BlackCommentator.com
- June 22, 2017 - Issue 704 Cover Story: White Supremacy Doesn’t Care
About Black Respectability, Only Black Death - Color of Law By David A.
Love, JD, BC Executive Editor
Est. April
5, 2002
June 22, 2017 - Issue 704
White Supremacy Doesn’t Care
About Black Respectability,
Only Black Death
"The only thing of concern to white supremacy
is the criminalization of all black people, and
the stacking up of black bodies.
Because All Lives Matter."
And
if you’re like me, you just don’t have time for this
sh*t.
Not
today, not any day. The lesson from this case, this recorded lynching
of another black man, is that white supremacy doesn’t give a
damn about black respectability and whether you were innocent and
complied with the cops. The only thing of concern to white supremacy
is the criminalization of all black people, and the stacking up of
black bodies. Because All Lives Matter.
The
murder
of
Castile by Officer Jeronimo Yanez — former Officer Yanez, who
was found not guilty by a jury last Friday — was an act of
white supremacy. It matters not that Yanez is Latino. He could have
been a white cop, he could have been a black cop, and the outcome
would have been the same. It’s the mindset that counts, and
that mindset is one that dehumanizes black lives and perceives us as
an existential threat to society.
This
is what happens to you when you have the audacity to own a car with a
broken taillight and, as Yanez believed, fit the description. Because
all black folks look alike, and by the way, we’re a criminal
element, according to some.
Philando
Castile did all the right things. The man had a legal right to carry
that weapon, and he notified the officer that he had a gun.
Castile
gave Yanez his proof of insurance and said, “Sir, I have to
tell you that I do have a firearm on me.”
Yanez:
“OK, don’t reach for it then.” Castile: “I’m…
I’m… [inaudible] reaching.” Yanez: “Don’t
pull it out.” Castile: “I’m not pulling it
out.” Passenger: “He’s not pulling it
out.” Yanez: “Don’t pull it out!”
Yanez
fired seven shots, pumping the bullets into Castile. What we can’t
forget to mention is that Castile’s fianc�e,
Diamond
Reynolds,
was sitting in the front passenger seat and recorded the gruesome
killing of her man on her cellphone. Reynolds’ 4-year-old
daughter was sitting in the back seat.
We
must ask what Yanez thought he was doing,
shooting
a
man who, driving with his fianc�e and a young child, tells him
he has a gun. “I
was scared to death.
I thought I was going to die,” Yanez said on the stand during
his trail. “My family was popping up in my head. My wife. My
baby girl.
And
what of the black woman and the black baby girl in the car? Did you
think of them and the trauma they will suffer for the rest of their
lives, Officer Yanez? We should ask if Yanez always reacts to black
people with such fear and trepidation, and why was he a police
officer in the first place if he was so trigger happy when in the
presence of melanin?
Welcome
to the world of implicit bias, the disease that infects society
through racist media stereotypes that seep into the public
conscience. Implicit bias tells police officers, and members of the
general public, that black children are older, bigger, less innocent
and more culpable than they really are, and that black adults are
criminals for no other reason than their skin. Racism is so hardwired
in the circuitry of Americans’ neurological systems that
shooting to kill an African-American is the default setting.
Meanwhile,
where
is the NRA
in
all this? Why are they not backing up their fellow fallen gun owner?
Because the NRA is meant to protect the interests and safety of white
folks, using fear of big, bad
black
men
such
as Philando Castile as fodder to keep arm sales in an upward
trajectory. Know this: For white America, the gun always was about
keeping the slaves at bay, under control and, when necessary, dead
for the sake of protecting white women and children, and property.
“Damn!
What is it gonna take?” asked Philando’s mother
Valerie
Castile
to
a crowd. “I’m mad as hell! Yes I am!”
“My
son loved this city and this city killed my son, and the murderer got
away,” she added. “Are you kidding me right now?”
The
real-time video recording of the violence against us, the clear
evidence of the negrophobic brutality was supposed to liberate us and
make it rain justice. But what happens when folks cannot agree that
the crime committed on the dashcam or cellphone is actually a crime,
or a bad thing at all?
Sanctimonious
unwoke white folks will assure you that black folks who don’t
comply with the cops will become deceased black bodies. Yet, we know
that even as black mothers and fathers instruct their babies on how
to behave
—
and what to do and not to do when confronting the cops —
respectability will get you nowhere. Becoming a Heathcliff
Huxtable
is
not your lifeline in the face of white supremacy and a gun. Following
the rules and complying with the law has its place, but wearing a
bulletproof vest might provide better results.
In
light of Philando Castile, black people need to become Luke Cage. And
that’s real.