Originally published April, 20th, 2020
After I completed this piece, I shared it for feedback and to be edited. One of my fellow writers said, “I’m not sure about a title, but the body is good. I think we need an introduction that doesn’t come out the gate taking heads off. Remember our audience.” How can I forget that my audience is diverse? Meaning, I’ve got a number of White followers. Knowing that is exactly why I won’t dumb down my delivery. I’m not here to give you that warm fuzzy feeling. I want this to make your gut ache like ours do.
So, proceed with caution.
White privilege is not being charged after murdering an innocent Black man. Reread that if you are having trouble. Innocent until proven guilty, or is that only applicable to certain people?
It is the belief that you have the right to hunt a Black man down, because he made you uncomfortable. It tells you that it is okay to hop in your truck, guns in tow, cocked and ready to fire. Chase down a Black man taking a jog and DEMAND he stop in his tracks and entertain your questions. Sounds legit, right? How dare he not stop! How dare he ignore your questioning! How dare he not accept your threatening him with guns ”attempting to make a citizens arrest.“ I don’t believe that citizens arrest story. He’s Black, he’s beneath you and must do what you say. He does fit your “scary Black man” description.
This is reminiscent of George Zimmerman the daft crusader. He murdered Trayvon Martin and profits from it because a lot of White people praise his actions. So many White people excused it because, “all he had to do was answer the questions.” “He shouldn’t have run!” “Why did he fight? He should’t have fought!” If you subscribe to that ignorant frame of thinking, you are problematic and have underlying prejudices when it comes to race.
Black men are expected to bow down to their White counterparts. Just like Trayvon Martin, a child, painted as an adult in the media, who was minding his own damn business. Ahmaud Arbery had every right to continue jogging. White privilege decided he didn’t. He didn’t have the right to react surprised and threatened as most people would. He was expected to answer all of the questions and prove his innocence because they said so. I don’t believe he even had a criminal background as I couldn’t locate any arrest records nor did the media run with that as they usually do.
*Guess what? Even if he had a criminal record, he still didn’t deserve to die.
White privilege allows you to make up asinine stories and be believed without even the blink of an eye. White privilege tells you that your life, your personal belongings matter more than that of a Black man. White privilege gives you the one up on the person you just murdered and allows you to make up any story that you choose to run with.
White privilege affords you to “bypass” calling police when you are concerned because ‘Merica says you’ve got the right to bear arms, so that means you can use them at will, right?! “Wait Mookie, that’s too far. Don’t be judgmental, mean and…..dun…..dun…..dun…….snarky!” Clutch your pearls virgin eared folks because I’m SNAPPING.
When White people tote guns openly, it’s their right. When Black people do it tends to be frowned upon. We are looked at as criminals. Questioned. How did you get that firearm?
In Kentucky, gun rights activists aka hella White men protested at the state capitol openly carrying guns. Just two weeks ago in Michigan there was a protest of stay at home orders………guns in tow by you guessed it, White men. White people with guns has always been accepted by the masses. These men felt empowered by systems that support and encourage their thinking.
These racist, dunces didn’t once think that Mr. Arbery lived in the area. This may be of surprise to some White people, but we don’t only exist in the hood. Shocking, right? I know it is. I get it every time I speak to a White person here in the south. The shock and amazement that I’m from Alaska and I’ve traveled is always entertaining.
Mr. Arbery was jogging through a residential neighborhood in workout clothes. No bags full of stolen goods. His Blackness fit their description? That gives you a lense to see how these men (and many like them) are wired.
Pillars in their community? Save it. That dissolved the moment they murdered this man. I have not been successful in finding a story about the supposed “suspect” in the burglaries that had been occurring in the neighborhood nor a picture since they said Mr. Arbery “fit the description”. I’m also curious why these two murderers pictures aren’t being spread across social media and mainstream media.
I wish racists received a shock every time they uttered that phrase ”fit the description” in defense of Black people, Black men specifically being racially profiled, roughed up, and often killed. A good shock every time you felt threatened by a melanated person minding their own business. That might deter some of the “mishaps” that keep occurring.
Apologies won’t cut it. These murderers need to be arrested, tried and convicted.
“According to documents obtained by The New York Times, a prosecutor who had the case for a few weeks told the police that the pursuers had acted within the scope of Georgia’s citizen’s arrest statute, and that Travis McMichael, who held the shotgun, had acted out of self-defense.” Self defense when YOU start the fight. Just like that coward, George Zimmerman. No, I wasn’t there, but what I do know is Mr. Arbery would still be alive if these two White men hadn’t decided to be vigilantes.
The prosecutor needs to charge them. He knows it’s the right thing to do. No more passes.
-Mookie