This past year has been punctuated by incessant violence of many forms. From protests turned riot to biker gang brawls turned deadly shootout, the unique toxicity of the times are representative of the many contradictions within modern American society.
What I do find particularly bothering about Sunday's shootout in Waco, Texas is the way this seems to be treated as an 'isolated incident'. The same phrase used to describe police violence against young black males. That same phrase I have yet to hear describe the riots that followed police violence in both Ferguson and Baltimore. White privilege wins out in the competing narrative every time.
If you are skeptical about the idea of a consistent modern form of white privilege, consider this: For America, a singular picture came to represent the anger, destruction, and anarchy that was the Baltimore riots. It is the picture of a teenager smashing a police car windshield with a street cone.
As reported in The Nation, the teenager, named Allen Bullock, was encouraged by his well-meaning parents to turn himself in. He did so and was arraigned in a Baltimore court where he was given a bail of $500,000. If this seems excessive in the impoverished part of Baltimore where Freddie Gray was killed by local officers, that's because it is.
To understand the deep injustice of the charges and bail given to the young Mr. Bullock, you have to consider this: The highest bail given to the Officers involved in the murder of Freddie Gray (who surely are more financed than the young Allen Bullock) was just $350,000.
The property of the Baltimore Police Department is more valuable than the life of Freddie Gray.
How can anyone deny white privilege with so many blatant examples all around us? Had white people rioted that day in Baltimore, certainly it would have been condemned by officials; but does anyone really believe it would have been spoken of as anything other then an 'isolated incident'?
White privilege is all around us. From the way white America treats its deviants compared to blacks, to the the segregation between white and black neighborhoods, down to the quality of the Public Schools in those segregated neighborhoods. Always well funded in the white parts of town, dilapidated in the black parts of town.
But some of the starkest examples of the two worlds black and white America live in can be seen in the nation's reactions to violence. I sure haven't seen Rudy Giuliani come out condemning the white community in Waco, Texas. Nor did I see armed vehicles, flash-grenades, sniper-rifles, rubber bullets and an army of SWAT teams.
Until White America can collectively admit that racism persists in all of its most pernicious forms, American communities cannot begin to heal. Hopefully this is a start.