley, and Sandra Bland, we must examine white privilege as the absence of danger or unwarranted scrutiny from those sworn to serve and protect those people .  

Over the past year, the words, "I Can't Breathe" have become the rallying cry of the #BlackLivesMatter movement.

When we talk about #BlackLivesMatter, we’re not speaking in any manner of exclusivity. We are not choosing one over another. The language of "Black Lives Matter" is a matter of specificity for those failing to grasp context. 

For many in the white community, #BlackLivesMatter deals with a certain principle of exclusion, and we've gone too far, much too quickly, to revise this with a more inclusive sentiment of #AllLivesMatter.

Learn the names: Clementa Pinnickey, Cynthia Hurd, Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, Tywanza Sanders, Ethel Lance, Susie Jackson, Depayne Middleton Doctor, Daniel Simmons, and Myra Thompson.

#BlackLivesMatter doesn't signify anything in opposition to the value of all or other lives. It is not defined, supported, or refuted by crime stats, incarceration rates, or whether individuals like Brown and Garner actually broke the law in the moments leading up to their deaths. 

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#BlackLivesMatter because black lives are the ones under attack, and in the year since Eric Garner's death, little has happened to shake any truth from that perception.

The fallacy here is that this sentiment, "If you don't want to get mistreated, don't break the law," forgives police brutality. It implies that there is causality or justification for the loss of life, and that's rooted in the oversimplification of whether or not you choose to follow the rules. 

We cannot follow that logic because we choose to believe in a system that values all life, and protects that life in the course of due process. 

In the year since Garner's death, we have not found enough accountability within that system to believe that #BlackLivesMatter is a conversation lacking focus or consequence.

To dwell on semantics in these cases is as misplaced as associating closure with justice, or separating settlement from culpability.

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After Garner's death, Pantaleo was stripped of his gun and shield. A Staten Island Jury voted not to indict Pantaleo last year, but a Department of Justice investigation into Garner's death is still underway, according to Complex.

Pantaleo's lawyer Stuart London told the Daily News he doesn't think the Department of Justice Investigation will bring charges against Pantaleo.

After his indictment verdict was announced in December, Pantaleo released a statement which read:

"I became a police officer to help people and to protect those who can't protect themselves. It is never my intention to harm anyone and I feel very bad about the death of Mr. Garner. My family and I include him and his family in our prayers, and I hope that they will accept my personal condolences for their loss."

Pantaleo was sued twice before for racially motivated misconduct. 

Once in 2012 when he strip-searched two black men in public and slapped their testicles, and once for falsely arresting another black man for marijuana possession in 2014, according to the Daily News.

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On Sunday, Complex reported that even though Pantaleo has been under 24-hour police protection due to the volume of death threats he's received since Garner's death, he wants to return to his old job.

“There’s no justice because Eric is not here. He can’t get justice,” Eric Garner's mother, Gwen Carr said. “The only thing I can get is closure for him.”

On Monday, Eric Garner's family accepted a pre-trial settlement of $5.9 million from the city. 

We will not call "closure" justice. We will not call Pantaleo's "unemployment" justice.

New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer said that although the $5.9 million settlement "acknowledges the tragic nature of Mr. Garner's death... the city has not admitted liability."

Stringer also stated that Garner's passing "forced us to examine the state of race relations, and the relationship between our police force and the people they serve."

We will absolutely call this settlement "an admission of liability"; if not that, we have justified inferring culpability from it.  

We will call any action that forces an institution to re-evaluate their methods at a foundational or fundamental level, a teachable moment; an opportunity seized to avoid future missteps.

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Mayor de Blasio told CNN that Garner was on his mind upon the anniversary of his death. 

"I think the important thing is to stay focused on the work of reform," de Blasio said. "I think we've come a long way, even in the last year, in terms of bringing police and community together. The whole police force is being retrained."

Tonight, an orchestral concert will be held to memorialize Garner's death at the Salvation Army at 120 West 14th Street. The concert is called "The Dream Unfinished: A Symphonic Benefit for Civil Rights," and its goal is for "music to function as it has for centuries: a means for people to come together in solidarity." 

The concert will feature a racially diverse set of nationally prominent artists and activists, from Broadway musicians to members of the New York Philharmonic. They will play music by William Grant Still, Leonard Bernstein, and Jessie Montgomery.

Tickets are $25 and for sale here. Proceeds will go toward the Center for Constitutional Rights, Justice League NYC, Music Kitchen-Food for the Soul, and the National Coalition of Law Enforcement Officers for Justice, according to the NY Times.

Check out So a Bunch of Protesters Burned an American Flag in Fort Greene Park Yesterday.

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