Monday, July 1, 2013

A Perfect Picture of White Privilege: Don West Eating Vanilla Ice Cream Cones With His Daughters While Celebrating How They "Beat Stupidity" in the Trayvon Martin Trial



[I have received some very kind emails in response to my series of pieces on the George Zimmerman trials and his killing of Trayvon Martin. I have been following this case since the beginning and will continue to offer my thoughts and observations on it through to the duration. 

Those essays here and on the Daily Kos have brought quite a few new readers to We Are Respectable Negroes. As I do during such moments, I inaugurate an informal fundraising drive.


I do not advertise or monetize my work here on WARN. I also choose not to run advertisements or sponsorship because I want to remain independent. Random monies thrown into the tip jar Paypal bucket are however always appreciated. My work here and elsewhere are labors of love. However, I never refuse encouragement.]


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The semiotics of the above photo of Zimmerman attorney Don West eating ice cream with his daughters are deep and multi-layered.

In looking at this photo and the others taken by West's daughter and posted online, I can almost hear their collective guffaws at how daddy showed that "dumb black girl who was boss!"

While the picture was likely taken earlier in the week, and before his ruthless cross-examination of Rachel Jeantel, the idea that Don West "defeated stupid" in the opening rounds of a trial about a dead black teenager killed by his client under the most troubling of circumstances is beyond tasteless. Yet, in a country where black life is cheap, such an attitude is not surprising.

As I wrote here, and as others have observed as well, America hates black women who they perceive to be "poor." America doubly hates dark-skinned black women who fit some mythic stereotype about welfare queens who exist to suck at the tit of "responsible" (White) America.

We do not burn witches in the United States; we do however use poor and working class black women (and to varying degrees other women of color too) as convenient scapegoats onto which hostility and prejudices regarding race and class can be projected.

I often struggle with how best to talk to students about the concept of privilege. The idea of "unearned advantages" is provocative to them because they have internalized the lie that is the Horatio Alger myth. Most young people, and other Americans as well, are very hostile to the idea that their life chances will be limited by the lottery of birth, something they cannot control. In all, the myth of meritocracy is a zombie.

In a broken economy, and when a black man happens to be President of the United States, cold appeals to data and facts do little to convince white folks who have seen their incomes and homes evaporate that yes, by virtue of their "race", and all things being equal, they are advantaged relative to people of color who are in an even more perilous position during the Great Recession.

In an effort to breach the gap between theory and personal understanding when I discuss white privilege, I am going to begin using the photo of Don West and his daughter eating ice cream. Why? Because it stinks of racial, gender, and class snobbery/advantage.

Systems of privilege and unearned advantage are lessons. They are taught in the home, by schools, and throughout society at large. Those who enjoy privilege are not forced to think about a set of life experiences and existence which they take to be a given.

To point. When Don West celebrates, as he likely did, with his daughters after attempting to humiliate Rachel Jeantel, he is teaching them a lesson that folks like "them" are better than "those people." The words may not have been stated...although I suspect they were. However, his energy--the hubris of white privilege--is understood, received, and internalized by his daughters.

Generally, white folks do not think about what it means to be white in America. Men do not usually reflect upon gender and masculinity. Straight people often do not think about all the advantages they receive because of who they are attracted to. This is the tautology: to be privileged means not having to think about privilege. It is a neat little circle that hides behind words and phrases such as "normal" and "doesn't everybody?"

Do not misunderstand me. Don West is obligated to advocate for his client George Zimmerman. Part of this involves discrediting witnesses who are speaking on behalf of the prosecution.

One can have a professional obligation to do difficult things. One does not have to revel in them. Based on the photo of Don West and his daughters celebrating how they "defeat stupidity," I do wonder about Don West's character.

I would like to believe that Don West would have come home, taken a shower to wash off the stink of what he did in court to Rachel Jeantel, had a drink (or three), and when his daughters wanted to get ice cream cones in keeping with the family tradition, that he would have told them the following.

"No, there is nothing to celebrate here. I did my job and sometimes that involves hurting other people."

Don West then would have sat back and told his gloating daughters that "we are rich and white in America. We have opportunities and privileges that other people like Rachel Jeantel can only dream of. Stop smiling. You inherited your material comforts from me and your mom and have to this point earned none of them. When the privileged, the rich, the wealthy, and yes, white folks like us gloat and lord their opportunities over others not so advantaged, no good, not ever, comes of it. Kids, I am a rich white man who is an attorney with years of training, that doesn't make me or you any better than Rachel."

But then again, I am a dreamer. And yes, I know that Don West and his daughters, by virtue of their money and skin color, probably believe that they are "better" people than folks like Rachel Jeantel. Funny. I doubt that Don West realizes that the karmic joke is on him and his family.

26 comments:

Elly said...

"One can have a professional obligation to do difficult things. One does not have to revel in them. Based on the photo of Don West and his daughters celebrating how they "defeat stupidity," I do wonder about Don West's character."

Exactly this.

I do not, however, wonder about Don West's character at all. While I don't doubt that he was taken aback by the publication of the photo, his mild public "brush off" (and the spokesperson's tone deaf followup) tells me all I need to know about his "character" (or the lack thereof). The hubris on display is breathtaking: he can't even be bothered to issue a "not-pology."

As a part of Zimmerman's defense team, he had NO hesitation about trying to smear Trayvon Martin's character prior to the trial, based on cherry-picked images and texts. Yet now he claims that it's ok that children do things that their parents "aren't always proud of"? Double standards, much?

threeoutside said...

This isn't so much a comment as an observation: I suspect if this post doesn't get many comments, it's because that photo just strikes one dumb. It isn't often that I am literally robbed of words. This is one time.

ugicenyw-735 said...

The attorney's daughter who posted the picture is not incredibly bright at this point in her young life for having posted. You sir, however appear to be a diehard racist. You go beyond what the picture reveals and infer and reveal the current limitation of your own personal growth. Look inside yourself to see if the karmic joke is not on you.

Maike Hudson said...

If Don West were decent enough to reflect on his privilege and his obligation to do difficult things, he likely wouldn't have "gloating daughters" because he would have raised them right from the beginning. Also, he could have discredited Rachel Jeantel as a witness by pointing out that her testimony is based on a phone call rather than her physical presence at the scene of the crime, not by pointing out her lack of middle-class veneer. There is a reason why his daughters are gloating: their father is a jerk, and they grew up to be just like him.

George Smith said...

Yes, I'm virtually dumbstruck too. That's viral already, I'm sure. It's difficult to fathom them not perceiving it as pure gloating.

buddy h said...

First, it looks like the lawyer is the one who snapped the photo. His right arm is extended forward; he is holding the camera phone.
Second, "dad killed it" is unbelievably offensive. Using the term "killed it" as celebratory while defending an accused murderer. I think of Martin's parents sitting in the courtroom. I think if I was the one with the dead son, how I'd view such a photo and phrase.
Third, I googled mollywestttt, and her twitter account is suspended. Not sure what this means.

George Smith said...

On the other hand, when this was done 20 years ago the photo stayed hidden in a scrapbook. Digital cameras and web catering greased them into showing it to the world. And now they can't erase it.

Test 322 said...

CAN YOU BELIEVE THE AUDACITY OF THOSE CRACKERS EATING ICE CREAM??/

Wavenstein said...

This tweet sums up the black experience in Amerikkka

Contingent Cassandra said...

However, she looks to be at least the same age as, and perhaps a year or two older than, Rachel Jeantel, and has certainly had far more opportunities and advantages. Also, she's voluntarily put herself in the public sphere (Jeantel did not). Any allowance that should be given to Molly West on the basis of age and/or inexperience applies at least equally to Jeantel.

Contingent Cassandra said...

Amen. Honestly, I see far more signs of serious, culturally-embedded dysfunction in the West family than I do in anything Jeantel said or did on the stand.


Also, to add another layer: can you imagine what the twittersphere et al. would have done with a picture of Jeantel holding a large ice cream cone? Very few commentators have failed to mention Jeantel's weight, though it's hard to see how it has the slightest bearing on the case (little as I like the whole "I can't understand you/can you understand me?" dramatics, at least those are at least marginally related to the proceedings). Yet somehow the Wests get a pass for admitting to an established ice cream habit (because somehow they don't get fat, because that's not a white, or at least upper-class-white, thing to do? Because browbeating witnesses -- or cheering on your dad as he does so -- is just so strenuous? Because they spend all their time when not in court or eating ice cream exercising? I can't quite articulate it, but there's something going on that connects blackness, fatness, and assumed unhealthy behavior, but gives a pass to blondes (and pale baldpates) even though they're engaging in supposedly self-destructive behavior in front of our eyes.

Learning is Eternal said...

If you tell me this won't impact the outcome I'm strapping up right now...

Apologies. I know this site is place for genuine intellectual thought & converse but this is the only language they understand.

Mac McComas said...

Too good mate. You summed up every problem I have been having about discussing the problems in American society. It is so hard to not get uncontrollably angry when you hear about things like this. But who will listen to the random rants and raves of a white man, except if they are conservative and on Fox News.

chauncey devega said...

those poor white men, exiled on the island of Fox. that photo just summed up so much wrong i couldn't resist comment. just ugly.

chauncey devega said...

you better get ready to do your Training Day Alonzo 'cause zimmerman is walking while doing the harlem shake.

chauncey devega said...

what about the other photos of the daughter pretending to be drunk and fainted on the floor of the family home? white privilege is the ability to be given the benefit of the doubt and viewed as an individual. poor black women? people of color generally? no pass.

chauncey devega said...

The digital public sphere has created a "super public" of sorts.

chauncey devega said...

Mollywest's mommy and daddy clamped down on her foolishness. Plus, of course, kids do things that embarrass their parents from time to time to quote Don West. We should try to understand them. Guess that doesn't apply to Trayvon though.

chauncey devega said...

Great point. Said better than I did.

chauncey devega said...

"As a part of Zimmerman's defense team, he had NO hesitation about trying to smear Trayvon Martin's character prior to the trial, based on cherry-picked images and texts. Yet now he claims that it's ok that children do things that their parents "aren't always proud of"? Double standards, much?"


White (class) privilege is one hell of drug, ain't it?

chauncey devega said...

Boo! Did I scare you...

Contingent Cassandra said...

Hadn't seen those yet. Yeah, I think that nails it (and connects to recent discussions about who gets arrested for drug possession, etc., as well). Personal responsibility/accountability is apparently for the non-privileged; privilege, indeed, gets a pass (or at least a chance to be "youthfully indiscreet" -- apparently until one is 30 or 40 or so).

buddy h said...

Here's her twitter:

https://twitter.com/mollyewest



Interesting reading.

csm said...

West should rethink his "victory."


Here he is, a white man with every advantage, law degree and license, years of experience as a practicing attorney, going up against a black teen, with all the education afforded such a person, and for whom English is a second language, and Jeantel still held her own, giving as well as she took.


"Victory" for West was he made her look like what racism in this country already defines her as.


Some victory.

csm said...

The more I look at this picture, the more it disgusts me. Its an indication of how, in some respects, things have changed little, if at all.

This picture reminds me of.those grotesque black & white photos of lynchings where whites are, innocuously, standing around horribly burnt and mutilated black bodies, looking as if they are at a county fair, grinning children in tow. And what I wondered most about those pictures was the mindset of the "parent" that would not only see such an event as a celebration, but to then bring a child, and tell them, what exactly?

Don West is reprising that role with this picture, and it has obliterated any professional benefit of the doubt I was up to now willing to accord him as doing whatever he needed to do to get the best results for his client. West, of "knock-knock" fame, has clearly taken sides beyond that of simply representing his client..


If you look at this picture closely, you'll notice the extended arm of West. He is the one who apparently took the picture, although it ended up on the daughter's Facebook.page. West is the instigator behind this, and he is obviously reveling in his own metaphorical lynching of Jeantel, and posthumous lynching of Martin. His daughters, just like the kids in those old black and white photos, grinning and mugging, souvenirs and treats in hand.



Truly disgusting.

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