Guno צְבִי
We fight, We win
A white man, 64-year-old former district attorney’s investigator Gregory McMichael, saw him running and thought he looked like the suspect in a series of local break-ins. In other words, he was black. McMichael and his 34-year-old son Travis armed themselves, jumped in a truck and took off.
It was not until Thursday, two days after release of the video triggered a national chorus of condemnation raining down on the tiny south Georgia county, that the McMichaels were finally jailed. It had taken 74 days. Seventy-four days. And will that bring justice? This is America, so don’t hold your breath.
If that sounds bitter, well, bitterness seems an entirely appropriate response to what was captured in that video. Meaning not just another murder of another unarmed man, but yet another iteration of the eternal, infernal arrogance that infects so much of white America, this notion that a white man or woman has the divine right to require any given black person to justify their presence and activities.
“Why are you barbecuing in that public park?”
“Why are you swimming in that public pool?”
“Why are you jogging down that public street bothering no one, minding your own damn business?”
All white people? No. Of course not. But more white people than many white people would readily concede.
And the very need to place that disclaimer, the recognition that without it — and likely, even with it — some white readers will go away clutching their pearls about my supposed “racism” toward them, speaks volumes. Racism is not hurt feelings. It is systematized oppression that bars you from opportunity and steers you toward calamity every waking day from cradle to grave, that allows you to be murdered on camera, in cold blood in broad daylight - and your assailants to be home in time for dinner.
Trayvon, Tamir, Michael, Philando, John, Amadou, Ahmaud — it’s enough. It’s too much.
And all the “good” white people who needed the disclaimer, who needed their blamelessness acknowledged, must understand that it’s not enough that you’re able to avoid getting caught on video being a racist jerk.
https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/leonard-pitts-jr/article242570006.html
It was not until Thursday, two days after release of the video triggered a national chorus of condemnation raining down on the tiny south Georgia county, that the McMichaels were finally jailed. It had taken 74 days. Seventy-four days. And will that bring justice? This is America, so don’t hold your breath.
If that sounds bitter, well, bitterness seems an entirely appropriate response to what was captured in that video. Meaning not just another murder of another unarmed man, but yet another iteration of the eternal, infernal arrogance that infects so much of white America, this notion that a white man or woman has the divine right to require any given black person to justify their presence and activities.
“Why are you barbecuing in that public park?”
“Why are you swimming in that public pool?”
“Why are you jogging down that public street bothering no one, minding your own damn business?”
All white people? No. Of course not. But more white people than many white people would readily concede.
And the very need to place that disclaimer, the recognition that without it — and likely, even with it — some white readers will go away clutching their pearls about my supposed “racism” toward them, speaks volumes. Racism is not hurt feelings. It is systematized oppression that bars you from opportunity and steers you toward calamity every waking day from cradle to grave, that allows you to be murdered on camera, in cold blood in broad daylight - and your assailants to be home in time for dinner.
Trayvon, Tamir, Michael, Philando, John, Amadou, Ahmaud — it’s enough. It’s too much.
And all the “good” white people who needed the disclaimer, who needed their blamelessness acknowledged, must understand that it’s not enough that you’re able to avoid getting caught on video being a racist jerk.
https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/leonard-pitts-jr/article242570006.html
