by Doshon Farad
Another unarmed 17 year-old Black male shot dead by a Florida white man. Are white men really so terrified by the presence of Black males, or “is black life, specifically that of black males, seen as valueless?” Or both?
The Death of Jordan Davis: Is it Open season on Negroes?
by Doshon Farad
“We rarely hear of young white or Asian men being shot down in self-defense.”
You remember the old episode of the Looney Tunes cartoon where Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck were both trying to convince Elmer Fudd that it wasn’t their season to be hunted? Bugs kept shouting, “Its duck season!” and Daffy kept shouting, “No! Its rabbit season!”
Today in the Twenty-first Century a young black man can be inserted in the modern version of that cartoon. He’d be shouting, “No its duck, rabbit, deer, bear, lion, giraffe, anyone or anything season but me!”
This is the sad reality that young black men in America are smacked by constantly, even while a black man occupies the White House. I’m very angry at the recent death of 17 year-old black male Jordan Davis who was shot dead this past Saturday in Florida by Michael Dunn, a 45 year old white man claiming self-defense. Sound familiar?
And so with this killing as well as the deaths of Sean Bell, Ramarley Graham, Trayvon Marton, Oscar Grant and many others, I’m compelled to ask, “Is it open season on Negros?”
We rarely hear of young white or Asian men being shot down in self-defense. Is it because young white and Asian men don’t commit crimes or end up at the wrong place at the wrong time? Or is it more to do with the fact that men from these communities are not scene as menaces to society?
As in the case of George Zimmerman, Dunn is claiming that he killed Davis because he felt his life was threatened. He told police that Davis was in a car full of teenagers parked adjacent to his in a parking lot as he waited for his girlfriend. He told police that they were playing loud music and that he told them to turn it down.
He went on to say that as a result of him telling them to turn down the music, words were exchanged between he and Davis and that one of the teens acted as if they were about to get out of the car to assault him. Dunn then claimed that he saw a gun being flashed in the window –keep in mind that police said that a gun was found nowhere in the vehicle – and as a result of being in fear of his life drew his gun and fired eight to nine shots at Davis, who was in the backseat, leaving him dead.
Dunn and his girlfriend rushed away from the scene of the killing in a hot flash, claiming that he thought the black teens were gang-affiliated and thought he would be the victim of retaliation. (I bet he did). He later told police that threats were being made towards him from the teens’ car.
Dunn was arrested at his home that same day.
“What is it about black life that causes folks outside and inside of our community to feel that it’s alright to kill us?”
Now before you all start coming at me with the usual pitch, “Well, Black people kill each other more than anyone else does. How come we never complain about that?” allow me to first begin by saying that yes the issue of black self-genocide is horrific and should be aggressively dealt with as it is plaguing the entire country. But I believe that a more pertinent question we should be asking is; what is it about black life that causes folks outside and inside of our community to feel that it’s alright to kill us?
What is it about black life that causes law enforcement officers and self-styled vigilantes to end it without hesitation or even remorse? Is black life, specifically that of black males, seen as valueless?
In these past and more recent cases of young black men being killed or assaulted by whites, white men in particular, the same excuse is usually made, i.e. “I felt threatened” or “I thought my life was in danger.”
This is all quite very ironic since black folks as a whole don’t have a history of killing white folks. Once again as some folks say, “Black folks kill each other most of the time.” So the whole “I felt threatened attitude” goes out the window.
What would happen if young white men begin being murdered by black law enforcement officers or even by white law enforcement officers or by black or white self-appointed vigilantes? Would it be justified the way that the deaths of young black men are?
Such cases involving individuals like Michael Dunn cause me to ask myself if Dr. Frances Cress Welsing was correct when she asserted in her book, The Isis Papers that white males are subconsciously and consciously in fear of black men. We must ask ourselves, “What is it about black manhood that is seen as so horrific by many folks to the degree that it could cost a young black man his life?” I feel it is important to study the pathology of white male supremacy as it relates to how black males are treated in society. If not we can expect to see the murders of more and more black men taking place.
Doshon Farad is a staff writer for Your Black World, Your Black Bloggers, and The Movement Magazine. He contributes to several other publications. He’s also a broadcast journalist. He can be followed on twitter @doshonfarad. And on Facebook www.facebook.com/doshon.farad You can contact him at jarogersscholars@hotmail.com.
This week’s featured author is Nanjala Nyabola. Nyabola is a writer and political analyst based in Nairobi, Kenya.
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