The madding (and racist) crowds in 21st Century America
Ol' Hobbs's Hump Day Hot Topics
Thinking out loud.…
***I find it frustrating that the same Americans who once called an unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin a "thug" simply because he was walking to his father's home on a cold evening with a hoodie, and now consider an unarmed Ahmaud Arbery, 26, a "potential criminal" simply because he walked through an open construction site on a bright and sunny day, are among the same folks who consider 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse a "hero" after he shot three people—killing two—during a Black Lives Matter protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin last year.
***I conclude that those who find Kyle Rittenhouse a hero do so for several reasons (that are far from mutually exclusive): 1. They have contempt for the Black Lives Matter movement and believe that the overwhelming majority of police killings of unarmed Black people are justified; 2. Some see the three white males that were shot, including the two who died, as "race traitors" who got what was coming to them for palling around with "The Blacks" in the first place; 3. In Kyle they see their fathers, their sons, or other relatives whose love for weapons and willingness to go to extreme lengths to prevent what they see as "their" country slipping into anarchy as being justified; 4. Some wish that they had the gall, the balls, or youthful vigor to have grabbed their own guns to patrol the streets during Black Lives Matter protests to put "The Blacks" and their white, Latino, and Asian allies "in their places."
***I find it frustrating that in 2021, vigilantism in America is still trending mostly among white males who rarely are held accountable for violence that they commit in the name of their self-deputized statuses.
Now, while all races have committed murders from time immemorial, and with most murders being intra-racial, meaning that whites tend to kill whites, Hispanics tend to kill Hispanics, and Blacks tend to kill Blacks, there has never been a time in America where Blacks, Latinos, or Asians have taken it upon themselves to seize some white suspect and beat, sodomized, shoot, hang, and burn their defiled remains in the public square.
But such was a regular occurrence among white vigilantes during the Jim Crow era, and are still en vogue whether it's Kyle Rittenhouse in Wisconsin—or the McMichaels/Bryan clan that's on trial in Brunswick, Georgia for killing Ahmaud Arbery.
***I conclude that part of what's preventing Americans of all races who know that white vigilantism is wrong from raising their voices on the local and state levels to create change is that the mainstream media far too often shield individual eyes from the horrors of murder in the public square.
Back in 1955, Mother Mamie Till, not long after the lynching of her 14-year-old son Emmett, allowed the legendary John H. Johnson to publish her son's remains in Jet Magazine so that others across America would feel her anguish and be galvanized towards fighting racial injustices.
In similar fashion, I find it important to publish one of many photos that I've received of Ahmaud Arbery as he appeared upon presentment to the funeral home for final burial.
Lest we forget…
***I find it frustrating that most of my white friends, my real life white friends, know fully well that both Kyle Rittenhouse and the McMichaels/Bryan clan were wrong for their acts of vigilantism, but are hesitant to speak out about these injustices on social media. Now, I know that some are working in their own law practices or public positions towards equal justice under the law, and I appreciate those oft unsung efforts.
But for all that is wrong with social media, one of the best aspects is that a post, be it words, memes, or pictures, can engage friends and followers in a way that spurs dialogue and, from that dialogue, perhaps some level of understanding and progress. But these journeys can only begin when our white Brothers and Sisters are willing to look within themselves—and those they love—and ask why the racial disparities in the criminal justice system continue to fester…
***I conclude that some of the most frustrated people that I know are Black folks who have practiced law, served as judges, or serve(d) as law enforcement officers and investigators who KNOW that in many, many ways, that the American criminal justice system is still separate and unequal. I am blessed with a veritable cyber brain trust, including (but surely not limited) to folks like Richard Alan, Curtrice Scott, Corey Smith, Chanae Davis Chism, Horace Moore, Monica Williams Harris, Phil Hutchinson, Erica Morris Long, Mutaqee Akbar, Brandi Thomas, Tarik McClellan, Vanessa Lafleur, Brian Ponder, Reginald Smith, William Easley, Jared Lee, Corey Hardin, John Henderson, and many others whose names I will withhold due to their positions as sitting judges, military JAG officers, and the like who are “sick and tired” of being sick and tired of a system that, in some respects, no longer tries to hide instances of being separate and unequal.
When Black professionals see judges palling around with vigilante killers on trial (Rittenhouse case), or failing to "burst the panel" by starting over and summoning 100 or more new jurors when all but one of the Black ones have been excluded from jury service (McMichaels/Bryan case); or, when a curmudgeonly old white defense lawyer keeps making disparaging remarks in open court about Black pastors watching a public trial…at a public courthouse…one sees how difficult it is, even to this day, for Black professionals to navigate the "two-ness" that the great Dr. W.E.B. DuBois lamented, "One feels his two-ness, — an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder."
So, to my brain trust, keep striving, writing, inspiring, and believing that your collective efforts will better perfect this still imperfect Union.
Final Hobbservation
As much of today's post has been grim, whenever melancholy sets in I tend to look to prose, poetry, music, or art to calm the raging (Taurus) Bull. To that end, I exhaled an audible "wow" this morning after reading on the NY Times site that a self portrait by the late Frida Kahlo sold for $34.9 million at the Sotheby’s Auction House last night—the most ever for a work of art by a Latin American artist.
The painting, “Diego and I,” is one of Kahlo’s final self-portraits and according to the Times, is "an example of the unsettling intimacy that has attracted collectors to her paintings. The work offers a window into her turbulent marriage with the Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, who is depicted in it just above the artist’s tearful eyes.”
Indeed…
Thank you for subscribing to the Hobbservation Point—have a wonderful Wednesday!
This is why i subscribe. Thank you 🙏🏻
My heart is pounding out of my body seeing this photo of this young man's body and what those cowards did to him. I hope they die with their shoes on.