WHITE PRIVILEGE, RACIAL PREFERENCES, AND POLICE
VIOLENCE
©Wendell
Griffen, 2015
Justice Is A
Verb!
December 29,
2015
Yesterday (December 28, 2015), a
grand jury in Cleveland, Ohio delivered the decision most observers expected
concerning the death of Tamir Rice, a black 12 year old boy shot to death in a
public park, while playing with a pellet gun, on November 22, 2014 by Officer
Timothy Loehmann of the Cleveland, Ohio Police Department. The grand jury decided, at the recommendation
of Cuyahoga County Prosecuting Attorney, Timothy J. McGinty, not to indict Loehmann
for killing Tamir Rice.
Welcome to the latest pernicious example
of white privilege and racial preferences in the United States, and the one
that is defended most effectively and consistently. The killing of Tamir Rice in Cleveland, Ohio,
like that of Eric Garner in New York City, Freddie Gray in Baltimore, Maryland,
Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, Rekia Boyd and Laquan Robinson in Chicago,
Illinois, Sandra Bland in Texas, and numerous other black and brown people at
the hands of or in the custody of law enforcement personnel , proves why human
rights activists argue that that black and brown lives do not appear to matter
to people in law enforcement, on grand juries, to the judges and jurors who may
decide the outcome of civil trials, and to the society that allows this
perversion to continue under the pretense of “criminal justice.”
White privilege is vehemently denied
and/or criticized by pundits, politicians, and other willfully ignorant
people. But white children who play with
pellet guns in public places are not gunned down within seconds after police
see them (the way Tamir Rice was killed).
I dare you to prove otherwise.
White people who traffic unlicensed
cigarettes are not strangled to death by the police the way Eric Garner was
choked to death on Staten Island last year.
I dare you to prove otherwise.
White people with mental illness are not
shot to death like rabid dogs the way Laquan Robinson and Quintonio LeGrier
were killed by Chicago police. I dare
you to prove otherwise.
White neighbors are not shot to death
like collateral damage in wartime the way Bettie Jones, a neighbor of Quinonio
LeGrier, was killed by Chicago police. White
people in public are not randomly shot to death by the police the way Rekia
Boyd was killed by a Chicago police officer.
I dare you to prove otherwise.
White people and neighbors are protected
(privileged) by whiteness from police homicide, not routinely victimized by
homicidal police actors. Protection from
police homicide is one reality of white privilege even when white people are
armed and engage in threatening behavior.
Cliven Bundy, a white Nevada rancher,
mounted and led an angry and armed assault on federal law enforcement officers
who seized cattle Bundy illegally allowed to graze on federal land. Cliven Bundy has never been arrested or
otherwise prosecuted for threatening the law enforcement officers. Bundy, a white man who threatened law
enforcement officers and incited others to do so, is alive. Tamir Rice, a black youngster who played with
a pellet gun. is dead.
Ask white privilege deniers and
apologists for homicidal police actions against people of color
about Eric Frien. Why don’t you recognize
that name?
Eric Frien, a white man, is accused of
first degree murder, attempted murder, terrorism, and other charges surrounding
the death of one Pennsylvania State Trooper, the critical wounding of another
state trooper, and other crimes. Eric Frien
is a white murder suspect who eluded capture and was the subject of a manhunt
involving hundreds of law enforcement officers before being captured, alive.
Eric Frien, a white murder suspect, is alive
today. Cliven Bundy, a white man who
mounted an armed assault on federal law enforcement officers, is alive
today. Their families are not grieving
their deaths. Their neighborhoods do not
wonder who will be the next victim of homicidal police action. White men can threaten law enforcement
officers and live.
Tamir Rice, Laquan Robinson, Eric
Garner, Rekia Boyd, and Quintonio LeGrier are dead because they lacked the
privilege—and racial preference—of whiteness.
Non-whiteness is the unspoken, but indisputable, reality that accounts
for, but does not justify, the different way they were encountered by people in
law enforcement.
The deaths of Tamir Rice, Laquan
Robinson, Eric Garner, Rekia Boyd, Quintonio LeGrier, Freddie Gray, Monroe
Isadore (a 107 year old black man shot to death by police in September 2013 as
he lay in his bed in Pine Bluff, Arkansas), Eugene Ellison (a 67 year old black
man shot to death in his apartment by police in December 2010 in Little Rock,
Arkansas) make one thing abundantly clear.
Police kill people of color with impunity.
Cliven Bundy and Eric Frien make
something else clear. Police exercise
restraint and resist the temptation to use lethal force against white people,
even when white people are armed and dangerous.
White privilege and preference for whiteness is one of our nation’s open
damning secrets, despite what white pundits and other apologists for white
privilege claim.
I ten times double dog dare anyone to
prove otherwise.
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