We need to transcend the narrow dichotomy that we are being fed by the corporate media and other agents of power about Stand Your Ground laws. The longer we are exposed to these narratives, the more it becomes apparent that dialogue is limited to the province of legislation. When discussing “self-defense,” we tend to fixate on what the court recognizes as a reasonable defense; while overlooking and taking for granted the baggage of the first term in the phrase: self
Before the Declaration of Independence and Constitution of the United States were written, black folks were forced to undergo what Frantz Fanon calls a “metaphysical wiping out.” This refers to the way slavery stripped black people of their name, language, body, labor, land, family, history, religion, tradition, etc. Blackness was meant to be nothing more than a commodity that could be accumulated, traded, and/or destroyed at the will of the master. In an anti-black world, blackness is that which has always lacked a legitimate “self.” We cannot stand our ground if nothing is properly ours.
The first thing one needs to make a coherent claim for self-defense is a self. Whiteness is the standard for humanity – it is deemed good, beautiful, healthy, etc. Since black folks lack that self, we are demonized as animals who destroy the biological and moral fabrics of humanity. Whiteness always needs to defend itself from the “threat” of blackness.
This, of course, means that the violence of white folks is typically seen as “justified” when the victim is black. Black folks are to be violated with impunity. The reasoning then becomes: if white folks want to harm us, that is their right – so if we dare to “defend” our “selves” from this harm, we are punished for violating their right to harm us. We cannot stand our ground if we aren’t supposed to take a stand at all.
The government gets to decide which pleas of self-defense are valid or not. This is the same government that grants police the power to kill us and then claim “justifiable homicide.” This is the same government that uses the military to bomb black and brown nations – and then claim it was a “preemptive strike.” We cannot stand our ground if the government would prefer to put our bodies in the ground.
August 2, 2018 at 1:09 pm
Darryl, how I wish I had the answer to the grim reality of being black in America! I know only this: a nation divided among itself cannot stand. The legacy of slavery in this country has shaped the politics of our nation and continues to do so.
This reality was clearly brought home to me when I read the opening paragraph of Nancy MacLean’s latest book, Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America (2017).
QUOTE
As 1956 drew to a close, Colgate Whitehead Darden Jr., the president of the University of Virginia, feared for the future of his beloved state. The previous year, the U.S. Supreme Court had issued it second Brown v. Board of Education ruling, calling for the dismantling of segregation in public schools with “all deliberate speed.”
UNQUOTE
The strategy Darden Jr. set in motion has brought our democracy to this point in time. MacLean’s book should be required reading for all those seeking to understand how we got here and the task ahead for creating an enduring tolerance among us.
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August 3, 2018 at 6:18 am
Hello Rosaliene,
I agree with you that a house divided against itself cannot stand. Is this country “divided” on the matter of racism? I do not think so. This country was founded on racism and continues to be racist today. Slavery was more prevalent in the Southern states, but the North benefited still benefited from this – and was anti-black, as well. (Abraham Lincoln is the popularizer of the phrase “a house divided against itself cannot stand” – but he also said “if I could save the nation while keeping the slaves, I would.”
The notion of a country divided implies some type of cognitive dissonance – one side that is racist, and another side that is not racist. I think the country is completely racist.
I have not read that MacLean book – seems worthwhile to check it out!
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August 2, 2018 at 9:55 pm
Hi Darryl!! I like this comment from Rosaliene Bacchus: “MacLean’s book should be required reading for all those seeking to understand how we got here and the task ahead for creating an enduring tolerance among us.” I am going to check out the book she mentioned. I must say that I do not see this as an “anti-Black World” – yes, there are anti-Black people, but they do not make up the whole of the world. My feelings in that area are probably what has allowed me to retain a good sense of self as a Black woman. Good post. You always cause me to have to “ponder”.
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August 3, 2018 at 6:30 am
Hello Ms. Elva!
Thank you for the comment. I say this is an anti-black world because there is no safe haven on this planet where black folks are afforded sanctuary from racism. No matter where we go, we are terrorized for being black. That is the reality of an anti-black world. Whether we go to Canada or Sweden (both countries are racist), we are treated as ni**ers.
It is important to understand that racism is about more than a handful of individuals. Racism is systematic – it should always and only be theorized at the GROUP level. Racism was created by white people for the benefit of white people. It doesn’t matter if a white person thinks they are nice; the fact of the matter is that they benefit from a system that their ancestors put in place. An individual white person may be “nice” and “good” – but that white person still has the privilege of not being harassed by the cops the way we are. That is white privilege. And white people seek to protect that privilege by any means necessary. This is why we have to discuss racism at the structural level, and not bring conversation down to the level of individuals and personal psychology.
Racism was created to the disadvantage of black people. It doesn’t matter whether or not a singular black person feels they are beyond racism – the fact of the matter is their lives are still shaped by a system set in motion centuries ago.
It is good that you have a “good sense of self as a black woman” – but in an anti-black world, your opinion of yourself doesn’t matter to your oppressors. Black women are among the most likely to be impoverished. Black women are significantly more likely to be incarcerated. Are we to conclude that THESE black women simply did not have a “good sense of self”? There were black women in Africa with a “good sense of self” who were kidnapped, raped, and brought to this country in chains as slaves. Their opinion didn’t matter in the face of a white race that viewed them as nothing more than objects.
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August 3, 2018 at 8:29 pm
Ok, I have brought the conversation to the level of individuals and personal psychology. I’ve been kidnapped, and raped. And the White cops who took me to the hospital had no concern for my feelings. Which is one way I learned to foster a good sense of self. Racism may be systematic but I cannot be of service in that arena if I erase my individualism. Anyhow, I was raped by a Black man and kidnapped by a Black. I understand where you are coming from, however. And it is an issue that still has a very long way to go before, if ever, there is a change at the structural level.
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August 4, 2018 at 7:29 am
Hello Ms. Elva,
I am sorry to hear about your traumatic experience. I hear you.
Within the confines of this discussion, I would point out that you “cannot erase your individualism” – because the acts of raping and kidnapping you already did that. Violations of that order reduce the human to a disposable commodity. These actions committed because the victim was not recognized as having a “self” that was worthy of respecting to begin with.
This is what is known as an ontological argument. To discuss the “self” in this way is to discuss Being, in the philosophical sense. And the ontological realm always takes precedent over the personal/psychological realms.
And it is not my intention to try and re-interpret your experience of trauma to fit my theory.
But I will say this: in a world where black folks are oppressed, and women are oppressed, black women are at the bottom of the social order. That stated, the rape of black women is seldom – if ever – recognized as “rape” at all. Why? Because the only way you can violate someone’s “individuality” and “sense of self” is if they had a “self” to begin with. Black women have long been viewed as objects, which means that one can do whatever one wants to them. To be raped is to be violated – but one cannot violate an object that exists to be used and abused. To the victim, it is rape; to the government, its often not a crime. The legal claim of rape being taken seriously often depends on the victim being white. And legal claims of rape are often pursued harder if the victim is white and suspect is black (90% of lynchings occurred in the South because black men were mythologized as rapists).
When black women are raped, the defense is that she “seduced” the man and it was consensual – because black women are often imagined as hypersexual animals who will have sex all day. One cannot “rape” a woman who society imagines to be having sex with everyone.
So I am not denying you were raped. I believe you. I am simply saying that your existence as a black woman is part of what made the cops react insensitively and what made the rape occur in the first place.
As for the criminals being black: I would say that doesnt challenge the matter at hand. Black women are the most likely group to go missing. And when they do go missing, the cops never search, and often chalk it up to “they ran away”. The government doesnt care about black people, so there often is no justice when black people are victimized. All criminals – even black criminals – do not want to get caught. So they figure that if one wants to commit a crime against someone and not get caught, it is wise to violate someone that the government doesnt care about. Black people are victimized by black people, too, because black criminals know the anti-black government doesn’t care enough to do anything about it. So even though the criminals were black in your experience, the logic remains that it happened within the context of an anti-black system.
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