But first, let me throw one more bomb. Anti-black implicit bias is real.
Why did the death of meth-using George Floyd cause riots, but the death of retired cop and grandfather David Dorn did not? I've struggled with that ever since I saw the video of David being killed, which was fed live to Facebook by someone who filmed the episode, but did nothing to help David as he bled his life out on the sidewalk.
Someone in my family, let's call him Howard, is a complete and total scumbag. He's got a rap sheet, he's utterly amoral and he's spent his life taking advantage of everyone around him. If an atom of conscience crawled into his head, it would die of loneliness. If he got into an altercation with a cop and the cop killed him, even if it was out of malice and Howard was totally innocent, I guarantee you, we'd all shrug and say, "Good riddance. One less scumbag."
We are all aching to show how much we hate racism. Below is a photo from today's anti-racism protests in Philly. There are no counter-protests. None. There is only one side to this debate and everyone is on it.
Live look at Philly
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) June 6, 2020
pic.twitter.com/cMzwATbLT0
There are probably hundreds of locales around the country where people are protesting the police. In my own, little burg, the local high school kids have been out on the main drag for days now, holding up Black Lives Matter signs. People drive by and honk and wave in support.
Why George Floyd and not David Dorn?
It's because we're racist. We're filled with implicit bias. I am dead serious, too. Candace Owens turned me on to the answer. Here's her video that enlightened me with the payoff starting at 1:05.
We're racists because to us, George Floyd is authentically black and David Dorn isn't. It took Candace's video and me thinking about family scumbag Howard to figure it out.
George died while high on meth and about to get in his car and drive. Because of that, we launched a Cat 5 racism freak out. If my Howard was high on meth and killed while just sitting on a park bench, we'd shrug. David Dorn was killed by seven black thugs and we really did shrug.
David Dorn. |
David Dorn being shot. |
The suspects in David Dorn's killing, video released by the St. Louis Police Department.
We're outraged at the death of George Floyd and not David Dorn because that's how we see blacks. We see them as criminals. That's our standard definition of them. It's not the pregnant, black woman that George Floyd robbed at gunpoint a few years back that makes us grab our banners and march, it's George, high on meth. The pregnant woman isn't really black to us. If she was shoplifting and cops roughed her up, then she'd be black. Sitting in her home, being all peacefully pregnant and stuff? Nah.
That's also why the 20+ deaths in Chicago last weekend don't bother us. The dead aren't black. Their killers are. That's why we want to reform the police. The police threaten the people we see as authentically black - the criminals.
Almost every time cops get called into a black neighborhood and arrest a black suspect it's because a black victim or black witness asked them to come. When one of these cases goes to trial, there are blacks on the juries and blacks in the witness stand. For the (probably black) witness who called the cops when George robbed the pregnant black woman, for the blacks in the jury, for the blacks working for the court, for the pregnant black woman herself, the cops were the solution. For the rest of us, frantic to show how we hate anti-black racism, the cops are the problem.
That's because we're racist. We see blacks as criminals.
It's a excellent post, and I've linked to it on my farcebook page ... but, just so you know: *I* am not in that "we" (and I really doubt that you are).
ReplyDeleteA related essay -- The Myth (and Missteps) With the Magic (Conservative) Negro
ReplyDelete^ though, the guy seems not to be able to see past his melanin.
ReplyDeleteI was wondering if this would lose any of my long time Internet friends. I'm glad it didn't lose you.
ReplyDeleteWhen I post something here, it's almost always half-baked. I'm looking for help with the baking. I'd prefer all of you yell at me than leave in disgust.
I also wondered if feelings were temporary and I'd change my mind the next day. I just reread this post and I still feel the same way.
And thank you so much for your kind words and the link! I was so glad these three comments weren't "I hate you and will never come back to the 'Post!" that I forgot to say thanks.
ReplyDeleteI don't have a problem with what you wrote, you've made some really valid points. If nobody sits down and honestly works out what the fundamental problem is, then nothing will ever get fixed. And if that's not done, we are stuck with people doing ineffective or counterproductive things based on their personal prejudices, and not on reality.
ReplyDeleteThe trick, as always, is going to be to make your points without sounding like you are calling everyone who disagrees with you pathetic loser idiots who hate America. People seem to really dislike that for some reason.
I agree. Interestingly, in the last presidential election during a rally in Michigan candidate Trump asked the "African-American community" several times "What do you have to lose?", and once phrased it "What the hell do you have to lose?". Watch that in all its glory here . Flash forward to the 2020 campaign. Candidate Biden said "If you have a problem figuring out if your're for me or Trump, then you ain't black".
ReplyDeleteNow which of those candidates is treating the black community as per your suggestion? Seems to me to be the woke, enlightened, Dem.
I'm getting old enough that I no longer care whether I make my points properly or not. In the end, all graves go unmarked. If the people from history I cherish are vilified, what of it? It was all turning to dust anyway. So are you and I, at least on this Earth. Speak the Truth and let the young deal with it.
ReplyDelete