The brutal murder of Jordan Davis hasn't gotten the same attention as that of Trayvon Martin, and probably for a fair amount of reasons. Davis's attacker was arrested (somewhat) immediately and there were a number of eyewitnesses to the attack. Like the Martin tragedy, the man who shot young Jordan Davis is claiming self defense. Like the Martin tragedy, I am calling bullshit. I'll call this situation another example of Death By Racist Dick, or DBRD for short.
What is crystal clear to me in both of these situations is that a white man (or white-ish man who enjoys white privilege) has decided to take a young black mans life when that young man doesn't behave in the way proscribed by the attackers preference. Or should I rephrase that....
What is crystal clear to me is that in both of these situations the perpetrators of violence who enjoys white privilege within the United States have taken it upon themselves to murder unarmed black men under the age of 18 for not doing as those attackers have demanded. Being killed for not following directions isn't acceptable or legal, and there shouldn't be a legitimate legal defense for it. Situations such as these were morally reprehensible in the era of slavery or antebellum, but they are both morally reprehensible and illegal today.
It's not a new situation in this country that Black men are seen as a threat. Threat to property, threat to person, threat to status, threat to women... But I am constantly told and reminded that racism is a thing of the past. People are too sensitive and want to take the rights away of hard working white folks who have earned everything they have and deserve to hate brown skin people because it is their right. Not that anyone hates anyone else, but there are reasons to be afraid, there are truths behind the stereotypes and the prejudices. Brown skinned people, whether born here or abroad, want to take advantage of the system and not work for anything, take jobs and live off the system. And it's as simple as that. We have the right to think, feel and believe whatever we want. When you couple this right with disdain for anything that reeks of being politically correct (or as I like to call it, thoughtful and/or inclusive), all of the sudden racism isn't the problem but "reverse racism" is. Add the right to arm oneself and Stand Your Ground laws which allow folks to shoot first and ask questions second, we've got a seriously fucked up situation on our hands. A fucked up racist situation on our hands. But what's new? Not a G-d damned thing.
Black folks can't as readily be strung up in trees for not doing as we are told as in decades and centuries past, but a bullet to the dome is just as effective. But if you want this liberal northern black chick to take your self defense claims seriously, you had better stick around to face the fucking music. Self defense doesn't look like several shots into a car with closed doors. Self defense doesn't look like jumping in your car, speeding off, and staying in a motel for the night to dodge cops. And self defense sure as shit doesn't look like starting arguments that you can't win and shooting young folks in conclusion. Wait a second...Let me say that differently.
Self defense does not now, nor has it ever, looked like creating beef with someone you don't know and then murdering them in cold blood.
So here comes the shocker, maybe (just maybe, hold the phones, I said MAYBE, calm the fuck down), guns and their role in our society play a role in this debacle. Of course, there are many ways to murder a person. And yes I know, you have interpreted the second amendment to your liking (because you are a constitutional scholar). And yes I know that guns don't kill people, people kill people, but when a person is coming at you with a knife or a razor or a motherfucking bow and arrow, there may be a moment that you get to realize that shit has gone terribly wrong and maybe there is chance to escape. Maybe not without being wounded, but likely with your life. But hold on, cuz I'm about to get even realer in this bitch.
Maybe in addition to "better" gun control (understood as any sort of reasonable and not determined by lobbyists and big money interests), self defense could be offered as part of the physical education requirement in all of the grades of our public schools so that in ten years a thirty year old man who doesn't like the looks of a hooded teenager who he thinks is doing wrong in a neighborhood (whether he lives in it or not), can apprehend the "subject" in a "less lethal" sort of way (citizens arrest anyone? Bueller...). And young folks (women, men, trans, all of the above) have the physical tools to protect themselves and be clever and/or prepared when they are being attacked. Maybe, just maybe as part of the graduation requirement from high school there could be something related to conflict resolution and intercultural communication? Because maybe if we know how to talk to people in a way that doesn't just say "I'm a huge fucking dick and you better do what I say," the person that we are talking to might be better equipped to respond in a "non-threatening" way? Maybe instead of forcing us all to justify the past through outdated history lessons we can move to a more culturally inclusive and culturally appropriate way of conducting social studies that includes a multicultural perspective so that when we see people who don't look like the "norm" we can understand their families journey as more than just a cog in the wheel of the train we call white privilege. Just a couple thoughts.... Don't like 'em? Call me, I have more.
