There is almost nothing sadder than seeing a person being complicit in their own oppression, and further asking others with brown skin to join him in that pursuit, and just accept the systemic racism that prevents true equality of opportunity and justice for Americans with brown skin.
My roommate, who I have lived with for about 15 of the last 20 years and who is a dear friend, and with whom I often have arguments/debates over political and other issues, shared this video with me. He is what I could call a moderate Republican, or a right wing Democrat. Same same.
I would not call him a racist, but like most who have not spent a lot of time thinking about the issue, he is completely unaware of his privilege and the lack thereof for Americans with brown skin. He pointed me to the above video, telling me how "spot on" this guy is and that "everything he says is true," and that since it is coming from a black person it somehow has more credibility. The crux of the argument of the person in the above video is "personal responsibility." That black people are in charge of their own destiny and that it is essentially their fault for being harassed without cause. It is essentially the same bullshit argument that rape victims are responsible for their own fates because of how they dressed or acted.
The unfortunate truth is that the vlogger above is doing nothing more than perpetuating stereotypes of Americans with brown skin. He is placing the blame squarely on these Americans for their own oppression and that somehow this historically oppressed group can somehow miraculously remove the oppression by cleaning up their neighborhoods, behaving better, dressing better, and educating themselves. This of course ignores the realities of systemic racism that makes it more difficult for Americans with brown skin to get a quality education, improve their economic status, and that Americans with brown skin are harassed by authorities far more than those with light skin, especially when they are doing absolutely nothing illegal. When I lived in New York and worked for a very wealthy musician/record producer who happened to have brown skin, he would often let me drive his $250,000 Porsche because he didn't feel like getting pulled over. This was a well dressed, highly educated and intelligent human being and one of the nicest people you'd ever want to know. So he did everything the vlogger suggests and then some, but still no love from the men in blue.
Anyway, I told my roommate that I would view the video and share my thoughts. After watching it, it became clear that to point out all of the problems with the words spoken would take some time and to do it thoroughly, it would need to be written down.
A lengthy point by point take down of the video is below the fold.
Timeline:
0:14 - "Yes, racism still exists, probably always will, so just get over that."
So here he is saying to just accept it. Despite the fact that racism is far less severe in other countries, showing that it can be largely overcome, we should just accept it. Buzzer, wrong answer. The way to stop something that is wrong is to fight against it (preferably verbally), not just "get over it." My roommate mirrored this sentiment, saying to me, "you can't stop racism over night."
"Of course not," I replied, "but it will never end if we just accept it and 'get over it'"
0:18 "yes, there are law enforcement officers out there that take things too far, abuse their power, they're humans, we are a flawed species."
Can't argue much with that as it is true. But again the implication is that we should just "get over it." But why? Don't you think that better oversight of the police departments and that demanding outside investigations into all complaints of police officers' excessive use of force would curb this abhorrent behavior by those sworn to protect and serve the citizenry? I think it stands to reason that if an officer really feared going to prison for excessive use of force then they would be much more restrained. IOW, I won't just "get over it." And neither should he.
The bigger question is why should the police get a pass on being flawed? If I shot an unarmed teenager of any race, I would not get a pass for that "flaw." If an officer's "flaw" leads them to unjustifiably use lethal force on an unarmed person, they should not get a pass. They should get tried, just like everyone else. But these cops get a pass. Yet at the same time you shame dark skinned Americans for the flaw of peeing in hallways and spraying graffiti and selling drugs (all much less serious crimes than murder) and because they do those things, they get what they deserve. My head just spun like Linda Blair's in The Exorcist.
0:36 "It is 2014, I hate to break it to you, but if your life is messed up, it ain't because of slavery."
Really? So he is saying that if slavery never existed in the US, and all people with dark skin came here of their own accord as free citizens, and that they were never viewed as possessions, that they would still be in the same position today. It is an arguable point and we can never know, but my reason dictates that this would be a vastly different society for Americans with brown skin if slavery never existed in the US. So, sorry, you can not ignore history when trying to examine attitudes in the present. These attitudes came from somewhere. Also it is noteworthy that racial discrimination seems to be more prevalent in the states where slavery was most used. So it seems to me that trying to separate modern day racism from slavery is just plain ludicrous.
0:51 "Civil rights, about 50 years ago, I don't know if y'all know, we won"
That's kind of like Bush's "Mission Accomplished" and then the war drags on for 10 more years. If "we won" then wouldn't we expect equal treatment under law and in society, and equal opportunity for all americans regardless of skin color? The civil rights movement of the '60s helped... helped a lot... but the same things still occur now as occurred then. And people still get away with murder as long as the victim has brown skin and some nebulous story can be made up about "fearing for my life." Sorry, but this war is far from "won."
1:25 "If you live in a messed up neighborhood, let me give you a little advice... Stop messing it up. Ain't no rich white man sneaking into the hood in the middle of the night, spray painting graffiti, peeing in hallways. George Bush ain't out in the neighborhood, selling crack on the corner."
Nah, GW gets his cocaine delivered by limo. :-)
But the above is just perpetuating stereotypes. It assumes that all Americans with brown skin are responsible for the state of their neighborhoods. As a youth going to school in the Bronx, I knew plenty of white folks who pissed in their halls, sprayed graffiti and sold drugs on the corner. I myself am guilty of the first of those offenses.
So how does he suggest that neighborhoods that consist of primarily brown skinned Americans fix up their neighborhoods?
1:45 "All this 'stop snitching'... no, start snitching."
So he suggests calling the police if you see someone messing up the neighborhood. That's a laugh. The caller who reports the crime might just get shot, or at least might be treated as a criminal anyway. Sure, it would be great if calling the police were a sensible thing to do. It is for me as a privileged light skinned human, but unfortunately in some areas and for some people calling the police is not a viable option. It's kind of a no-win situation.
2:15 "Get you an education"
Yes, please do! Worked so good [sic] for you.
2:22 "Let's talk about police, police violence..."
Yes, let's!
2:24 "Stop bringing stuff upon yourself, being complicit"
Ding ding ding! We have a winner in the Blame the Victim game! Stop being complicit in the crimes perpetrated against you! Where do we hear this argument all the time again? Oh yeah. I mentioned it before above the fold. The argument sucks in this context as well.
2:29 "The little video of my man Powell that got shot in St. Louis, why would you think it's a good idea to run up on two cops when they tell you to stop, put down whatever got..."
He had nothing to put down in the video I saw. The cops claimed he had a knife, but none can be seen in the released video. They claim he got within three feet, but I don't see that either. But regardless, even if he had a knife they could have tased him or shot him in the leg. He never got close enough to be an imminent threat to the officers to justify use of lethal force. As an unarmed man, even being in physical contact should not be just cause for lethal force.
Though I agree that running toward an officer after being told to stop is probably a bad idea. The problem here is that he never ran towards them.
2:40 "Now as black people, we supposed to be mad and 'Oh my god, oh my god, we need to go out there and march'... no we don't, no we don't... Stop doing crime!"
And that's a four pointer for the Blame the Victim game. What crime did Michael Brown commit that warranted death? Jaywalking? That was all Officer Wilson was aware of at the time. Ooh, serious crime. That jaywalking is just so dangerous for society! And what crime was Powell guilty of? How you conveniently forget the fact that
innocent brown skinned Americans are being targeted and
that is what is being protested. I can guarantee that if it were shown that Michael Brown were armed and pointing a gun at the officer, or robbing a bank or committing any other major crime, and was then shot by police then this would not be a national news story. No one would have heard of Michael Brown if that were the case. I don't ever recall a protest, or calls to protest, over clearly justifiable use of force, regardless of the skin color of the person shot. So, yeah, it would be good if all Americans stopped "doing crime" regardless of skin color... but that is not the issue here. Again the issue is
innocent victims of police violence, or excessive use of force given the crime committed, in the case of Michael Brown... jaywalking.
2:55 "The thing that nobody talks about with Trayvon Martin, in this day and age why is it that when people see a young black man. the first thing they think of... what's he doing... is he up to no good, he looks like trouble. You know why that is?
Oh, please do tell.
3:10 "Because that's our perception. Because that is the perception we keep giving people. The way we act, the way we carry ourselves."
Really? I don't have that perception. I am trying to think of a good thing to call that perception for those that admittedly do have it... let me think... oh, I know, racism!
3:26 "And then we want to talk about 'Oh, the justice system isn't fair, they come down harder on us. OK, that may be true, but did you do it? Just because they gave you more time than they might have gave the white person, if you hadn't done the crime in the first place, you wouldn't have had to do any time."
Tell that to
Hurricane Carter. Tell that to
Glenn Ford. I am sure I could go on and on with this list, and sure it happens to some light skinned folks too. I don't have the statistics, but I would bet my last dollar that it occurs more for brown skinned Americans. So here my vlogger friend is just being incredibly uninformed and naive.
3:43 "Stop being ignorant, stop glorifying ignorance."
I'm ready when you are.
3:55 "And it's a damn shame that in 2014 we are still talking about this."
Ah, something I can agree with. Unfortunately he seems to think we should just stop talking about it and the problem will go away. News flash, the problem will never go away by ignoring it. So it is a damn shame that we still
need to talk about it. However I am glad that we
are talking about it. Well, some of us anyway.
4:15 "You get pulled over for DWB, for those that don't know that's driving while black, don't be mad at the officer, be mad at the brothers that came before you that gave the reputation to the black man for the cops see, "Hey look, there's a car full of brothers, they probably up to no good."
Wait, he just said we had to stop being ignorant while he justifies ignorance on the part of police officers. I have no further words for this epic fail.
And the grand finale:
5:14 "Everything is not somebody else's fault, sometimes it's just you."
Sure, sometimes it is. But sometimes there is clearly someone else at fault, like an officer of the law shooting an unarmed person, or harassing a person for no reason other than the color of their skin. And those are the circumstances that are being protested.
So, my dear roommate, now that I have had a chance to thoroughly review this video that you told me was so "spot on" and "compelling," I can say with a clean conscience that no, it is neither. It is wrong on just about every level. Fredrick Wilson II may be "one smart young man" as it says above the video, but unfortunately that intelligence is not on display here.