Michael Eric Dyson, NYT: What White America Fails to See

[pnwmom]

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/10/opinion/sunday/what-white-america-fails-to-see.html

IT is clear that you, white America, will never understand us. We are a nation of nearly 40 million black souls inside a nation of more than 320 million people. We don’t all think the same, feel the same, love, learn, live or even die the same.

But there’s one thing most of us agree on: We don’t want the cops to kill us without fear that they will ever face a jury, much less go to jail, even as the world watches our death on a homemade video recording.

You will never understand the helplessness we feel in watching these events unfold, violently, time and again, as shaky images tell a story more sobering than your eyes are willing to believe: that black life can mean so little. That Alton B. Sterling and Philando Castile, black men whose deaths were captured on film this past week, could be gone as we watch, as a police officer fires a gun. That the police are part of an undeclared war against blackness.

You can never admit that this is true. In fact, you deem the idea so preposterous and insulting that you call the black people who believe it racists themselves. In that case the best-armed man will always win.

SNIP

[zz-la]

1. 100% agree

It's that disconnect that allows the Officers who gun down POC to not have to worry about being found guilty or in most cases even facing arrest. Because so many white people just dismiss these cases as having anything to do with racism. Of course if white america can't see the inherent racism I think many people would settle for white america just seeing that an unarmed man being shot is a fucking crime. Fine don't see the racism, just see the cops as having violated law and their own department policies. You cannot shoot and kill somebody unless you can prove that you life was in imminent danger and that mean you have to see the gun and that gun has to be raised and aimed at you in a threatening manner. Just seeing a gun in somebody pocket doesn't mean that your life is in danger.

[pnwmom]

5. Welcome to DU, zz-la! n/t

[still_one]

2. No question about it. Dyson is right on

[handmade34]

3. excellent read...

[salin]

4. k & r

[matt819]

6. Read the comments on this column

A fair number are from people who essentially call out Dyson for his racism, lumping all white people together, twisting their reasoning to turn this into something it is not.

One of the apparent problems seems to v with statistics, which suggest that, in absolute numbers, more white people are killed by police than black people. more detail is needed in such police killing death counts to more accurately portray the reality of the data.

Frankly, I thought the column was excellent. Wanna bet nothing will happen? As long as racists and morons are hired at the lowest possible salaries and given no effective training, these killings will continue.

[GaYellowDawg]

7. Nor do white people all think the same, feel the same, etc.

But I can speak for myself. I don't want cops to kill you without fear. I don't want you to be killed at all. Your lives are just as valuable as mine. I may not understand you, but I value you. When I saw Alton Sinclair's son weeping for his father, it reminded me of when I wept for mine, and my heart broke for him. I wished I could hug him. It is impossible for me to understand your helplessness because I don't experience it. I have had one encounter with police that frightened me badly. I know that my experience was one that any given black person would consider the mildest possible outcome because I wasn't shot, tased, or beaten. When my worst experience is someone else's best outcome, that's a definition of privilege.

I do not deem the idea of an undeclared war against blackness preposterous or insulting. I believe that the war - institutional racism - exists. I do not call you who believe it racists. You are the targets of racists, not racists. And I think that our society and our nation will never realize its potential until the day that all people can look at straight white males and say that they are not privileged, and that society values everyone equally to them.