George Floyd and The Racism Deniers
The protests aren’t the problem
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Minneapolis is burning right now after a police man killed George Floyd by slowly suffocating him to death as three other policemen looked on. Before the killing, America had been shaken by the modern-day lynching of Ahmaud Arbery and the police shooting of Breonna Taylor; who was killed while sleeping in her bed. At the same time as the Floyd story was coming to light, so was the story of Christian Cooper; a black man falsely accused of threatening a white woman’s life. While these stories are emblematic of a much wider societal problem that has failed to cease in recent years, the occurrence of these events in short succession of each other seems to represent a tipping point in American race relations. In scenes reminiscent of Ferguson after the Michael Brown killing, heated protests have broken out across Minneapolis this week.
Thankfully, the majority of responses regarding these incidents of racist police violence have been sympathetic towards the victims, while also expressing righteous anger towards the perpetrators of police brutality. However, a vocal minority of people — mostly on the political right — have tried to downplay the extent of police brutality towards black people and have smeared the victims of such brutality.
After Ahmaud Arbery was murdered, many on social media began to share videos of Arbery being arrested in 2017 and walking onto a construction site moments before he was killed. Shortly after Arbery’s tragic death went public, Andy Ngo — who spends much of his time on Twitter publicizing crimes committed by members of marginalized communities — shared a 2013 article revealing a previous indictment against Arbery.
When people like Tomi Lahren condemn the protesters, but not the police man who killed Floyd, they know exactly what they are doing — they are telling white people what they need to hear to feel comfortable, even if such comfort is dependent on being ignorant, and therefore complicit, in oppression.
What makes Tweets like that of Ngo significant isn’t what they say — it’s what they don’t say — what is instead alluded to and implied. While these Tweets are defended as nothing more than ‘truth-telling’, what’s significant about them is why they are sent. When the past mistakes of Arbery are dredged up, the obvious suggestion being made is that these mistakes are somehow relevant to the matter at hand — that they somehow justify his merciless murder. For the people who posted and shared Tweets attacking Arbery, it wasn’t enough that Arbery had already been physically killed, his character also had to be assassinated.
Some people are more tactful than Mr Ngo, even if they have similar motivations and beliefs. Others fawn outrage over racist incidents, but are clearly more aggrieved by the backlash to racism than they are to the racism itself. This was seen in the aforementioned Christian Cooper case, where many online claimed to be outraged at the actions of Amy Cooper — who made the false allegation against him — yet were clearly more outraged at the fact that people were digging through her social media history and attempting to hold her responsible for her actions.
Meanwhile, regarding the George Floyd murder, Candace Owens — who is known for downplaying incidents of suspected racism — thought the tragedy represented the perfect opportunity to try to debunk the idea that black people are disproportionately impacted by police violence. She Tweeted that white people represent 55% of those killed by police, compared to 27% for black people. There was only one problem — Owens’s own figures reveal that black people are killed by police at a rate two times higher than one would expect given their share of the overall US population (13%).
“If you can only be tall because somebody’s on their knees, then you have a serious problem — and my feeling is, white people have a very, very serious problem and they should start thinking about what they can do about it.” — Toni Morrison
Owens was one of many right-wing figures online who seemed to be more aghast at the Minneapolis protests than they were at Floyd’s shooting. As of writing, Fox News host Tomi Lahren, who boasts over 1.6 million Twitter followers, has sent 5 tweets condemning the protests, but has not sent a single tweet condemning the murder of Floyd or expressing sympathy towards those effected by his death. Meanwhile, Candace Owens shot down the suggestion that systemic racism was to blame for Floyd’s murder, Tweeting that “we” (meaning black people) “do this to ourselves”. The clear suggestion of Owens’s Tweet — which was a response to a recent looting — is that the burden of responsibility for racist police brutality lies not on violent police officers, but on black people themselves for rioting after yet another racist, senseless killing. In effect, what Owens and others like her are doing is asking scared, vulnerable, marginalized black people to respect a system that has never respected them.
What Tweets like those made by Owens and Lahren do is set an incredibly unreasonable standard for black people across America. If Ahmaud Arbery has ever had any run in with the law, he is somehow viewed as being deserving of murder. If black communities riot, because all else has failed, they are viewed as being deserving of being shot and/or suffocated by law enforcement — the very people who are supposed to protect them.
“A riot is the language of the unheard” — Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
What’s more concerning about the Tweets made by Owens and Lahren is not the Tweets themselves, but the sheer number of times they’ve been liked, retweeted and shared. An alarming number of white Americans do not want to admit to themselves that racism is a systemic problem, and people like Owens have made entire careers out of capitalizing on, rather than changing, this widespread mindset. This mindset is particularly pronounced on the right, where acknowledging systemic racism would also require acknowledging the role of the current Republican President in fuelling it. When people like Tomi Lahren condemn the protesters, but not the police man who killed Floyd, they know exactly what they are doing — they are telling white people what they need to hear to feel comfortable, even if such comfort is dependent on being ignorant, and therefore complicit, in oppression.
The tactics of Lahren and Owens are the same tactics that were used to drum up opposition to ‘Black Lives Matter’ during the previous decade. But, despite what right-wing talking heads may tell you, now is not the time for ‘both sides-ism’. The depravity of police officers killing defenseless black men and women is in no way comparable to the actions of angered protesters who are trying to change a system that refuses to listen to them. We are not in a fight where there are two equal sides, we are in a fight that pits good against evil, decency against immorality and, love against hatred.
I know what side I’m on. Do you?
