Innocent Until They Imitate

…inequalities and traditions are often reinforced, however directly, and created, however remotely, by government policies. Behind the husband’s abuse of his wife lie centuries of laws and doctrines awarding him authority over her; behind the employer’s cruelty are statues, past and present, granting him coercive power over his employees.

Corey Robin, Fear: The History of A Political Idea

As we have seen, the proper functioning of the sacrificial process requires not only the complete separation of the sacrificed victim from those beings for whom the victim is a substitute but also a similarity between both parties. This dual requirement can be fulfilled only through a delicately balanced mechanism of association.

Rene Girard, The Violence and the Sacred

“In that house or apartment resides a Black woman with a son who is…”

Fill in the blank:

- “everyday, clad in black ninja-type or army camouflage garb.”

- “prone to run-ins with other children, disrupting class, and suspensions from school.”

- “obsessed with guns and persistently nags his parents to purchase a Glock.”

- “converting his bedroom into a arsenal site where guns, rifles and sawed-off rifles, automatics, knife, and at least one machete abound, and at least two of these weapons were reluctantly turned over to the son by their owner, the father, who was vociferously opposed to violence.”

Neighbors would report the Black woman (and father) long before the son kills 2 children and injures 25 others, as did 15-year old Kipland Kinkel in Springfield, Oregon, May, 1998.

A Glock in an innocent’s hand is as American as apple pie.Today, the steady stream of calls from these neighbors, teachers, counselors, any and everyone, to the local authorities, to the FBI, and to Homeland Security, overwhelming the personnel, would, temporarily at least, halt the data flow from informants, agent provocateurs, email and Twitter accounts, fusion centers, and foreign embassies. The Kinkels, surrounded by nature rather than neighbors and sophisticated surveillance apparatuses, were teachers, respected citizens of the community. Then and now, the family would have the right to be, right to transition their son from boyhood to manhood in the good ole’ tradition that conquered and civilized.

On the other hand, in any era, the Black woman is arrested, son and husband as well. More police units, more patrols on the streets, more Stop-and-Frisk, even invasions of homes with or without search warrants, and arrested of “suspects” from kindergarten to college would be uniformly agreed upon by Democrats and Republicans, and the “Black” president would authorize without hesitation and without a meeting with Boehner or Lindsey Graham, “indefinite detention,” with or without charges, on the confirmed “terrorists.”

Exemplary of a dysfunctional family, a psychologically damaged family, this image travels the world! The image of this Black woman, front and center, is used as a unification tool to distract the American public from its culpability in violence writ so large that Langston Hughes could once again speak of rivers, but rivers of blood. But, no, the birthplace of society’s crisis and ills is not to be found in the patriarchal traditions! It is no wonder the “musical” production from paid collaborators in this violence, Black sons and fathers, becomes a substitute for that once produced by Odetta or Nina Simone.

When young Blacks thought of men, women, and children in the community as family, women and the elderly to be respected and children to be feed and educated—all to be organized against the violence, the State took action. These “insane” youths and their ideas were effectively “neutralized.” The American enterprise saw to it that shipments of weapons and drugs flowed into the Black communities in the 1970s to further neutralize resistance and dissent while paving the way for the prosperity of prison building in the 1980s and gentrification in the 1990s.

So why would a Black mother allow the husband to purchase a Glock for their Black teenage child? Why, as the mother of Adam Lanza, for example, would a Black mother purchase weapons, a Bushmaster .223, semi-automatic rifle, for example, for her son? Why, in this society, would a Black woman, purchase weapons for a Black teenager?

Purchase a coffin! See your Black son with a cell phone in hand or candy or a hoody on his head, purchase a coffin! See him off to a bachelor’s party or New Year’s Eve party, or stand by him while he takes out the garbage—and purchase a coffin!

It is no wonder the “musical” production from paid collaborators in this violence, Black sons and fathers, becomes a substitute for that once produced by Odetta or Nina Simone.Stop and Frisk, Preemptive strikes and coffins, visits from the local authorities, the FBI, the Homeland Security, or U.S. soldiers are not prevalent in the “exclusive” neighborhoods of the Empire were children of the affluent can amaze an arsenal of weaponry because they are the “innocent.”

A Glock in an innocent’s hand is as American as apple pie.

The image goes hand-in-hand with the “historical” narrative of the great frontiersmen and women and the humanitarian crusaders.

“This land is my land…”

The world is yours, and all things, and all people…

The Invisible Hand of the market, when confronted with the unruly, holds a Glock or a Bushmaster, just as easily as it holds an AKA and a barrage of drones for the maintenance of freedom!

the only violence at the hundreds of Occupy Movement actions during late 2011 and early 2012 across the US, from New York to Boston to Los Angeles to Seattle, was perpetrated by heavily armed police. Occupy activists were the victims, not the perpetrators of this violence and criminal behavior. (Dave Lindorff, “FBI Ignored Deadly Threat to Occupiers,” Counter Punch, Weekend Edition December 28-30, 2012)

This strain of imitation is forbidden! The unarmed invasion and occupation of ”public” spaces, the parks, the schools, the university campuses, the municipal buildings, to organize against the Robber Barons, the corporations, the warmongers—criminal! A young kid in ninja or camouflage attire with an arsenal of guns provided for by respected parents—protected by the by Second Amendment and innocent until caught imitating!

BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board member and Columnist, Lenore Jean Daniels, PhD, has a Doctorate in Modern American Literature/Cultural Theory. Click here to contact Dr. Daniels.