By W. Yusef Doucet
America loves its “nigras,” except when America hates us, which is most of the time since America loves to hate its “nigras.” The appalling Trayvon Martin murder is only the latest example of how U.S. American hatred of Black people remains the default attitude the general population of the United States, including internally colonized communities, holds toward identifiably/identified African people. Of course, U.S. hatred of Black people is not unique or isolated but rather constitutes a major sector of the African hating modern world. U.S. Americans show their hatred for Black people not only through the random killing of Africans, whether by the state in the form of the police and penal system or by private citizens like George Zimmerman, but also through the inevitable character investigation/assassination of the Black victims and their families. U.S. Americans are even easily disposed to hate the Black people they seem to love the most, collegiate and professional athletes, always ready to adore them for their on-field or on-court brilliance and to condemn them for their “arrogance,” “thuggishness,” or insufficient gratitude in the same moment. So no one should wonder that while most Black folks in the U.S. see a plain case of search and destroy racial profiling by Zimmerman against Martin, many white people and others have vigorously rationalized Zimmerman’s actions or questioned Martin’s actions and character.
It simply goes against the wiring of U.S. political culture to defend Black people without looking for fault in the victims, their families, their communities or their culture. To do otherwise would mean admitting how badly Africans have been treated in the U.S. and for how long Africans have been treated badly by the U.S. and its citizens. Nor should we ever underestimate the enthusiasm with which some Black people will join in the choruses of condemnation. Black people have also learned and internalized the lessons of hating Black people. There lingers an accusation ever fouling the air of the U.S. social environment: somehow we Black people deserve our mistreatment, if for no other reason than we had the bad judgment to be born African.
We have seen this all before this case. Of course Trayvon has been held responsible for his own murder. His hoodie, his online persona, his insufficient humility when facing his pursuer, all of these mark him as responsible for his own death because the mainstream already reads these as the accessories of his feared black, male body. One does not have to search that far back and can draw an unbroken timeline of the abuse of Black people being blamed on those same Black people. We should remember that many people seriously believed Rodney King posed a threat to the circle of police officers beating him. People have defended the public arrests and handcuffing of Black children younger than ten years-old as a form of tough love, good for them in the long run. A six year-old Black girl in Georgia was just arrested and handcuffed for throwing a tantrum at school April 13 in Georgia. Also, many folks had choice words for the Black New Orleanians caught after Katrina hit and the levees broke. Regardless of the circumstance, Black people are held responsible for their own poverty and their own degradation, not the system nor its managers and enforcers.
Fifteen years ago, right about when Black churches were being torched, white 18 year-old Jeremy Joseph Strohmeyer committed a vicious crime against 7 year-old Black Sherrice Iverson, raping her and killing her in a Nevada casino bathroom. Strohmeyer was not characterized as a monster in the mainstream media, but as disturbed young man clearly in need of help and even compassion. The greatest venom was reserved her father. Her parents’ grief and their loss could offer no resistance to the accusations of child neglect. The reflexive rationalization of Strohmeyer’s mental state became more important than the heinous crime he committed. His friend David Cash, who saw Strohmeyer take Sherrice into a bathroom stall and did nothing to stop him, served no time. The fault had to lie with Mr. Iverson, and his humiliation had to be public because Black people, especially working class Black people, must be portrayed as unsympathetic. That Mr. Iverson may have failed as a parent had to matter at least as much as Strohmeyer’s crime if not more. Sherrice was mostly forgotten in a great deal of the public discussion. Black people must be held responsible for their own victimization.
These same kinds of concerns for George Zimmerman’s safety and his mental and emotional fragility have re-emerged. The anguish of Trayvon’s family was of such little note that the police infamously failed to notify them for three days. Yet, we are not allowed in public to think that white people and others treat Black people viciously simply because they hate Black people. Defenders of the mainstream quickly characterize accusations of racist motivations for Black maltreatment as the real problem of racializing events, and warn against assuming the collective responsibility of white people. Warnings go out about the futility of rioting, and the police in the already over-policed Black neighborhoods go on high alert. Under no circumstance are black people to get angry and get organized. The Jena, Louisiana, Black community put the local police and district attorney’s office on blast nationally, and folks flocked to Jena to demand justice for the six young men caught up in the criminal injustice system. Since then, as Jena fell from the news cycle and consciousness, Jordan Flaherty has reported on sweeping police reprisals against Jena’s Black community through the ubiquitous vehicle of the drug war. Collective responsibility must be reserved for Black people, not collective action.
So now that George Zimmerman has been arrested and charged, albeit with a lesser charge than first degree murder, what happens to the anger? Can a million hoodies translate into a campaign against mass incarceration of U.S. Africans, against ongoing police murder and abuse in Black communities, or self-defense training? Can that empty signifier, the hoodie, expose the contradictions inherent in U.S. society, or has it given people the mistaken idea that wearing a hoodie and posting a photo on social media in and of themselves somehow challenge the status quo without needing to organize, continue to demonstrate, and show up in force in the courtroom when Zimmerman is tried. In the now two months since Zimmerman shot Trayvon Martin to death, unarmed Rekia Boyd in Chicago was shot by an off duty police officer, and the unarmed Kendrec McDade was shot by the police in Pasadena, California. Police have just recently arrested two private white citizens in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for hunting and killing Black people. How does a million hoodies march deal with civilian violence against Black people? And what justice can Black people really expect from a system more accustomed to prosecuting them rather than protecting and serving them?
Hating Black people in the United States is more American than apple pie, a legacy of the Dutch in North America. Perhaps organizers of the million hoodies marches would do well to read or re-read Ida B. Wells-Barnett. She wrote to expose the political and economic interests behind lynch-law in the U.S. Wells-Barnett pointed out the economic boon that came to white businessmen as a result of the terror eliminating Black competition. Contemporary gun sales and private prison corporate shares indicate that demonizing, fearing and loathing Black people remains lucrative business. Wells-Barnett also had some pointed responses to the white terror of her era: economic boycott, migration away from the regions of the most intense violence (although the move from the South to the West barely mitigated the violence), publicizing the crimes through media, and of course, “…a Winchester rifle should have a place of honor in every black home, and it should be used for that protection which the law refuses to give.” Too often for Black folks then and now, the law and its representatives constitute the perpetrators of the violence.
Economic boycott remains an effective tool but needs a focused target and goal. Other than leaving North America, an idea not to be dismissed out of hand, there is nowhere in the U.S. to which to migrate. Our great-great-grandparents and great grandparents did that and found new forms of the old hatred waiting for them. Black media does bring these tragedies to Black national consciousness while mainstream news regurgitates the latest in bread and circuses or the most recent narrative floated by corporate and government power. The challenge there is to maintain the Black narrative and also connect it to the U.S. system of exploitation and degradation, rather than reporting on these events as isolated. Now, nothing makes U.S. Americans, white or otherwise, more nervous than the thought of armed Black self-defense. But under conditions in which persons can and do treat Black life cheaply, in which persons disregard Black grief and anguish, and in which mass media depict Black people as deserving of our oppression while they neglect to report or under report that Black people constitute by far the largest number of victims of hate crimes, no sector of state comes to the defense of our lives and limbs. If we cannot or will not defend ourselves, no one will. If we do not have the right to stand our ground, as the unarmed Trayvon himself may have done, as anyone should be able to do when one is being followed by a stranger with ill or at least questionable intent, then we do not have the right to live. Is the U.S state and are its citizens ready to admit publicly that they believe at their core that Black people really do not have the right to live? That is probably too much honesty for the post-racial United States.
W. Yusef Doucet is a faculty member of the Santa Monica College English Department. He co-founded and facilitated the Dyamsay Writers’ Workshop in Santa Monica, CA, the Third Root Writers’ Workshop in Pomona, CA, and a poetry reading series at the Velocity Café in Santa Monica, CA. Yusef is currently working on a Ph.D. in Cultural Studies at Claremont Graduate University. His research interests include Fanonian analysis, the policing effect of integrationist/post-racialist ideology and anti-blackness in the modern symbolic order. Yusef keeps a blog at freeignace.wordpress.com.
What a beautiful, depressing, truthfilled post. It is always Africans who are dissuaded from rioting or organizing to defend themselves… so true. Africans around the world seem almost suicidal in their sheepish allowance of their murder.
A very truthful post Mr.Doucet. The first step when Whites kill blacks is always criminalization. If you don’t have a prison record in your over policed community they’ll find an old teacher to say you were no good. The point is genocide is as American as apple pie and the sooner people realize that no one will protect Us, you, me, mine and Yours, will always find ourselves at the wrong end of the barrel of the gun. However the state knows we as a people fear them. They even boldly wrote about it in the Cointelpro files about the Black Panthers and the community in general. They write us off as punks and non-men like it’s gospel. The number one rule of genocide is that you must make the target population worthless in the eyes of the society. If you accomplish that, genocide is the natural conclusion. Now just put the pieces together as to what has and is transpiring to the non-citizen groups here in America (including Africans in America, some might get confused). Look at the white-out on African history, Demeaning caricatures, Stereotypes and Judgments on Value and Character. Whats been going on is nothing but a slow march to a final conclusion. It’s time as a people that we came to our own conclusion. We need to be clear on what’s what and who’s who and make a move on history, before we find it’s too late and time moves on us instead.
Definitely on point! A few years ago, a cousin was hit and killed by a city bus in Coacoa Beach, FL, which is not too far from Sanford. After the family sought to sue the city in a civil trial, the local paper (which published ALL of the predictable racist bile in the comments section of the paper’s website) , city officials, white citizensand, of course, the obligatory negro apologists, sought to vilify my cousin by touting his “criminal past” and “past drug activity,” as if the method by which he chose to escape the very challenging reality of being born an Afrikan in America somehow justified his unjust killing.
To flesh out a few points made by this article:
It’s important that Blacks [& other people of color] remember that historically the primary on-going function of so-called ‘Law Enforcement’ Authorities in the US [& by extension all of the western hemisphere]- Is Keeping Niggers [often includes other non-whites {IE: indigenous peoples & ‘Latinos’} as is designated by the color-caste system] In Their Place- by Hook or by Crook, -&- to protect the property & interests of the {white}Power / Corporate Elites & the Affluent vis-a-vis the working-class & the poor. All other Police functions are secondary [if not incidental- IE: serving & protecting the general public] to these 2 primary functions- period. Though currently this is seldom acknowledged openly- Nearly every act of the Criminalized {in}Justice system / Prison Industrial Complex can be properly diagnosed, analyzed explained, etc by keeping that foremost in mind.
Trayvon’s murder by Zimmerman- With his subsequent demonization has been bought into by many whites- & not all of them are ‘Real Whitey Good Ole Boy FOX Noise types either. Even at so-called ‘Liberal-Progressive’ sites IE: Common Dreams- though most CD commentors are sympathetic toward Trayvon & support Z-man’s arrest [though it’s note-worthy that many even in this group seem uneasy at the obvious racial implications of Z-man gunning Trayvon down]- a significant vocal minority of commentors @ CD have seemingly bought into the demonization of Trayvon. I’ve even been accused of ‘Playing the so-called “Race-Card” ‘[by a self described very ‘liberal’ staunch gun-rights advocate] for objecting to someone insisting on Blaming Trayvon for Z-man shooting him!
IF Zimmerman is convicted- maybe he gets 20 -25 yrs Max. At 411.SeeingBlack.com they recently reported on 2 other separate cases in FL where 2 people [likely a Black man & a Black woman] have been sentenced to 20yrs mandatory for NOT SHOOTING someone [IE: firing a warning shot] when threatened them IN THEIR OWN HOMES [what happened to ‘Stand Your Ground’ in these cases]! And in MN a Black Woman is also charged w 2nd degree murder for defending herself w some scissors, after being attacked by 3 racists w a beer-mug in which she [unlike Z-man’s phantom injuries] is documented to have suffered lacerations to her throat & face! This is in far up-north ‘liberal’ MN, Not ‘Ole Dixieland’!
IMO: The best examples of whites’ hypocritical attitudes RE: Black Sports stars- are OJ & the William Sisters. OJ was the epitome of the ‘All American Negro’ Success Story- that white America seemed to love. BUT- All that changed when his white ex-wife turned up dead. When he was acquitted most white folks were & remain{ed} out-raged! – Compared to their Ho-Hum reaction to Robert Blake’s acquittal for killing his wife- when both the evidence & motive against Blake was stronger. And it was OJ’s white Jewish lawyer who coined the term ‘Race-Card’ against fellow OJ ‘Dream-Team’ colleague, the Late Johnnie Cochran- when Cochran showed that a lying racist rouge cop like Mark Furhman was [is] quite capable of planting incriminating evidence against OJ [seems that most whites & the MSNM Media are no-longer that out-raged about Furhman].
The Hate-Her-Aide that so many whites have displayed for Williams Sisters [including their father & even their mother] for their entire careers, shows that it ain’t just about being accused of murder ala OJ! The fact that Venus & Serena have kept US tennis from going into oblivion for the past decade apparently ain’t good enough! So many white US tennis fans seem to forget all about their ‘patriotism’ when it comes to Venus & Serena, by openly rooting for their European opponents- even when playing in the US! AND- Few US fans, or even US sports commentators, seem out-raged that since the Williams era, 3 different times in women’s tennis someone who has NEVER-Ever won a major has been ranked number one- which has NEVER Happened in men’s tennis, nor had happened in women’s tennis before Venus & Serena started dominating the court!
Such is the state of affairs in so-called ‘post-racial’ USA!
Peace my brothers
you forgot the hockey player the other
nite when he made point they sent his
name through mud
I’m sorry but I’m not a hockey fan [its so lily white] so I’m not too familiar w the Black hockey guy.
But I could have talked about so much white hater-aide for Barry Bonds- using the steroid excuse as cover. The fact is a whole lot of ball-players in his era used steroids- but only he [& ex-track-star Marion Jones] who has actually been prosecuted for it. Contrast that w Rafael Palmero [& likely the 'Rocket' too] perjuring himself before congress w his ‘Slick Willie / Monica’ finger pointing moment- denying he had ever use steroids- & then about a month later testing positive for it! Yet he didn’t get prosecuted!
Some white folks even had the hypocrisy to compare the classiness of Hank Arron to the arrogance of Bonds. Now Arron is indeed a very classy guy, but I remember the actual death-threats some white folks put out against him when he about to break Babe Ruth’s home-run record. And they didn’t have steroids for an excuse!
I don’t waste a lot of time pretending that when it comes to issues of race, labels such as “liberal”, “conservative”, “libertarian”, etc. which White people apply to themselves have much meaning. The United States was conceived as a racist, White supremacist nation by its pro-slavery founders nearly three centuries ago, and in spite of the passage of time and much over heated rhetoric to the contrary, it remains true to its roots. America will become a post racial nation the same day that Chinese cease to speak Mandarin.
First of all, thank you all for your interest, your engagement, and your insights. Your comments add critical context and extension to my commentary. The world remains the Manichaean world described by Fanon. The settlers continue to practice extermination programs in various forms, official and unofficial, private and institutional. We continue to believe we deserve it. We continue to hate ourselves and kill ourselves with more frequency than the settlers, having learned the lessons of our degradation well. We continue to fear because we did see what white power has down around the globe to crush or tame the Black Revolution that was re-shaping the world. We said Black is Beautiful, but not enough of us in the world everywhere really believed it. The official discrediting of openly malicious racism has done nothing to change the basically assumed western/white superiority. The West has represented itself as the end of history instead of just the end. So we need another kind of self defense equal to defense of life and limb. We need to defend our minds. Culture workers? Culture jammers? We also need to remeber Gil Scott-Heron admonition: “there ain’t no such thing as superman.”
The problem with the title of this topic is that it takes away any responsibility of how blacks themselves act in our society. Some soul searching is high time due in the black community. Because maybe, just maybe many people are sick of always seeing how blacks make up the highest percentage of our prisons per capita, then blaming everything on racism.
How about you do the crime, you do the crime? Please stop comparing yourselves to whites, blacks are a minority (causing a hell lot of havoc). How about comparing yourselves with the Indians (dothead) or Chinese? How many of them are in prison?
If anything this piece serves as another typical whine.
There is no whine associated with stating facts. It does not take a lot of effort to see the differing reporting styles of white victims of crime, or perpetrators either for that matter, and people of color, to see the unobjectivity at work.
You do make a good point that Blacks have done a poor job when it comes to condemning negative behavior in the black communities, but that is really another issue than the topic being referenced here. You do yourself no honor in trying to make a valid point using the tactics of racist trolls who are never able to see the truth in anything a Black person might have to say about his conditions here in America.