If you look at the old reasoning for slavery and later segregation, a big reason that was given for the status of blacks was that they were like children. They were childish with a attendant characteristics of low impulse control, lack of industriousness, prone to misbehavior and a need for "adult" supervision.
When I looked back at pictures of the Civil Rights Movement I was always struck by grown men walking around with placards declaring that they were men. I thought that it was pretty much self-evident that they were in fact men but I came to understand that in many cases these grown men would be referred to as "boy" by many white people or any age. However now, particularly in the recent cases of police shootings, there has been a rise in rhetoric, particularly from the left that infantilizes black people (men in particular) in ways that are reminiscent of the arguments made by those supporting Jim Crow.
The first part is the quick rise of the "No agency" argument. This argument that is seen in much mainstream press (and pointed out here in many posts) is that whatever negative things black people do are caused by white people. Crime is not an individual decision to fuck up. It is because at some point in the past or present, some white person or persons created an environment that left this black person (and people)
no other choice than to commit the crime. Embedded in such arguments is the old white "super man" vs, the black "child". Children have little agency. They often act on impulse and instinct. Many of their mistakes can be laid at the feet of their parents who determine the environment those children live in. Indeed if a parent leaves a loaded gun out on a table and a child picks it up and kills themselves or someone else with it, we do not blame the child. We understand that a child does not understand how dangerous a gun is, but that the parent does. Thus the parent with the power of knowledge and ability to determine environments are held responsible.
But black people, who commit gun crimes 7x the levels of whites nationally and in some locations are responsible for upwards of 90% of homicides are not children. They know full well what a gun does. They know full well the consequences for killing. Yet for various reasons they continue to kill one another at alarming rates. Liberals want to tell us the problem is the Gun and the NRA. Guns are inanimate objects and most gun owners in America do not commit crimes with them. But just like when dealing with children, liberals will not see black people as adults and lay the blame for the excessively high gun crime rates on
their own decisions. Rather they seek an "adult" to blame.
Are black people children?
The latest example of the infantilization of black people came in a
Counterpunch article which had this:
In such a petty, oppressive climate, Scott’s ultimately fatal decision to flee a white officer who had stopped him for a busted taillight was understandable.
understandable?
What exactly is understandable about running away from a police officer who has instructed you to remain in your vehicle?
Does John Grant run away (or drive away)from police who stop him for a traffic infraction? I'd like to know. Because if he doesn't then he is a hypocrite of the highest order.
Let me tell you what would be understandable> Scott, after being pulled over tells the officer the truth about the vehicle he was in (whatever that may be). Scott having his ID with him and handing that off to the officer. Scott being a grown ass man sitting in the vehicle until Slager came back to him and asked him to step out because Scott KNEW he had outstanding warrants because Scott KNEW he hadn't been paying his child support.
Side note: Though I object to the weaponizing of child support, that is not an excuse for making children you cannot support or falling behind on child support and not taking preventative steps to deal with the courts so that you don't get a warrant out for your arrest. That's the ADULT thing to do.
Back to the story. So, then Scott would have gotten arrested and if he felt like doing some civil disobedience (which I would support) refuse to pay the court, make a declaration on record that he objects to his treatment and that incarcerating him does NOTHING to help get him up to date on child support.
Even when Scott ran, once he was caught he could have been a man about it, admitted he was caught, laid down and took the cuffs. Scott didn't do that. Instead he decided to assault the officer. I suppose John Grant thinks that was understandable to. After all, THese talking heads (writing heads in this case) never stopped to condemn the fact that Mike Brown assaulted a police officer who was responding to Mike Brown's earlier crime. None of these folks condemned the attitude as noted by Brown's buddy, that assaulting the store owner after an attempted theft was "no big deal". Matter of fact none of these talking heads have even bothered to discuss how WRONG it was for the robbery to happen in the first place! No, they were mad because the tape was made public! And none of these folks condemned specifically the trashing of the store during the protests.
Of course all of that is "understandable".
But this is the new left. It has resurrected old slave era arguments to prop up their critiques of police. Black people should be seen as children and you need to be careful around the children lest they get hurt. The children cannot help themselves with guns and fighting so we have to put more responsibility on YOU, Mr. Super White Man to take care around them.
Take the "accidental" shooting of the gun buy suspect by a retired police officer. Lets contrast. The retired police officer was out trying to help get illegal guns off the street. The suspect was trying to get illegal guns
onto the streets. The retired cop immediately admitted his "mistake" (I still think he acted wrongly because once the suspect was down, there was no need to have a gun on him, similar to the Oscar Grant case). The suspect, once caught, tried to run away (duck responsibility and consequences).
Immediately after the news media made this about the guy getting shot. Nowhere was there commentary that the guy who was shot was supplying illegal guns that have probably taken the lives of many people. In other words, the white people are the adults and the black person was a treated like a child who had a fatal boo boo while running around like children do.
Many decades ago black men marched with signs declaring their manhood. How about we treat them like men.
