Unfortunately, racism still exists in this world, and we see examples of it in the news and sometimes in real life nearly every day.
But also unfortunate is the need for political commentators and other prominent public figures to cry “racism” where none exists as if every slight (perceived or real) experienced by a person of color and every act of violence committed against a person of color happened because the person was black, Hispanic, etc.
Predictably, we’ve seen that exact scenario play out in response to the Tyre Nichols case out of Memphis, TN.
Nichols, who was 29 years old, was pulled over in a traffic stop on January 7, 2023 by Memphis police on grounds that he was allegedly driving recklessly. At some point after he was pulled out of his car and officers attempted to subdue him on the pavement with a stun gun, Nichols attempted to flee but was severely beaten by police officers after they caught up with him.
He was hospitalized and died three days later. Videos showing parts of what happened were released Friday.
Nichols was black. All five now-ex-officers, who are now facing a host of charges including second-degree murder, are black:
You would think that after learning earlier this week that the officers involved were the same race as the victim The Usual Suspects would find an avenue other than “racism” to travel down in this particular case.
But that’s not what happened at all. Shortly before the video was released, CNN commentator and former Obama environmental advisor Van Jones penned a piece published on CNN’s website which declared that the officers “might still” be guilty of racism even though they were black and Nichols was black:
In the piece, Jones suggests—incredibly—that “at the end of the day, it is the race of the victim who is brutalized — not the race of the violent cop — that is most relevant in determining whether racial bias is a factor in police violence.”
Further, Jones claims that black police officers can sometimes be influenced and conditioned by the behavior their white colleagues sometimes show towards black suspects and certain communities and then react in a similar fashion when they’re face to face with black suspects:
Black cops are often socialized in police departments that view certain neighborhoods as war zones. In those departments, few officers get disciplined for dishing out “street justice” in certain precincts — often populated by Black, brown or low-income people — where there is a tacit understanding that the “rulebook” simply doesn’t apply.Cops of all colors, including Black police officers, internalize those messages — and sometimes act on them. In fact, in Black neighborhoods, the phenomenon of brutal Black cops singling out young Black men for abuse is nothing new.
Jones made a similar argument during a segment on CNN Friday night where all involved including the supposedly objective host agreed that when it came right down to it, rogue black cops could be just as racist towards black people as rogue white cops could:
LAURA COATES [host]: Five black officers charged in the killing of an unarmed black man. Now, we often have conversations, Van, about the element of race and the racial dynamic in policing, but I think we all know quite well that when it comes to the power, blue trumps black. The idea of the race of the person who is victimized often more telling than the race of the aggressor. What is your reaction?VAN JONES: Yeah, I think it is really important because there’s this very simplistic notion that says, well, if a white cop is doing something to unarmed black person, then that’s racism, but we sometimes forget, unfortunately, African-Americans can also be guilty of hatred and bias and bigotry against other African-Americans. Sometimes you go into a store owned by [an] African-American, they’re nice to the white folks and suspicious of you. It’s not that only one group can harbor anti-black bias. It is so pervasive and so the other thing that happens, certain neighborhoods are just considered almost by some police departments, war zones, anything goes over there, just do what you have to do.
Watch:
Absolutely no one reading this will be surprised to learn that this narrative is also being pushed by other woke leftists, including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Maxwell Frost, former Congressman Mondaire Jones, and serial race-baiter Jemele Hill:
In another tweet, Hill—who has many times been “stuck on the faces” when it comes to white people—complained that a Twitter user was “stuck on the faces” in the Nichols case:
Some fed up black social commentators pushed back forcefully on the notion that this had anything to do with “white supremacy” or “racism”:
Honestly, if this tragedy can be blamed on white supremacy than literally anything bad that happens in America to a person of color can be blamed on it because to “progressives” like Van Jones, AOC, Jemele Hill, and others—including 1619 Project’s Nikole Hannah-Jones, America’s foundations are rooted in white supremacy and “systemic racism” can be found in every corner.
Considering the sources pushing the “white supremacy” narrative in the Nichols case, I think these two tweets sum things up rather perfectly:
‘Nuff said.
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
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