I have read a lot of claims of anti-white bias stemming from the disparity in media coverage between the cases of Michael Brown and Dillon Taylor, who were killed similarly by police while unarmed. I think there is a very important distinction to be made here. Michael Brown is a microcosm of being black in the United States. Dillon Taylor is a microcosm of being poor and mentally ill in the United States. They both represent segments of the population that have been made powerless by a system that collectively recognizes no obligation to do anything but further exploit the downtrodden. Id imagine the difference is that the poor in the US have never been nationally unified; today, black people in the US are able to speak with a shared voice. Please dont frame these tragedies in a way that makes them oppositional to each other. Instead, these shootings should prompt us to address two questions. First, why is multi-generational, perpetual disenfranchisement endemic to our society? Second, why are police officers behaving in an increasingly draconian way, or why do they feel that it is necessary to do so? There are answers to both of these questions, and I cant imagine we will be able to decide on what they are if shootings like these are taken as a starting point for internal and unnecessary tribal bickering instead of a message that we must absorb collectively.
Posted on: Thu, 27 Nov 2014 20:16:54 +0000
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