The memorial for George Floyd, whose May 25 murder sparked nationwide protests, Minneapolis, Minnesota, June 12, 2020 (Tim Gruber/New York Times)
Written for America Unfiltered, the joint project of EA WorldView and The Clinton Institute, University College Dublin:
Only a few months after I moved to Minneapolis in 2006, I was warned about 38th and Chicago.
On my first day at work, upon learning that I had taken the bus and gotten off across from Cup Foods, my new boss — a white woman — said something that I’ve never forgotten: “Be really careful about 38th and Chicago. It’s a bad area, a bad intersection. Someone was shot there recently.”
She gave me, another white woman, a knowing look. The volume of her voice had lowered, like she was confiding something in me, like her warning required a hushed tone.
America Unfiltered Podcast: Black Lives Matter, Race, and the UK
Fourteen years later, a white police officer murdered George Floyd at that “bad intersection”. Derek Chauvin ground his knee into Floyd’s neck for seven minutes and 46 seconds while three other officers stood by and watched.
In the wake of the June 2020 uprisings in Minneapolis that have expanded globally, I’ve been reflecting on that interaction, that intersection, and the larger structuring forces of whiteness and white supremacy in the United States.
Minnesotans are famous for “Minnesota Nice,” which I learned actually meant “Minnesota Ice” to Minnesotans of color. The thinly veiled racism of the phrase “a bad intersection” relied on me to understand the racist coding of the word “bad”, about which there was no confusion. “Bad,” of course, never meant something like how 3M polluted Minnesota’s waterways or the sexual violence committed by fraternity members in Dinkytown, the student-filled neighborhood adjacent to the University of Minnesota.
My boss’ warning offers a short-hand encapsulation of the dynamics of race, space, policing, and anti-Blackness that made that intersection dangerous for Floyd.”
Mrs. Allison, what’s the racial breakdown of the neighbourhood you live in?
https://heyjackass.com/
Some interesting numbers on Chicago crime with racial breakdown.
https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2019/12/22/the-need-to-discuss-black-on-black-crime/
If these numbers are even close, black on black homicides since 1976 would have to be getting close to 250,000 by now.
African Americans butchering each other (and others) will always be swept under the rug under American ruling dogma. An issue for local news at best, and even then some more steps need to be taken to not give others “wrong” ideas. Always a victim, capable of no agency, and subject to the oppressive force of “systemic racism” — an intentionally vague and *impossible-to-quantify* concept that absolves all need for establishing causality for the *measurable* shortcomings and ills of the African-American community. That’s the party line.
And while there’s a valid argument that civilian-on-civilian violence and violence between the state — in this case police — and civilians should be treated differently, but even on that metric the media clearly plays favorites. You’ll never guess what’s the race of victims of police shootings that get *9 times* more coverage than the others.
I guessed right about the 9 times higher coverage :)) The white liberals virtue signal in this Minnesota suburb, while they are sexually harrassed, robbed etc.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2020/06/24/us/minneapolis-george-floyd-police.amp.html
It will be fascinating to watch what happens in cities like new York etc that are cutting back on their cop budgets. This article suggests it may not be a good idea. Prepare the popcorn, this could end up a bloodbath 🙂
https://www.deadlinedetroit.com/articles/25500/leduff_defund_the_police_detroit_did_that_now_children_are_dying
“Mr. Erickson said later that he would not cooperate with prosecutors in a case against the boys. After the altercation, he realized that if there was anything he wanted, it was to offer them help. But he still felt it had been right to call the authorities because there was a gun involved.”
Must be pretty nice to be able to jack someone’s car at gunpoint and have him shield you from the authorities thanks to the moral hysteria gripping the country. White progressives aren’t really the victims though — they might seem like kooks but a lot of them have enough sense to live away from neighborhoods where any Ferguson effect will be actually felt. US is still a pretty segregated country in that sense.