In Chicago, at least four young black men and women did something truly awful. On a damn Facebook Live video made public Wednesday, they allegedly kidnapped a mentally challenged white man, beat him, humiliated him, cut his hair, and yelled “f–k Donald Trump” and “f–k white people” while filming it for the world to see.
I just arrived back in America this morning after a week away and just watched the video moments ago. It’s awful. I have deep empathy for the victim. Twenty years ago, a racist mob of young white men beat me so badly that I missed 18 months of high school recovering from three spinal surgeries and fractures to my face and ribs.
I hate violence. Nearly 100 people are killed with guns per day in this country. Every 98 seconds someone is sexually assaulted in this country. Hate crimes are on the rise from coast to coast. Our incoming President of the United States admitted that he sexually assaults women. Women all over the country came forward to allegedly confirm it. His first wife, in a sworn deposition, said that he raped and brutally assaulted her. Ivana Trump later said she didn’t want the allegation to be considered in a literal or criminal sense.
This country is sick.
However, I see thousands of white folk online asking me why I’m not speaking out about it.
Beyond the fact that I literally just got back in the country a few hours ago with my wife and five kids, my answer is simple. As soon as I clicked on the first official story about the incident, I saw that four people had already been arrested for it. If more people were involved, whether it was two more black folk or 20, guess what, they’ll be charged and arrested, and convicted, and sentenced, and jailed for it as well. We will see their mugshots and videos of them walking into court with jail clothes any minute now. That’s how justice works in America.
This country does not need me to speak out on crimes committed by black folk because nobody in this country is held more responsible for the crimes they commit, and even the crimes they don’t commit, than black folk in America. Right now, young black men in America are incarcerated at a rate higher than South Africans were at the height of Apartheid.
I speak out on injustice. What happened to this man in Chicago was terrible. It was criminal. I hate it, but guess what — justice was swift. It was miraculously swift.
Justice is always swift and easy when black folk mess up, but you know who’s not in jail right now? George Zimmerman.
You know who’s not in jail right now? The officers who fired 41 shots at and killed Amadou Diallo on the doorstep of his Bronx home.
You know who’s not in jail right now? The officers who killed Eric Garner and Rekia Boyd.
You know who’s not in jail? The men who murdered Emmett Till.
Neither are the two white men who recently lured a mentally challenged black student into a locker room and rammed a hanger up his rectum.
We march for them. We protest for them. I write about them and Facebook and tweet about them — because justice has not been served in those cases. It almost never is.
Just Tuesday, a video surfaced of a police officer in a North Carolina high school slamming a petite 15-year-old black girl so hard on her head that he gave her a concussion.
Do you think he’s in jail? Nah. He’s on paid leave.
That’s always the story. These are the people and families I spend my limited time advocating for.
So no, I won’t be writing angry tweets about what these folk did in Chicago. They are already in jail. They will be punished, I am sure, to the fullest extent of the law, but I’ve written about case after case after case of drug offenses and incidents of sexual assault and even murders committed by white folk where the system gave them a helping hand. The Stanford swimmer, Brock Turner, who was caught in the act of raping a woman, but spent a summer in jail for it instead of the 10 to 20 years he deserved, comes to mind.
Black folk and white folk both use and sell drugs at almost identical rates, with the rates for whites actually being slightly higher in both categories, but African-Americans are sent to prison at four to 10 times the rates of whites for various drug offenses.
Black folk are held super-responsible for every mistake and criminal offense made. We rarely have to march for justice in our communities. American prisons are full of black folk who are being held responsible for every mistake they’ve ever made.
I have a childhood friend in prison right now, a good man, doing 10 hard years in prison for selling weed. He was a full time barber, a father, who sold weed on the side, but the system had no mercy on him whatsoever.
Now I actually see thousands of other whites saying I caused this assault. Of course I reject that foolishness altogether. What’s most disturbing is that I hardly see many whites who are particularly angry about the crime speaking sympathetically about the victim. They are mainly using it to advance their racist agenda and demonize random black folk who had nothing to do with such a thing. Furthermore, I have routinely seen tens of thousands of African-Americans standing up and fighting and protesting for white victims of police brutality and toxic masculinity. The Alt-Right Movement does not care about violence in this country. Thousands of whites murder people every year, but you’d be hard pressed to find a protest or march headed by their movement on white on white crime.
As I type, the top trending topic in the country is now #BLMKidnapping. BLM stands for Black Lives Matter. The people in the video never even suggested such a thing. The Black Lives Matter Movement has never advocated such a thing. I have never advocated such a thing.
Chicago officials said Thursday that the victim was attacked because of his mental disability, not because he’s white.
What we are witnessing here is that fact that when particular African-Americans commit a crime, many whites use the crime to cast aspersions and stereotype all black folk. It’s a ridiculous double standard rooted in racism and oppression.
Human beings do ugly stuff. I see it all over the world. Sometimes we learn what motivates people to be vicious, sometimes we don’t. I can think of a lot of people throughout history who this ugly crime in Chicago could be inspired by, but it damn sure isn’t me or the Black Lives Matter Movement.
I have never once heard one person in this movement mock the disabled. You know who I did see and hear mocking the disabled? Donald Trump. You know I did hear openly advocating violence from the microphone at his rallies last year? Donald Trump. He has drastically lowered the standard of decency for this country to a level that I have never seen before.
I’ll close with this final thought.
Yes, Dr. King’s words are true — “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” but what we have right now is a system that clearly applies justice differently depending on three factors: the color of your skin, your zip code, and your bank account. I am glad the people who assaulted this young man were swiftly arrested. That’s how justice should work for all of us. But you and I both know that swift justice in this country primarily happens when black folk commit crimes.
This young man doesn’t need hashtags blaming me or a movement, he needs compassion and counseling. He also doesn’t need me advocating for justice. It will soon drop like Thor’s hammer without my help.
