Monday, September 16, 2013

The White Gaze Quite Literally Shot and Killed Jonathan Ferrell

[This post has brought quite a few new readers to We Are Respectable Negroes from Facebook and other social media sites. As I do during such moments, I inaugurate an informal fundraising drive.

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 On Saturday, a white police officer shot and killed an unarmed black man. Jonathan Ferrell was in a horrific car accident and ran towards three police officers seeking help, just like any reasonable person in a crisis would do.

Again, a black man in America who is interacting with the police is not given the presumption of being a full citizen, innocent until proven guilty, and perhaps in need of assistance.



For the White Gaze, "black" and "male" equals threat and violence.

This is part of a historic pattern of stereotyping and threat in the United States, one which still looms over the popular imagination in the present. There, Jonathan Ferrell, we, those of us black and male, are "giant negroes" possessed of natural ill will, malevolence, and a proclivity to kill and rape as "black brutes" who must be shot dead whenever possible.

Sometimes black men are "armed" with "dehumanizing stares". In other instances, our waving empty handed at the police is interpreted as a violent act. Cans of iced tea, bags of skittles, house keys, flashlights, and other objects are magically transformed into means for legitimating our own murder and assault by the police and White authority figures. The power of our empty hands against those armed with guns is legendary.

Apparently, unarmed black men are titans who inspire fear in the hearts of the police and White America.

The shooting of Jonathan Ferrell by police officer Randall Kerrick is not a surprise. Given America's long history of institutional violence by the State and its proxies against people of color (i.e. vigilantes such as George Zimmerman), "the system" operated as intended and designed.

As a function of internalized anti-black bias, people of color are not viewed by many whites as deserving full human empathy, respect, and dignity. In a complementary finding, research published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology details how the White Gaze quite literally does not "see" people of color.

The sum effect of these processes is that black and brown folks' humanity disappears when viewed by and through Whiteness and "White" eyes.

Citizenship is most fundamentally an assumption of belonging, and a sense that one's human rights will be respected in a community where your safety and security is protected by the social compact. By almost all measures of income, wealth, incarceration, health outcomes, access to schooling, and equal opportunity in the labor market, people of color are systematically denied the full rights and privileges that come with (white) citizenship in the United States.

Systematic police violence against people of color is not an aberration or outlier: it is a norm. Moreover, it is part of an interlocking system of violence that black and brown folks, because they are both racialized and more likely to be poor, are uniquely subjected to in post civil rights America.

As part of a society where there is "racism without racists", and "colorblind" racism is the new racial regime, the reaction to Jonathan Ferrell's murder by the police will likely follow a predictable public script.

There will be white folks who are so deeply in denial about white privilege and White Supremacy that they will naturally find some "reasonable" explanation for what they see as a horrible mistake and aberration. Their cognitive map cannot accept that white racism killed Jonathan Ferrell because to do so would mean to question a set of deeply held and self-serving beliefs about the myth of meritocracy, and how racism no longer limits anyone's ability to succeed and achieve in the United States of America.

The White Right will of course default to a logic wherein a black man is de facto a criminal until proven otherwise. This is a function of their (racial) Authoritarianism; Conservatives, despite all of their empty words about "tyranny" and "big government" have no problem with giving the police the right to summarily execute black and brown folks on the street.

And the complexities of a society steeped in racial inequality and White Supremacy will be ignored and overlooked by those in the public unable to reconcile how a black president, as well as black police officials and law enforcement agents at the highest ranks, and a culture of systematic violence against black and brown people, can simultaneously co-exist in the same historical moment.

In all, Whiteness considers white racism to be an extraordinary social phenomenon. Consequently, racism, as opposed to being one of the most well-documented facts of American life by social scientists, requires an extraordinary proof to satisfy those white folks who are both actively and passively invested in maintaining (and protecting) systems of white privilege and White Supremacy.

The White Gaze killed Jonathan Ferrell. He will not be the last of its victims. 

27 comments:

chauncey devega said...

I doubt there will be much soul searching. Lets see how the "black male deviant thug" mates with the mass shooting meme. Will be fascinating. I doubt there will be much soul searching about his mental state, being a veteran, or none of those common scripts when white men go crazy and kill people by the dozens.

AGreenBird said...

This sorrowful news has me depressed and spitting. I suspect that the fact that Mr. Ferrell was running towards the officers was, in the mind of the white, descended from Neandertal, police officer, not what a reasonable person who has had a door slammed in his face just prior would do. Zero additional scenarios would enter such an officer's head. Perhaps this is the crucible of awareness that science has provided us, the presence of Neandertal fear and fight or flight response. The Neandertals did not survive. If they offered humanity anything thru their genetic make-up, it apparently has only been successfully tapped by, from my attic apartment in the Iron Triangle of Richmond, CA (kind of a tower, if not ivory), were First Nations peoples and Asians. These people seemed to have gleaned that only through a close and reciprocal relationship with the Earth can the dangerously near-sighted fight or flight trigger inherited from Neandertals be eased into a more manageable quest after meaning & vision with the Neandertal gift of substantial energy to take on, withstand and understand the elements in pursuit of such wisdoms. Those who reject same as anti-Christian (not really...) or superstitious (how?) or simply "communist bullsh*t" (oh sure!) will always be self-hating victimizers. It's sad. It's rude. It's ridiculous. Will we (I'm white) ever learn?

chauncey devega said...

Neanderthal brains. Don't want to risk that call. I am more basic in my explanation--we live in a society that teaches people of all colors to hate non-whites. This is internalized consciously and subconsciously across the colorline. Will we ever have a serious conversation about this reality? No. Because more often than not by design it serves the interest of White America.

SunKissed said...

One thing for sure is that this recent mass shooting will be used by the white right to disprove any claims that white men are usually the ones doing the mass killing. Even though whites still make up 70% of the mass killings, just one or more non-white shooters means that race is not a factor according to the white right. If only that logic was extended to people of color. That the presence of just a few non-black drug dealers, gang bangers, and single moms means that this behaviors is not inherent to a specific race.

The Sanity Inspector said...

As for the Navy Yard shooter, I was expecting him to be either a jihadist or yet another brilliant but profoundly disturbed white guy. Although I don't know what the actual statistics are, I don't really think of black men being spree shooters. I should've obeyed my own rule and just turned off the news for a couple of days, until some actual facts started coming together.

chauncey devega said...

He is an outlier in terms of the percentage and number of blacks who commit these types of crimes. Instead of talking about reasonable gun control policies and access to mental health services we will get the predictable from the Gun Right claim that we need more guns to protect people not fewer of them.

chauncey devega said...

Keep your wicked math away from such conversations!

OldPolarBear said...

I saw this referenced somewhere yesterday and then on Charles Pierce and then I read this and have been trying to think of some kind of meaningful or useful comment and I just can't. It is so sad and sickening. It seems that Mr. Ferrell was the victim of two separate instances of the White Gaze, the first from the homeowner which led to the second by the policeman who killed him.

One thing that is surprising is not only that the policeman has been charged with a felony, but the speed with which that happened. And I do NOT suggest for a second that negates or changes one iota anything you said! Or that it will help Mr. Ferrell or his family much. It may be difficult to get a conviction. But it makes me wonder, if there is some evidence that is really damning to the policeman. Sometimes they release the audio of the 911 call but I haven't found this one yet. I wonder what the woman said. It is scary to have someone knock after dark, let alone at 2:30-3 AM. I have had it happen but I would try to find out something before opening the door. We have cracked open a window before and asked, "what do you want?, etc." and I wonder if she might have made a different 911 call if she had not panicked. Still, the police have the primary responsibility for handling a situation like this and these ones failed horribly and tragically.

As for yet another mass shooting, I just don't even. We seem to have reached the point where we think of these as more like severe weather events or something. We can predict and warn for those somewhat, though. Maybe more like the multi-car pileups on the highway during an ice storm or blizzard.

SouthernGirl2 said...

Lynching, hangings, rapes, 200+ years of slavery, destruction of African American families,almost annihilation of Native Americans. White men are the oppressors! Who are the REAL savages?

SouthernGirl2 said...

Lord Have Mercy! Jonathan Ferrell survived a car accident only to be viciously slaughtered by the person he looked to for help! **weeps**

chauncey devega said...

charles pierce is one hell of a writer. so sharp and efficient. where did you see his essay?


i wonder about him being arrested so fast too. usually, the cop killers get lots of leeway to lawyer up. there has to be more going on here.

SouthernGirl2 said...

How do we protect our young black boys from wannabe cops like George Zimmerman and trigger happy cops like Randall Kerrick ?

OldPolarBear said...

I mostly read him at Esquire Politics Blog:

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/

RiPPa said...

Good read, brother.

CaitieCat said...

Indeed. Pathetic that the only thing we can point to as vaguely positive is that the murderer has this time been arrested quickly, but even then, arrested isn't the same as convicted, is it Mr. Zimmerman? No.


My sympathies to those who loved Mr. Ferrell. Such a nightmare, and yet one lived by all too many Black people's families.

David said...

It would be interesting to take a look at the non stereotypical "black man". The transsexual black man. The gay, effeminate, transgender, bisexual, black men. The lighter skinned black men, which probably means some traces of "white blood". The educated black man. The wealthy black man. The... black minister man. The foreign black man, from Africa, or somewhere else on the globe. The black man who "talks white" instead of ebonics. Are these black men still targeted as "less than"? Are they still a threat? Before people go stamping a stain on "black people", let's understand what slavery, forced work, forced labor, forced intercourse, forced migration, forceful separation of families, forceful brainwashing, does to generations of black people. The first slaves came in 1619. The last were freed in the 1860s. Thats the better part of 300 years, or the worse, I don't know. They had their land, their language, their customs, their history, their FREE WILL, their music, food, art, beliefs, their WORLD taken away from them. Reparations need to be urgently made. Blame needs to be put on everyone involved in slavery, from the slave capturers, many times Africans themselves, in Africa, to the slaveowners on the plantation in America, the final destination. And everyone who enabled it, tolerated it, turned a blind eye, participated in it, and let it happen. The crimes committed against Africa, and Africans, have been huge. Healing needs to be done. And justice too.

RiPPa said...

I've been following this one closely. Now the cops are saying that he was drunk and high according to people interviewed by detectives with whom he was with prior to the crash.

feministbitch. said...

So? he was an injured unarmed individual who was killed by the police. Additionally, this is not isolated. This is a huge problem, and his level of intoxication should not even be in the equation.

chauncey devega said...

Of course it is his fault. Again, why do 3 armed cops need to shoot someone 10 or more times who is approaching them. I guess he was all savage giant negro on them.

chauncey devega said...

We try. Wish it didn't need to be written.

chauncey devega said...

You can't. Teach common sense survival skills to make sure they get home safe.

RiPPa said...

I'm not here to debate whether it matters or not. Instead, I'm just here to share the latest development.

lawasculturalwork said...

I agree with what you say in this article about the White Gaze and the worst thing is that it is so embedded in our culture that people are not aware they are doing real violence and harm.


Re the Navy shooter, I would urge you to consider the relationship between race and disability in a Eugenics way of thinking that governs both. It turns out they are using him as another occasion to call for more repressive policies towards people labeled with mental illness - which includes African Americans and people of every ethnic group.

Seran Gee said...

Stop logicking, that's witchcraft and punishable by death.

chauncey devega said...

That is a great insight. What are your thoughts on the eugenics angle? That is such a potent and explosive issue that I do not go there as I do not have the expertise to discuss it with the care it deserves. Any resources or insights?

Mike G. said...

Reparations will be made by God when the time comes.



No one living today had anything to do with Slavery, nor has any Black or Brown person been a victim of slavery.


Africans were also sold into slavery to other African tribes.

chauncey devega said...

Racism deflecting mixed with mythological appeals to justice. Priceless. I thought god helped those who helped themselves? Wouldn't that include reparations?