Justice Deferred, Denied & Withheld

 “Classic children’s literature is full of racial, ethnic, class, and gender stereotyping, and the outdated language that goes along with that. Some of that can’t be fixed with a few cuts.” Katha Pollitt, in The Nation

Another young unarmed black man is gunned down by a police officer; his name, Daunte Wright; the officer’s name, Kim Potter. He was 20-years-old. She’s a 26-year veteran, an experienced, trained officer who mistakenly pulled her pistol rather than her taser. To some this fact pattern is incredulous, Potter’s excuse as flimsy as tissue paper. I’ve read that the taser is holstered on the left side, for a right-handed officer, the pistol on the right. After carrying a weapon for 26 years you might assume Potter would instantly feel the difference between her pistol and a taser. The day after the killing, Potter, along with the police chief, resigned. She’s been charged with second-degree manslaughter and is free on bail. Was it premeditated? Hard to say. More likely a mistake in the emotion of the moment. Was it a mistake based on false assumptions? Did Potter assume Wright was armed, that he posed a deadly threat? Will we hear that Wright was “non-compliant,” whatever that means? What, I wonder, is going through Potter’s mind now, and what was going through it when she drew her weapon, pulled the trigger and ended Daunte Wright’s life? Incapacitating force versus deadly force; if Daunte Wright were a 20-year-old white kid would he be alive now? I can’t remember another shooting involving a female officer; it’s usually a male, not that it matters. Daunte Wright is dead. What’s it like to wake up the morning after you ended a human being’s life? A human being who hadn’t posed a threat to your life or committed a serious crime. What does that feel like? And what does it feel like to wake up in the morning and know your son is gone, his life snuffed out?

I don’t know what to think any more other than the pedestrian observation that this country is violent, cruel, and disdainful about the lives of black people and others of darker pigment.  I don’t know if Kim Potter is a racist, but it’s possible she is and has been her entire career. The usual rituals will be performed again: the grieving, distraught family, the protests, the speeches, the social media tributes, the bland official statements and easily forgotten promises of reform from elected officials.Then many Americans will switch over to Fox News and listen to Tucker Carlson riff about The Great Replacement being engineered before our very eyes by Democrats (as if modern Democrats could engineer anything successfully), who are inviting millions of non-white foreigners to become citizens and thereby swell the ranks of Democratic voters. Because, you see, Tucker’s theory is that all brown-skinned immigrants are bleeding heart liberals who will always and forever vote for Democrats. Carlson’s the sort of smug white asshole that makes America hospitable to white supremacy, and he gets plenty of aid from the Murdoch media empire. All those brown-skinned people desperate to cross the border are incapable of thinking for themselves, in Tucker’s estimation, so once safely inside with feet firmly planted on this fruited plain they will do exactly as Democrats say to the detriment of salt-of-the-earth, real, honest-to-Betsy-Ross white Americans. 

White supremacy is out in the open again, promoted by a social media megaphone rather than a politician’s racist dog whistle. The changing demographics of America doesn’t trouble my sleep, it’s disturbed by visions of violent right-wing extremists. Even if they don’t realize it, white folks have more consequential problems to worry about than perceived losses of status and power, like climate change, living-wage jobs, and grotesque, destabilizing wealth inequality. As an idea and organizing principle white supremacy makes no sense to me. My skin is lighter than yours therefore I’m smarter than you, more morally evolved, superior and more deserving. Crock of shit. Power is what it boils down to. 

White folks want black and brown people to stay in their lanes, in their ghettoes, emerging only to mow lawns, mop floors, fold laundry, empty bedpans, and fetch artisanal cocktails at trendy farm-to-table restaurants. 

How long can simple justice be deferred, denied, and withheld?