I was thinking about this after a discussion in another thread.
I saw Gus Savage’s obituary. This part caught my eye. It’s a quote from a rival of Savage’s, Mel Reynolds, who is also black, complaining about Savage’s race-baiting antics:
“Gus Savage has taken the legitimate pain of racism in our society and trivialized it,” Reynolds, who is black, told the New York Times in 1990. “He uses it as an excuse for everything. We should not tolerate race-baiting by white politicians and we should not tolerate it by black politicians. When blacks use the charge of racism so cavalierly, we run the risk of losing our moral authority as a people.”
In the other thread I argue that false accusations and race-baiting hurt race relations by making whites unwilling to even talk about race or interact with blacks. I thought this was an interesting quote after that conversation.
Also, I’m amused at Savage’s claim that black people can’t be racist, but that’s another issue.
In a society in which black kids are suspended at far higher rates for the same offenses for which white kids are referred to counselling–in which black people are stopped and searched far more often, despite carrying less contraband than white folks–in which black people face heavier prison sentences–in which people assume that black people feel less pain than white people–the problem is absolutely whiny liberals. Of course it is.
I agree entirely, and would be surprised if any intelligent person disagreed. Unfortunately, false charges of racism are so common that most of them go by while barely attracting any notice. For example, in September a teenager in Texas named Ahmed Mohammed was arrested at school because some teacher erroneously thought he had a bomb. Countless people rushed to Twitter and elsewhere to declare that the false accusation was caused by racism. It wasn’t, or at least there’s no evidence that it was. Likewise when Hillary Clinton and others claimed that a minor change in Alabama related to DMV offices was motivated by racism, when it was actually the result of budget cuts and had nothing to do with race. These things happen so often that fighting against them with facts and logic starts to seem pointless.
Opposite view. Most people are blind to racism and most forms of discrimination no matter how painfully clear or damaging. For example, in September a teenager in Texas named Ahmed Mohammed was suspended and arrested because teachers/principal/police officers accused him of having a bomb. While the kid had powerful defenders a countless number of people rushed to Twitter and elsewhere to harass this kid and his family with religious/racially tinged hoax allegations and conspiracy theories (due to their religion and ethnic background). In the end the family even left the country, while many declare that the false accusation wasn’t caused by racism. It was, or at least the kid witnessed clear evidence/comments from police that hint at it. What’s unquestionable is that the kid was continuously subjected to an unholy amount of bigotry throughout this ordeal. These things happen so often that it seems like most are numb to the all but the most tragic/violent of incidents.
There must be a perfect victim for some to imagine there may be a problem… Oh, he was 400 lbs and arguing… Oh, she flailed her arms… Oh, he reached into the car for his ID to quickly… Oh, he looked older and seemed to be reaching for his waist when the cops rolled up…
Without a perfect victim, some will always find a way to dismiss these things.
To be clear, my comment was more about the wisdom of Mel Reynolds than the racism of Gus Savage. Savage wasn’t a guy who saw incidents that could be racist and used a biased view to judge them as such. He was just a dick who spewed hateful nonsense.
Interesting example of perception of racism in a video here. This is a video of an encounter between two white cops and a black woman. Do you see any sign of racism in the encounter? Do you see the woman acting like she’s afraid or angry or offended? Yet later SHE wrote that she was outraged by what happened and claimed racism. She shook the cops hands at the end of the video, but her later comments sounded like she had been manhandled by Klansmen. I found this case especially weird for the disconnect between video and perception because the commenter was also the subject and seemed completely different in the video vs. her later comments (described in the text).
If you give a damn about police brutality, trying to turn assholes like Michael Brown into martyrs does not help that cause, it just destroys the credibility you might otherwise have. If Black Lives Matter says that Michael Brown is a victim, their opinions can safely be dismissed because they prove their opinions are founded on racism and not on fact.
There are two different questions here. The first is whether any teacher or police officer involved in what actually happened was motivated by racism. To that, we can say there is absolutely no evidence that they were.
To a second question of whether Twitter featured racist garbage after the incident, I didn’t read any tweets about it, but I’m sure the answer is yes. Twitter always vomits up a bunch of dumb crap, some of it racist. No matter what’s happening anywhere in the world, if it’s a major story, jerks will post stupid stuff on Twitter. That’s the bad news, but the good news is that no one has to read it.
Leaving aside the particulars of the Michael Brown case, it should be noted that in general, being an asshole and being a victim of racism need not be mutually exclusive.
The problem with racism is not just that it sometimes afflicts innocent “martyrs”, but also that it often leads to some assholes being treated worse than other assholes solely because of their race. Pointing out that that’s a bad thing does not mean that you’re pro-asshole.
So not only do the victims have to be perfect, but so do the protesters – if some protesters protest against a killing that may not have been due to police maltreatment, then that means the whole movement is tainted.
When one wants to find excuses to dismiss criticism of police mistreatment or similar problems, they’re easy to find. Most victims won’t be perfect, and most protest movements will have imperfect people within.
