You Almost Had Me
About a year and a half ago, I wrote about a problem with the fetishisation of black suffering. In fact, I’ve written about it more than once. The NFL draft is like the slaver’s auction block. Vaccine mandates are like segregation. Affirmative action is like Jim Crow. You get the idea.
But one comparison stands above them all in its tastelessness: lynching.
Donald Trump’s impeachment, a Lt Gov facing consequences for sexual assault, and, most recently, the killing of Jordan Neely, all of them have been compared to one of the most horrific, barbaric practices in recent memory.
In my article, Everything Is Okay At All Times And If You Disagree You’re A Bigot, I pointed out how vile and offensive it is to put the accidental death of a mentally ill man in the same category as atrocities like the murder of James Byrd Jr. or Emmett Till or Mary and Hayes Turner (fair warning, these stories are rough reading).
But beyond that, as I also wrote recently, I pointed to the psychological damage caused by a mindset that if racism can be the explanation for a problem, it must be the explanation.
Ydenise is a perfect example of what that damage does.
Ydenise:
You almost had me, and had this been some other case - I would agree. You convoluted a very simple situation, to make it fit a narrative that You Do Not Believe Yourself. All You Did, was water down Racist, White Supremacist Shitty Talking points; sprinkled Some Sugar on them, and called them Grits(.) And just because a Black male, jumped into the fray to hold him down too - it could Not be Racism, White Supremacy, or a Lynching? Get Out Here With That Bullshit. Many Black people, especially Black Males function very well Inside/Within and as Tools of White Supremacy - you do, as well. Your whole shtick here is a White Supremacists Wet Dream.
Not because the Victim, may have done some bad things in his past. He may have done some shit that even warranted death.
Not because the Perpetrator may have not meant to kill; it very well may have been an accident. But he did Kill him, and there should be consequences for that.
And the fact that there is an impetus to paint, a flawed Black Male, as An Angel is because why?You don't know?
You FUCKING KNOW!?!
Hint: Look in the MirrorClown Shit. And Clown Shit some more...because you had a case for what you were saying....but you intentionally did Not say Why, the Reaction is what it is...And the WHY is What gets Black People In America Killed Everyday.
N! P!
“All You Did, was water down Racist, White Supremacist Shitty Talking points; sprinkled Some Sugar on them, and called them Grits(.)”
I have no idea what Ydenise was trying to say here. But I do know you need to be really mad to put a single punctuation mark in brackets. I tried to lower the temperature.
Steve QJ:
😅 Why must it be like this Ydenise? Why can't we be friends? We have, apparently, a difference of opinion about a case that neither of us was present at, but which I, in my defence, have at least spent a few days researching carefully.
I could still be wrong, of course. But why does that mean you have to jump on here and start swearing and attacking my character? I'm so very, very tired of this childishness. Aren't you?
Anyway...I didn't say that because a black male jumped into the fray, it couldn't be racism or white supremacy. But is it fair to say that on a packed subway in New York, there would be many people interested in stopping a white supremacist murderer? That most people wouldn't have jumped into a situation like that for no reason? I think so. So when a black man does jump into the fray, I consider that as a point in the "not white supremacy" column. And so far, there isn't anything in the "was white supremacy" column.
Multiple eyewitness testimonies report that Neely was threatening passengers. We can all sit in our armchairs and argue about whether it was justified to restrain him, or whether those threats were scary enough. But it's worth noting that, at least so far, not a single person on that train has said they didn't think it was justified. Penny shouldn't have killed him. And I don't think he intended to. He'll have to settle that in court. But that doesn't make him a white supremacist.
Ydenise:
Ooooh, you patronize me....yeah, you are right, I did not have to cuss - but it felt good! Do Not take it personal....I surely am not.
It is as you portend; differing things can go on all at the same time:
You are actually a very good writer; I have read and enjoyed your writings, for sometime now; in fact l was very eager to read this today, as I had not read anything new from you in a minute.
You are correct in your assertions of how we react to things....but You gave no credence to the VALID REASONS WHY? And you KNOW WHY.
Your whole argument, is straight out of the WS handbook....and the way you are stroking the Killer's nuts, is just....
How is it, you give the Killer the benefit of doubt; but have none for the Victim?
Would "People", on a Subway Train in America, stand idly by, and watch as A White Man, White Supremacist or Not, Kill A Black Man?
Are you serious? Oh Lord, yeah, this is why they say CRT is so important.
So, yes, an excellent writer, who is logical and reasoned, and Black and male in America, in 2023 - can be on some Clown Shit and argue on the side of White Supremacy, as it relates to KILLING Black Males.
Steve QJ:
“You gave no credence to the VALID REASONS WHY? And you KNOW WHY.”
Actually. I think I spent a fair amount of time on this. There are many very valid reasons why people would be afraid to be in an enclosed space with a mentally unstable man who was shouting threats that have absolutely nothing to do with white supremacy. You know this. You would have felt exactly this way had you been on that train.
Unfortunately, because the mentally unstable man was black in this case, you can accept no other explanation for his death. In any other case, by your own admission, you'd have agreed with me. This is spectacularly small-minded and simplistic.
I don't have the slightest idea why you think I'm "stroking Penny's nuts." Or think I don't have enormous sympathy for Neely. Nor, I'm willing to bet, do you. It's certainly not based on anything I've said.
I say, right there in the article, that Neely's death was tragic, that he desperately needed help, and that Penny used criminal excessive force in a chokehold that he held onto for far too long. But why let the truth get in the way of a little righteous outrage, amirite?
Lastly, I'm not patronising you. I'm pointing out how objectively toxic you're being in the hopes that it makes a dent in the way you treat people. It felt good to cuss because you're using a complete stranger as an outlet for whatever bitterness and unhappiness you have inside you. This, sadly is fairly common on the internet. But it's also a really shitty thing to do. And while I'm lucky enough to be mentally healthy enough that I'm unfazed by it, other people might not be.
Why add to the overabundance of nastiness that's already plaguing the world? Because you slightly disagreed with somebody on the internet?? Seriously??
I was chatting with a reader here recently about the kind of people who default to this “White supremacy is always the problem,” rhetoric. She asked me if I had a sense of how many black people, in general, felt this way. And I replied that I don’t even think most black people who write these things feel this way.
The extreme polarization of every issue the culture wars touch gives nasty, unhappy people, whatever the colour of their skin, an excuse to vent at strangers. And even better, if they can tie it to some social justice buzzword, they get to tell themselves they’re the good guys for doing so.
But the truth is, this is the kind of person who’s happy to steal a brief moment of catharsis at somebody else’s expense. Who doesn’t think twice about using strangers as stress relief after a bad day. The kind of person who thinks it “feels good” to attack people who haven’t even threatened her.
I can’t help but wonder how somebody like that would have handled Jordan Neely if she’d been in Daniel Penny’s shoes.
N.B. I’ll be taking a brief holiday later this week. So there probably won’t be a post on Friday, and I might be a bit quiet in the comments. Normal service will resume next week.
I read an article on Afro.com recently that attributed Penny’s actions to “subliminal” or “subconscious” racism. So yes, Sigmund Freud has gotten into the act!
How this writer who is just sitting in a room somewhere knows about what is in Penny’s consciousness mind, nobody knows--much less in his “subconscious” mind.
I fully accept the possibility that Penny may have been a conscious racist, not to mention a “subconscious” one. But that is only one possibility among many possible explanations, and a possibility for which there is, as of now, no evidence that I know of.
The only explanation I can come up with for this type of projection is that there is a subset of people who WANT racist explanations for every misfortune that befalls some one of a particular race because it cuts off discussion of other, possibly more uncomfortable explanations.
What’s sad about this is there is PLENTY of real racism going around, and calling everything racist cheapens the impact of the genuine article. The boy who called wolf syndrome. So, it actually detracts from efforts to hold demonstrated racism to account.
But this type of thing--“subliminal” racism--will continue to be the norm as long as it has the intended effect. My only hope is that this type of thinking not infect our system of justice. So far as I know, “subconscious” racism has yet to be found the basis for a hate crime. But there’s always a first time.
PS. Nasty personal attacks have almost completely replaced argument on issues of race and gender. I don’t know how you keep your cool.
I already had a fair amount of sympathy for *all* concerned in the Jordan Neely case, but I have even more sympathy for the passengers, including Penny, after an event this weekend.
Was on the bus for a short trip to the mall when, before the bus was even out of the lot, some older guy took umbrage with a stranger in the back - a woman. He was in her face, threatening her, telling her 'this was her last warning' - about what, I'm not sure, but I was reminded of the whack job who accosted me and my friend last fall and accused my friend of stalking him all over Toronto - then strode to the front of the bus and continued hurling invectives at her. He never directly threatened to kill her but he made it sound like he might - "I will take you down! I will destroy you!" and I quietly put my book away and checked for my hair spray (wait, he's wearing sunglasses) and my formidable keychain (I have a cheap alligator-shaped bottle opener on there you do NOT want to fuck with!)
I took note of his vital stats and the number of the bus I was on and when a whack of us got off at the mall (including Travis Bickle) I called the police - got put on hold - hung up - talked to the security guards there since I saw where he went - the liquor store, oh yay - and then finally sat on a bench and filed a report via a mobile app available to us for such occasions.
I don't know what might have happened had he gotten violent on this woman but this was the *same station* where a woman was set fire to - and died - by a stranger last year, and I am NOT going down without a fight if someone ever accosts me.
I would have totally supported anyone who caught that guy in an armlock and restrained him. I totally support what Penny did and I'm sorry it went as far as it did, but sorry, in these insane times with so many clearly insane people wandering around, we have to be able to protect ourselves, and others. So no, I don't think it was 'white supremacy', and I deny that WS is even as pervasive as many believe it is - because it's an ideology based on the idea that white people are the superior race who should lord over all the darker 'inferiors', tangentially including women of all colours. WSs are racists but not all racists are WS.
There will be more stories like this, I'm afraid, before things get better, and in fact I wonder if there are more than we know, but they don't get media attention because the formula isn't right: White person takes down black person via Karenism, Penny, or what have you. Seeing as even more white men get taken down by the police than black men, including unarmed ones, and we never hear about *that*.
Hope I never have to fight back against an attacker but I'm not going to get shot, stabbed, slashed, or burned alive as has happened not just to Torontonians on the street, but on the transportation system, including to many TTC workers.
I asked someone at the station what I should do in a similar situation (me not being the victim) and they said if you think it's really critical, call 911 (hope I don't get put on hold, that happens too here) and he also told me what the bus drivers are trained to do in a hairy situation - they've got an alert on the dashboard they can push, one for 'dangerous situation on board' and another for 'need immediate help'.
P.S. This dude was white.