CNN host calls out Ferguson mayor for referring to Mike Brown’s body as an ‘it’

[alsame]

CNN host calls out Ferguson mayor for referring to Michael Brown’s body as an ‘it’
By David Edwards

Ferguson Mayor James Knowles (R) apologized on Thursday after CNN host Chris Cuomo called him out for repeatedly referring to slain teen Michael Brown’s body as an “it.”

<snip>

“The body was covered for a while, and so it wasn’t covered — it was uncovered for a while, and there was a lot of picture of that,” he continued. “But as soon as they got an ambulance there, they did cover it for a while. And then they put up the screens.”

“It was left out there for a while.”

“And when you say it, you mean he,” Cuomo interrupted.


http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/08/21/cnn-host-calls-out-ferguson-mayor-for-referring-to-michael-browns-body-as-an-it/#.U_YdvrMH3HI.twitter

[City Lights]

1. Unbelievable.

The officials just keep making things worse. WTF is wrong with him? Sheesh.

[BlueCaliDem]

2. He's a Republican, and we know how Republicans view people of color: as things.

I hope the voters in Ferguson remember this, and how that Freudian slip tells them how this Mayor Knowles really feels about the people he hopes to want to vote for him.

[alsame]

3. It must be hard to have to

be so vigilant about not letting their racism slip out in interviews.

[BlueCaliDem]

13. Yep. Almost feel sorry for the guy.

NOT.

[malaise]

4. It's nice when they're honest

he spoke as he thought

[whatthehey]

5. sorry but that's correct.

Anybody's dead body is an it, and by clearly identifying he was talking about the corpse not the person, he used the right pronoun.

Whether it's more important to be empathetic than correct here may be debated. But he was not wrong from a grammatical point of view.

[tridim]

6. At least you said you're sorry.

Was he an "it" before he hit the ground or after?

And please tell us all about how JFK's corpse was referred to as "it" after he was killed.

[alsame]

14. And the Sandy Hook kids - remember when

they became 'its'?

What bullshit.

[otohara]

16. +1000

[Spider Jerusalem]

22. ...

Cheyenne, Wyoming State Tribune, 29 Nov 1963.

(much snipped)

"I was born and raised here", said a Dallas ambulance driver who helped place the slain President's body in its casket, "but now I am ashamed."

(See original in Congressional Record, Vol. 109, part 18, p. 23673.

[Anansi1171]

7. BS! He is a dead person. And the smell test is conceiving of this guy...

...ever referring to the corpse of a slain officer as an "it"

[whatthehey]

10. Because they know grammar?

Trusting me may be too much to ask - but you'd think people would get that Reuters have the style book down pat:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/11/us-usa-florida-burial-idUSBRE94A05620130511

.....People who choose green burials don't use concrete vaults, traditional coffins with metalwork or any embalming chemicals. Instead, the body is wrapped in biodegradable shrouds or placed in a pine coffin and laid to rest where it can decompose and become part of the earth.....

And this is from a very involved and reverent explanation of Jewish customs specific to respecting the dead:

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/death.html

The body must not be cremated. It must be buried in the earth. Coffins are not required, but if they are used, they must have holes drilled in them so the body comes in contact with the earth.

[tridim]

12. Keep digging that hole!!!11

Heckuva job WTH.

[alsame]

15. That is referring to

dead bodies in the abstract, not to a specific dead human being.

In my life I've had more than a few family members and friends die and never once has anyone - hospital staff, morticians, funeral home personnel, cemetery personnel -EVER referred to the deceased as 'it'. NEVER.

[Rex]

24. Of course not, only soulless vampires refer to a corpse as an 'it'.

Besides the poster is incorrect due to overall evidence to the contrary.

[Rex]

23. Yes but if you look at his overall sentence structure it is clear he did not mean that.

Why would he be so sloppy with the rest of his wording, then get precise just at one point after a sentence break?

Sorry, not buying it based on evidence to the contrary.

[stranger81]

9. This dude is so out to lunch.

He talks as if he is speaking on behalf of the majority of Ferguson residents. The great majority of people who live in Ferguson are black. I don't believe for a second that he believes he speaks for the majority of Ferguson's African American residents, whom he has got to know deeply oppose what he's saying. He just doesn't think of them as citizens of Ferguson.

[Rex]

25. He doesn't think of them as humans, to my observation. nt

nt

[Cha]

17. Oh fuck! The clueless idiot.. Ferguson needs a new mayor..

[sheshe2]

18. Oh my dear Goddess.

No, that is something that you can never apologize for. Not Ever!

[Cha]

19. :( so

very sad, she~ smh

Michael Brown

[sheshe2]

20. Some days I just want to give up...

However, Cha I will not.

[Cha]

21. I know the feeling, sistah~ Stories like this keep me going.. Ferguson Solidarity..

Ferguson Solidarity @FergusonUnity
Follow
Line outside Ferguson library waiting for free tutoring to start this morning. Via @KMOV
4:31 AM - 21 Aug 2014 525 Retweets 264 favorites

http://theobamadiary.com/2014/08/21/ferguson-a-community-stands-up-for-its-rights/

Michael Brown she~

[sheshe2]

27. ...

[valerief]

26. Calling a corpse an it may be semantically correct but it's politically moronic and

socially crude.