US Politics Mega-thread - Page 4011

Which just highlights how amazing Do The Right Thing is at navigating all of this. It has the courage not to express Radio Raheem's victimization through obvious and inarguable injustice, but get at the honest complexity of the event and everyone involved too. If race is a narrative, then this film isn't sugar-coating the narrative at all. Meaning the story is not a cartoonish series of mechanical events designed to teach and make us feel better. In fact, the characters are just as confused and conflicted as we are, often mediating on their identity and purpose, albeit through conflict... But we don't notice. Have you ever noticed how few critics note how much time the film spends being outright critical of Mookie? Who is perhaps a perfect characterization of wayward youth: obsessed with easy money, slacking at his job, not taking responsibility for his life / family. Spike lee, by playing the lead, isn't doing so to glorify the character (something people actually suggest), but to take responsibility for it. He is making himself culpable in such fault, confronting every aspect at the heart of african-american culture. To be clear: the film is not condoning his behavior; it's trying to get us to understand it. Even better, it's reflecting the nature of youth at large, Mookie is no different than the scores of misguided young protagonists who have come before. Besides, every character in Do The Right Thing wrestles with their own particular philosophy, and all seem to have a vice of coping or make a mistake. Da Mayor, our venerable vagrant, must thrive on alcohol to even deal with the life he's seen, an approximation of a generation embattled with civil rights. Mother Sister, haunted by songs of the past. These are human beings. And what the film postulates is that we all have the right to be human beings with vices, and perspective, and anger. It's part of our human narrative. And even now, there is a fight to shape the narrative of who michael brown is and the events that led to his death. Hulk can guarantee the narrative will change more.

Which brings us to the crux of the entire point:

Nobody deserves to die for such normal human fault.

Just as nobody deserves to die for playing their music too loud.

So why, when looking at the timeline of events, do we read such acts of provocation? How does a previous theft affect the situation in Ferguson? Why did those high school kids say "But if Radio Raheem turned down his music he wouldn't have died!" they see it as nothing more then activating a piece of what the individual can control to prevent a "Logical" succession of events, and yet it's nothing more than a shade of victim blaming. How many of the same people point out that if sal hadn't called it "Jungle music" and treated raheem with such disdain then he wouldn't have died either? Why is the over-exertion of force an accident? Why is it always an accident? Who deserves to die for acting like most normal human beings would in a situation of provocation?

To wit, how many times has Hulk seen dumbass white kids provoking officers in far more offending ways to far lesser results? Hulk's seen people do dumb enough things to be roughed up, arrested and even charged, but it's almost always under the safety of knowing they're not going to be gunned down or choked to death... You know, for some mysterious reason! But that difference is everything, isn't it? Hulk's seen countless riots after sporting events and seen the cops laughing as a bunch of white college kids jumped on cars. Meanwhile, one of Hulk's friends got singled out from the fray and called "A fucking terrorist" and told "Just give me a reason to put this gun up your Arab ass and pull the trigger!" (fact: he was indian). Hulk had to drag said friend back 10 blocks from fighting with the cop. We later lodged complaints to zero response. And the police just let the dumbass college kids have their fun. But it wasn't until a young white girl was tragically killed that the police completely actually changed their tactics. The thing is that hulk 100% understands that these are just anecdotes, objective proof of nothing, but we'd be idiotic to ignore the stark difference.

Young black males, ostensibly no different than any other males in terms of psychology, face dire consequences of taking up rightful anger with undue death and criticism. Like the tweet says, years later we're still asking why mookie threw the trashcan instead of why they killed radio raheem. And the problem is we've seen this story before. We talked about this just a year ago with oscar grant and fruitvale. But it was before that too: today it's michael brown, but just a moment ago it was eric garner. Before that? Kimani gray. Kendrick mcdade. Timothy russell. Ervin jefferson. Amadou diallo. Patrick dorismond. Ousmane zongo. Timonthy stansbury jr. Sean bell. Orlando barlow. Aaron campbell. Victor steen. Steven eugene washington. Alonzo ashley. Wendell allen. Ronald madison. James brissette. Travares mcgill. Ramarley graham. Which is nothing to say of tarika wilson. Aiyana jones. Miriam carey. Shereese francis. Shantel davis. Sharmel edwards. Rekia boyd. Tyisha miller. And yvette smith.

Some of these stories involve some kind of small provocation. Some of these events border on straight-up murder. But all of these stories feature one similarity: a "Misunderstanding" of law enforcement based on an impossible expectation for the victims' non-behavior. A behavior which cannot express fear, anger, or involuntary movement on the off-chance that behavior might be misinterpreted as violent. It is an expectation, which if not met, results in death. Even the onion nailed the insanity of this. But worst of all it means the line of tacit permission for officers is pushed all the way to the edge of reason. Why else would any of these acts of provocation, none of which are deserving of capital execution, most often result in paid-leave and a slap on the wrist? "Well it was an accident." we reason. Or "They thought they had a gun." of course they did. Largely because if one is going into a situation with that expectation, then that expectation is what will be sought. And when people get incensed about such a ridiculous state of expectation, they are then required by society to approach it as martin luther king would have, lest they be labeled as riotous animals. Our greater society expects these offenses to be met with sadness. A solemn vigil. A tragedy and the good wishing that no more blood be spilled, which will in turn solve everything or something. But instead of solving? We've enacted a series of measures that make it easier for this to happen and militarized the police, while simultaneously removing cops that walk beats.

It's impossible to do the right thing when no one seems to care when the wrong things are done to you.