After the recent shootings of unarmed black men, both the internet and the airwaves have been filled with a bunch of talking points justifying what the police did. All of them are bogus, but one in particular is truly offensive to any rational person.
This is the one that goes something like: “Well, there may have been a police shooting of an unarmed black person, but blacks need to acknowledge that that there are high levels of violence in the black community and that they need to do something about that.”
This argument would be completely illogical in any other context. For example, we recognize that many people die every year in automobile accidents. We also recognize that somewhat fewer people die from medical errors. So, taking the thinking behind the above statement, it means that before we can attempt to reduce medical errors by computerizing patient files, we have to make sure that self-driving cars (which will most likely reduce accidents) are fully functional. And before dealing with the errors that are caused by chronic sleep deprivation on the part of medical residents, we have to fully solve the problems of accidents caused by drivers who fall asleep at the wheel.
The obvious questions that jump out in this scenario are: (1) what does one problem have to do with the other; and (2) why can’t we work on solving both problems at the same time?
The more egregious problem with this talking point is even more fundamental. White people in this country also kill each other at high rates (certainly compared to other Western democracies). Would any police shooting of an unarmed white person be justified by saying, “Well, white people kill each other a lot, so until they stop doing that, it’s okay for police to shoot unarmed white people”?
The basic premise is that black people have to clean up their act in order to expect the government not to shoot them. That they have to do something to earn their right not to be killed by an arm of the government, when white people can just expect that they won’t be shot or killed by law enforcement regardless of what their fellow whites do. Whites are automatically just granted that right – they don’t need to do anything extra to be treated as full citizens.
Not to mention, why are black people who do not commit crimes being held accountable for those who do? If you’re white and a banker, you don’t even get held accountable for your own crimes, let alone anyone else’s crimes. Why should blacks have collective guilt applied to them, and on top of that, to be mutilated or killed because of it?
I hope this wasn’t too incoherent a rant, but I just can’t take hearing that talking point any more. It’s both idiotic and offensive.