Is America's Legal System Capable of Defending Black Life Against Irrational White Fears?

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/our-legal-system-capable-defending-black-life-against-irrational-white-fears-jordan

"Sis, c'mon, dis Brooklyn Winter Olympics!" I'm sitting in a car in backed up traffic, watching two young black boys and their sister turn treacherous sidewalks into an icerink and the slopes of Sochi - their own personal Winter Olympics. They laugh, slide, create shapes, do commentary, scrunch up their faces, dance, slip, right themselves and do it over again. I laugh thinking about how irritated we all are by the ice. I laugh thinking how irritated we all are by the ice, but how kids take adult things and through their lens see and make magic, create a wonderland. The older brother declares he won the gold medal, slides dramatically to his knees, puts his arms in the air and starts his thank you speech: "First I'ma thank God that I didn't break my lil black butt on this crazy ice...." His younger brother and sister crack up laughing and start applauding. They then begin to argue about who gets the silver and bronze medals. As I watch, I start to imagine Jordan Davis as a kid--Trayvon Martin, too. I wonder about the games they played, their dreams, what medals they might have won or claimed in childhood games. I see the faces of Jordan's mama, Trayvon's mama and the worlds they must confront in which their 18 and 19 year old sons are now corpses and names on the tongues of a nation--high profile examples of Florida's "Stand Your Ground" laws.??

The traffic starts to clear; the lights finally change. I sit in a car on my way to Rockefeller Center to join MSNBC Legal Analyst Lisa Bloom, former prosecutor Cheryl Anderson and MSNBC host TJ Holmes to talk about the Dunn verdict. Michael Dunn - a white man convicted of attempted murder. The judge declares a mistrial on the first degree murder charge. Protests begin, social media erupts and the prosecution announces a re-trial. On Sunday, Joy-Ann Reid, hosting MSNBC's Melissa Harris Perry Show, asked panelist and writer Mychal Denzel Smith: "What would you say to folk who say, ‘Listen, this guy is gonna spend a lot of time in jail, that should satisfy people in this case?’" Smith responded: "I'm tired of coming up with words to talk about young black children being dead."

There are powerful politics of emotionality at play here. Florida courtrooms are currently the Ground Zero landscape in which society's refusal to grapple with irrational forms of white fear has far-reaching consequences for notions of justice and black bodies. Scholar and Salon.com contributor Dr. Brittney Cooper wrote on her FB page: "This is not just about Dunn getting jail time. This is about whether our legal system is capable of defending Black life against irrational forms of white fear." Angela Ards, Assistant Professor of English at Southern Methodist University, also noted on her FB page: "The illogical logic of this verdict is the white man was found guilty of missing three black boys and innocent of the actual killing of an actual innocent boy."

[gollygee]

1. This is really powerful

"On the stand, Dunn framed his irrationality as something heroic: a grown man demanding respect, refusing to be disrespected and using deadly force. In recognizing this moment as the manifestation of untreated trauma, what Dunn demanded - and expected - was submission. Black males were supposed to submit to his demands, his white male authority. When mainstream media holds on to the "what do we tell our black boys about how to behave" narrative, it sanctions Dunn's focus on black boys' behaviors as opposed to his own totally irrational and criminal aggression."

People should be sure to read the whole thing!

[MisterP]

2. a gun on every corner doesn't block a police state, it privatizes it

everyone carrying becomes an untrained cop always on-point