This is just a reminder that all these stories took place just this week:
- In case you were wondering, this is how white people who don’t have their own army call in a drone strike: When called out by a black man for letting her dog off-leash in an on-leash area of Central Park, white woman Amy Cooper called the police and claimed that she was being threatened by “an African-American man.”
- When have we heard “I can’t breathe” before? In an attempted arrest, a Minneapolis police officer kept his knee on George Floyd’s neck as he lay motionless and moaning. Floyd died in the ordeal.
- The Root: Florida Woman Arrested for Drowning Her Autistic Son After Telling Police Two Black Men Abducted Him. There’s local coverage here, here, here, and here, but the bit about the racism gets buried.
- The Gaily Grind: Youth Pastor Claims He Was Kidnapped By Black Men To Avoid Admitting He Hired Male Prostitute. More coverage here and here.
And only last week, did we begin to hear about the corruption behind the case of the shooting of Ahmaud Arbery. And the number of times I’ve been told by well-meaning wypipo that anti-Asian racism from the coronavirus supposedly doesn’t exist — despite having had that moment myself — is ridiculous.
Want more evidence? I’ll borrow this straight from Tony Pierce:
What have we learned this month about protesting in the Midwest?
It seems to me the lesson is, if you go to a protest with guns and a confederate flag the police will allow you to march right up into the state house and treat you with respect.
But if you arrive unarmed you’ll be teargassed.
Am I missing something?
It’s been a pretty racist week.
One reply on “It’s been a pretty racist week”
At least in the Michigan case, you can sort of comprehend the fear felt by law enforcement at the prospect of lighting a civil unrest fire among white gun owners. I think they honestly don’t know what to do about just how well armed the citizenry have become, and if they tried to start tossing tear gas on armed protesters, it could get out of hand really quickly. Unarmed protesters are easy, you can throw whatever you like at them and drag them away. Waco was so long ago it seems but it’s only gotten worse since then.