A man sees three teenagers breaking into cars on his block in Washington D.C. He is armed, he shouts, then fires a S&W 40 caliber pistol, killing a 13-year-old boy.
Five policemen in Memphis Tennessee beat a 29-year-old man to death after a traffic stop.
Some of my fellow Liberals decided immediately that racism played a part in the deaths, or was involved in how officials responded. I don’t know, but wonder how our reactions might change if the race of those involved were different?
What if the 13-year-old boy killed was Black and his killer was White?
If boy and killer were both Black?
If the 13-year-old was White and the killer was Black?
If the boy and killer were both White?
Did your feelings shift as you painted the boy and the shooter different colors?
Let’s ask the same questions about the incident in Memphis, where a 29-year-old-was beaten to death by five cops:
What if the young man who ran from the traffic stop was Black and the five officers were White?
If the young man and the cops were both Black?
If the young man was White and the cops were Black?
If the young man and cops were both White?
Again, did your feelings shift as you painted the dead man and cops different colors?
Days after the 13-year-old was shot and killed, the shooter turned himself in to face charges of second degree murder. A Black neighbor said if he had pulled the trigger and the boy had been White, police would have had him “under the jail” immediately.
White men believe if they’d pulled the trigger and a Black 13-year-old had died, there would have been riots if the shooter wasn’t arrested immediately.
The same is true about the Memphis incident: If the cops who beat the young black man to death had been White, there may well have been protests if not riots across the country. Instead, possibly because the cops were also Black, protests are more muted.
Responses to these tragedies seem to vary based on colors of skin. So while we like to believe in equal justice for all, we must face that prejudice guides many of our beliefs.
Too true and it hasn't always been that way after the 60's. We seemed to become followers of MLK. That seems gone as politicians split us into our various tribes. Tribes seem to bring out the worst of humanity, a reversion to our evolutionary beginnings where tribes were at near constant battle over women and resources. Much of that seems built into us and it's been a miracle that the US since founding has been trying to overcome. Blacks and natives joining whites in pushing the British out, at least twice. I suspect majorities would like to hear a bit less from the fringes of their tribes.