Arguing whether Brown was a good kid or not is functionally arguing over whether he specifically deserved to die, a way of acknowledging that some black men ought to be executed. To even acknowledge this line of debate is to start a larger argument about the worth, the very personhood, of a black man in America. Its to engage in a cost-benefit analysis, weigh probabilities, and gauge the precise odds that Browns life was worth nothing against the threat he posed to the life of the man who killed him. Its to deny that there are structural reasons why Brown was shot dead while James Eagan Holmes—who on July 20, 2012, walked into a movie theater and fired rounds into an audience, killing 12 and wounding 70 more—was taken alive. To ascribe this entirely to contempt for black men is to miss an essential variable, though—a very real, American fear of them. They—we—are inexplicably seen as a millions-strong army of potential killers, capable and cold enough that any single one could be a threat to a trained police officer in a bulletproof vest. There are reasons why white guns rights activists can walk into a Chipotle restaurant with assault rifles and be seen as gauche nuisances while unarmed black men are killed for reaching for their wallets or cell phones, or carrying childrens toys. Guns arent for black people, either. theconcourse.deadspin/america-is-not-for-black-people-1620169913/all
Posted on: Thu, 14 Aug 2014 10:31:11 +0000
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