Wednesday Reads: Two White Americas*
Posted: November 26, 2014 Filed under: morning reads 55 Comments
To Ofc. Darren Wilson, this teenager was a “demon,” a “giant Negro” with superhuman strength.
Good Morning!!
I’m very much at a disadvantage today, because I’ve been driving across country for the past two days and I barely heard any news.
I did get to my hotel on Monday night in time to watch Bob McCulloch present his outrageous defense of the killing of Michael Brown by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson. Thanks to Sky Dancing, I was able to read part of Wilson’s shockingly racist story of his encounter with Brown and I saw parts of some of Wilson’s TV appearances.
I have to assume at this point that–to put it kindly–a large proportion of white people who live in Missouri are in thrall to ancient myths about black people. As more educated people around the country look closely at what McCulloch and Wilson had to say, these two men are going to be surprised to learn that many Americans have moved into the 21st century and can recognize racist tropes when they hear and see them.
I drove 11 hours yesterday, and I wasn’t able to get a single NPR station until I got to Ohio. The parts of Pennsylvania that I drove through were so desolate that all I could get on the radio was right wing talk shows, religious stations, christian rock stations, and oldies stations. I finally heard a little bit of actual news as I approached Toldedo, Ohio. I got to my mother’s house at 9:00 last night.
Fortunately I was able to watch Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O’Brien, so I learned a bit more about what’s actually happening. I stayed up late watching the live coverage on MSNBC, but I was so exhausted that I don’t recall many details.
So, as I said, I’m really at a disadvantage, and I can’t write a really knowledgeable post yet.
A big question in my mind after I watched McCulloch’s strange presentation on Monday night has been about which witnesses testified before the St. Louis grand jury. The prosecutor only mentioned one witness–a person who claimed that after being shot several times, Michael Brown turned and ran “full charge” toward Wilson before being fatally shot in the top of his head.
What about the several witnesses who saw the altercation between Brown and Wilson close up, including Brown’s friend Dorian Johnson, who was right there watching what took place inside the police SUV? What about the two women who watched the events from two different close vantage points and whose independently-told stories were strikingly similar? McCulloch chose to discount them in favor of a man (?) who said he watched from 100 yards away? Why were his inconsistent deemed credible while he found descriptions from close by with minor inconsistencies so deeply flawed as to be ignored? Was this person white? Is that why McCulloch found his shifting stories credible?
That obviously makes no sense. No one runs head facing down–how would he see where he was going? It seems clear to me that if Brown did in fact turn, it was because he had been shot multiple times and was either trying to surrender or was falling forward after being wounded. He couldn’t possibly have been a threat to Wilson at that point–thirty-five feet away and shot multiple times.
Lawrence O’Donnell did an excellent job of breaking this down last night, so if you didn’t see it, please try to watch it on-line today. I’m going to do my best to read the grand jury testimony, but I’ll probably have to do it at night, so it may take me awhile to catch up on all that has happened.
Dakinikat alerted me to a post at Vox that discusses the stunning racial stereotypes in Darren Wilson’s testimony, and in yesterday’s thread she also linked to an excellent post by a black writer, Chaucey de Vega on the same subject.
From Lauren Williams at Vox, The terrifying racial stereotypes laced through Darren Wilson’s testimony.
The Ferguson story is entirely about race
It’s imprecise to call race the subtext of this story or an underlying complication. Itdefines it. Race has woven its way through every aspect of the drama, from the shooting of a black teen by a white officer, to the glaring racial disparities in the St. Louis suburb at the center of the incident, to the protesters’ demands that the criminal justice system recognize that “black lives matter.”
Although the demonstrators have been explicit, this theme of racism doesn’t have to be spelled out to be understood clearly and painfully. Reading Wilson’s characterization of Brown in transcripts from his interview with detectives and his grand jury testimony is like taking a master class in the gross racial fear-mongering that has pervaded our country for centuries.
Darren Wilson’s Michael Brown
Throughout his testimony and post-shooting interview with detectives, Wilson emphasized the size disparity between him and Brown. He tells detectives, “never at any point did I have control of him. I mean … he manipulated me, while I was in the vehicle, completely.”
Wilson, who testified that he is 6’4 and around 210 lbs, told the grand jury that when he tried to grab Brown, “the only way to describe it is that I felt like a five-year-old holding onto Hulk Hogan.” At one point, he said Brown looked like a “demon.” He also expressed concern that Brown could have possibly killed him with a punch to the face.
In the last moments before Wilson fired the fatal shot, he said, Brown made “a grunting, like aggravated sound” and charged toward him, through Wilson’s gunfire. He didn’t even slow down, Wilson said, after one of the bullets apparently hit him.
“I’ve never seen anybody look that, for lack of a better word, crazy,” he told detectives. “I’ve never seen that. I mean, it was very aggravated, … aggressive, hostile… You could tell he was looking through you. There was nothing he was seeing.”
Brown’s eyes were probably glazed over because he had been shot at least 5 times and was close to death. But to Wilson, he was a monster/demon who needed to be killed.
The two men were each very tall, although Brown weighed about 80 more pounds than Wilson. Brown was a teenage boy and Wilson was a trained (supposedly) police officer. Yet Wilson feared Brown and felt like a five-year-old in his presence. Wilson believed Brown was a “demon” who could kill with one blow from his fist and could run through bullets without being felled. Why on earth was Wilson allowed to be a policeman? Are there other Ferguson and St. Louis police officers who hold these bizarre beliefs about black people?
Williams goes on to cite articles from The New York Times that conveyed this stereotype of the giant, superhuman black man (she cites blogger Undercover Black Man as her source)
Here’s a sample of how this played out in the Times:
The September 24, 1900, edition included a double whammy: back-to-back stories about criminally insane negroes of “gigantic build,” headlined “Giant Negro Attacks Police” and “Big Negro Spreads Terror.”
In 1897, the paper exclaimed, “Giant negro disables 4 policemen in fight.” He was eventually felled by a baton blow to the head.
A 1922 story, “Seize giant negro, hide him for safety,” told of a typically huge black man who was terrorizing motorists in Atlantic City (the last straw before his capture was apparently an assault on an 18-year-old white woman).
A “ghost-haunted darkey” went nuts at sea in 1916, according to a story titled “Armed giant negro giant goes mad on liner.” He was rather tall, the reporter makes sure to note.
How many of our fellow Americans still believe this bizarre myths and how many of them are patrolling American streets as police officers?
Here’s Chauncy de Vega, Shorter Darren Wilson Testimony: Michael Brown was a ‘Giant Beast Negro’ That Had to Be Killed.
If you have not yet read Darren Wilson’s testimony to the Ferguson grand jury which decided that he would suffer no ill consequences for his decision to kill Michael Brown, please do so.
Wilson’s description of the events on the day that he decided to shoot and kill an unarmed person cannot be adequately relayed to you by a second party.
The absurd, unfathomable, and fantastical story which Wilson spun out of the whole cloth in order to justify killing an unarmed black teenager combines the deepest and ugliest white supremacist stereotypes and fantasies about black folks’ humanitysuch as the “negro fiend”, “black beast”, and “giant negro”, with white racist paranoiac thinking, and dialogue from blaxploitation movies.
Darren Wilson’s grand jury testimony purports to be an accurate description of his encounter with Michael Brown. In reality, it is closer to an amateurish summer stock theater production of the movie Birth of the Nation as performed by the KKK and/or Neo-Nazis.
What century are these people living in? Suddenly I’m beginning to understand where the seemingly insane people in the Tea Party and the voters who elect candidates like Ted Cruz of Texas and Steve King of Iowa are coming from.
Ezra Klein also had an important post at Vox yesterday, Officer Darren Wilson’s story is unbelievable. Literally.
We’ve finally heard from Officer Darren Wilson.
Wilson had been publicly silent since the events of August 9, when he shot and killed 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. And, even as the grand jury announced its decision not to indict him, he remained silent. He had his attorneys release a statement on his behalf.
But on Monday night, St. Louis County prosecutor Robert McCulloch released the evidence given to the grand jury, including the interview police did with Wilson in the immediate aftermath of the shooting. And so we got to read, for the first time, Wilson’s full, immediate account of his altercation with Brown.And it is unbelievable.
I mean that in the literal sense of the term: “difficult or impossible to believe.” But I want to be clear here. I’m not saying Wilson is lying. I’m not saying his testimony is false. I am saying that the events, as he describes them, are simply bizarre. His story is difficult to believe.
Please read the rest at the link.
The Ferguson story is revealing that there are indeed two white Americas*: one in which people have been educated about bigotry and racism and have learned to recognize racist stereotypes and do our best to counter them, and one in which people have apparently been raised to believe delusional racist tropes and, as a consequence, have developed irrational fears of people who have darker skin than they do.
Do the people in the second group of Americans hold similar beliefs about Asians, Latinos, and Native Americans as well? I think we know how they feel about Muslims. Can anything be done to educate these people and/or to prevent them from passing along these irrational and ugly beliefs to their children? Some Americans still need to be taught that every human life is has value.
Ferguson demonstrates that these are vitally important questions that we need to address as a nation.
Here are a few more recent stories on the Ferguson situation.
Jeffrey Toobin in The New Yorker, How Not to Use a Grand Jury.
Jamelle Bouie at Slate, Rudy Giuiani Doesn’t Understand Crime as Well as He Thinks.
Dana Millbank at the WaPo, Bob McCulloch, the Face of Injustice.
German News site Deutsche Welle, Mother of Michael Brown calls Wilson account ‘insult’.
Jacob Siegel at The Daily Beast, The Three Biggest Unanswered Questions About Ferguson.
CNN, Protesters flood streets across U.S. as Ferguson dismay spreads coast to coast.
CBS St. Louis, Michael Brown’s Mother: ‘My Son Doesn’t Have a History of Violence’.
David A. Love at The Progessive, Ferguson decision again unearths America’s racial problems.
I look forward to reading more about what Sky Dancers think about all this. As always, please post links on any topic in the comment thread. Enjoy your Wednesday and have a happy Thanksgiving day tomorrow.
*NOTE: This post has been updated to change the title and a reference in the text from “Two Americas” to “Two White Americas.”
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Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Glad you made it to your Mother’s home. I love the photo of Michael Brown and the little child. You are so right, because children are learning exactly what they are seeing and hearing from the adults.
Not only did I encounter a Mormon in my neighborhood, but I encountered a Mississippian, who claimed it was the Muslim President’s fault that Ferguson is burning. I was so pissed, but she is exactly the one who is promoting Bush’s crusade, between God and Muslims. She said “these people”…….meaning they are a band of black muslims, and they must be extracted in this religious war. She is the one whose children will promote fear and hate of the black demons for generations to come. It really does hurt, and I see other people don’t want to talk about it, and show what they really believe or feel, they fear other people’s opinion of them.
On a good note, Mississippi and Arkansas lifted their ban on marriages.
Oh……….Ruth Ginsburg is having stints put in her heart. Hope all goes well for our beloved Ruthie.
I’m just sick over the blatant racism we are seeing, and it seems that many in the corporate media (I’m talking about you George Stephanopoulos) aren’t willing or able to point it out.
Me too. It’s shocking. In your post you ask, “How many of our fellow Americans…”, I’ll tell you how many. I just got off the phone with my brother, a retired lawyer and rabid Obama supporter during the Dem Primary against Hillary, who thinks Wilson did nothing wrong because he has never has had a problem with a police officer. He thinks that black people have to be controlled because “they are animals”. I had to cut the convo short or I would have started screaming. There are white racists in every walk of life, in every corner, under every rock.
I know there are probably tons of typos and errors in this post because I’m so exhausted. I’ll try to go over it again soon. In the meantime, JJ and Dak should feel free to fix my mistakes.
Looks like you got out of MA just in time to avoid the snow! It is coming down fast and is now sticking to the roads which means I must leave earlier than expected for my destination as well.
There is no excuse for this officer of the law to kill this kid. A “trained” officer, even if he felt threatened, could always aim lower to avoid killing another human being. Especially an unarmed teen. Wilson’s testimony makes no sense.
But more troubling is that he feels nothing. No sorrow, no remorse, no doubts. Just aim and shoot.
It also appears that the DA’s office may have entered that Grand Jury room with one thought in mind: clear Wilson of any culpability which should make the public at large very wary of law enforcement when the deck appears stacked in favor of one side.
One thing is perfectly clear: McCulloch should have stepped aside immediately and let an independent DA put forth the evidence.
Too late now, the damage has been done. Law enforcement needs to take a closer look at itself beginning with “Stand Your Ground”.
This stuff is becoming too commonplace.
NY Daily News:
Read about it at the link.
I know I’m probably a victim of stereotypes too, but does anyone else think Darren Wilson resembles that guy who played the banjo in Deliverance?
Yes, he does. Doubt he can play banjo anywhere as well though!
Glad you got to your Mom’s place safely, BB.
I’m not sure I can stand to read much more about Wilson getting away with his cowardly slaughter. There’s so much that is indeed unbelievable.
Thanks. I feel the same way about Wilson, but I feel it’s my civic duty to read the testimony. You’ve already read much more than I have; I’ve been following your comments.
I wish more people had your sense of civic duty, BB!
Whatever happened to tasers? Why are all these cops using guns on these teens who’ve been killed lately? I expected the DA to steer the grand jury to indict him so he could let a trial jury handle it.
This is appalling.
McCulloch assigned two assistant prosecutors to present the case, and they clearly took Wilson’s side. That’s what I expected. I had no idea St. Louis was so racist until this happened.
The Prosecutors who presented the case before the Grand Jury were actually Defense Attorneys for Darren Wilson. It’s an unforgivable miscarriage of justice. There needs to be a house cleaning in the Ferguson PD, the City Council and the DA’s office and then Missouri Governor Nixon needs to admit that he failed the citizens of Missouri and appoint a Special Prosecutor to Indict Wilson. There is no double jeopardy in effect with a Grand Jury no true bill so there’s no reason to believe that Wilson is in the clear. Then journalist, both print and talking heads need to do some good old fashion investigative journalism in an effort to hold the Criminal Justice systems feet to fire in this case. I haven’t given up hope that Darren Wilson will be brought to justice, but we cannot be silent if we expect that to happen.
The only way any of that will happen is if the Justice Department brings civil rights charges against Wilson. The DOJ is already investigating the Ferguson PD. It’s already quite clear that Brown’s civil rights were violated. The police did not even investigate the shooting, and Darren Wilson was permitted to drive back to the police station by himself, wash the blood off his hands, and bag the gun himself.
There is some good journalism going on. You should watch the interview of Dorian Johnson by Chris Hayes that JJ just posted. As I wrote in my post, Lawrence O’Donnell did a great job last night.
Others doing good jobs of covering the Ferguson story:
Wesley Lowery of the WaPo
Yamichi Alcindor of USA Today
Matt Pearce of the LA Times
Jon Swaine of The Guardian US
Ryan J. Reilly of HuffPo
There are others, but those are just off the top of my head.
I watched that interview of Johnson by Chris Hayes, it was a very good interview, but it was on MSNBC which means that most folks who get their news via TV aren’t going to see that interview. I watched the Stephanopolous interview of Darren Wilson and it amounted to not much more than patty-cake. It looks as if a few in the print media are questioning Wilson’s version and the Grand Jury process, but not nearly enough. We need the big 3, CBS, ABC, CBS to do their job and investigate this story instead of parroting the Prosecutor/Wilson Defense Team.
The big three will follow other mainstream journalists. Dana Millbank, for example. I linnked ot another column by him in my post this morning.
Bob McCulloch’s pathetic prosecution of Darren Wilson
Frankly, George Stephanopoulos is hopeless. He never asked a tough question in his life. I don’t even consider him a journalist.
Welcome to the Missouri Compromise without Missouri ever having to face Reconstruction, etc.
Boston Protests Ferguson Decision: ‘Jesus Would Be Out Here With Us’
Seattle is not ideal by any means — we have a big problem with the city police using excessive force, as found by the Dept of Justice. Just that the Seattle cops don’t target it all on blacks.
We’ve had peaceful protests here in Richmond, VA too. Richmond, VA, the capital of the Confederacy, and the police were there and were interviewed. The police officer who was interviewed said that they were there to make sure everyone was safe and that their primary purpose was to safeguard the protesters’ right to peacefully exercise their freedom of speech. This, from the capital of the Confederacy. Even Richmond is more progressive than Missouri.
Your Democratic governor is a lot better than Jay Nixon too.
Yes, he is. But I have to say, even when we had a lunatic Rethug Gov, the police who were at protests and marches that I attended were very nice and really seemed to focus on making sure everyone was safe. At one of the pro-choice protests at the Health Dept, the pro-life jerks were coming over to our side of the street and harassing us and the police were sending them back to their side. When my daughter and I first pulled up and saw all of the police we were nervous because we thought they were there to intimidate us but we were surprised to learn they were actually there to protect us.
That’s really great.
Last night Ralph posted on this Congressional move to further fatten the corporations. I was glad this morning to read that Obama’s using his bully pulpit to block it.
I’m glad to hear there has been pushback. Thanks. I read Ralph’s comment this morning.
Time for some happier news:
That is good news. Thank you, Luna.
BB, I can’t believe you had the energy to do this post!
I am trying to find out more about this law from Missouri House of Representatives
But it is taking me longer than expected.
As far as this goes:
Welcome to my world…my Banjoville world. And I have said before that the racist attitude is what drives the people to vote for the assholes in the GOP and tea party. I think this is why there are so many “slips” of the tongue which get “walked back” . I mean, why bother…it is out there already…the folks who matter the the asshole politician who said it are the ones who “heard” it…Same goes for that shit they say about women, because most of the racist dickheads are misogynist as well.
(but that is ot)
There is an interesting archive here Full text of "Slavery in Missouri, 1804-1865"
Dissertation written in 1914 but it has citations to news items from the 1800’s. Some of you may like to look through it.
I don’t know how you can hold yourself back from throttling people if they are like the St. Louis racists. I can’t believe how little has changed in past 50 years. Whatever changes have happened, they seem to be mostly cosmetic, and the SCOTUS is successfully rolling back many of the decisions from the Warren Court. Will they overturn the Civil Rights act too?
JJ…..I’m just slightly north and west of you and your banjoville is exactly like my bumfuckerville. Confederate flags still wave here, not far from the birthplace of the KKK. The biggest difference between 2014 and 1954 is that the racists have learned to hide their hood and pointey hat.
We are neighbors – it’s unbelievable and it seemly can’t be ‘educated’ out. Sad and scary.
Mouse, take a look at the local forum and what they have to say:
topix.com/forum/city/blairsville-ga/TOL84LOS3BVVRNK1F
cut and paste the link…
Burning Ferguson
“One street has boutiques. Another has dollar stores. Guess which one the police protected?”
How the hell can they act like that? They keep making it worse. Some arm of justice needs to slam down on them fast. I suppose the governor won’t do anything.
It’s exactly like JJ said the other day. It’s like the movie Mississippi Burning, when the police stood by and let things happen. This was planned. Otherwise, why didn’t Gov. Nixon have the National Guard out on Monday night to protect all the businesses, not just those owned by whites?
You got that right BB!
More from the Burning Ferguson story:
Unorthodox police procedures emerge in grand jury documents
If the Justice Dept doesn’t find that Michael Brown’s civil rights were violated, it will be a travesty. The Ferguson and St. Louis PD’s might as well be back in the 1960s with Bull Connor.
It appears that we are still fighting the Civil War. What say you?
It appears that way to me–at least in the formerly confederate states.
I found the video interview with Hayes from last night:
Michael Brown Friend Who Witnessed Shooting Rebuts Wilson’s Version of Events | Mediaite
Watch it…it is something to see.
Other video clips I saw at Mediaite:
This Maddow from last night: Maddow Not Buying Darren Wilson’s Description of Michael Brown as Super-Human ‘Demon’ | Mediaite
Like you were talking about up top BB…
And:
Missouri Lt. Gov.: Nixon Bowed to Pressure from Obama and Holder to Not Send National Guard | Mediaite
White House Denies Preventing National Guard Presence in Ferguson | Mediaite
Tamir Rice Video Shows Cleveland Police Killing 12-Year-Old | Mediaite
Dorian Wilson comes across as a sincere, decent young man. I think his story is very credible.
As for those cops in Cleveland, it looked like they pulled up in their car and shot the kid without giving him a chance. You could tell he was a kid the way he was acting in the video. These cops seem to think anyone with dark skin is inherently dangerous.
Ferguson Protest Held Outside US Embassy In London
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/11/26/ferguson-protest-held-outside-us-embassy-in-london_n_6227986.html?utm_hp_ref=tw
I saw there was a protest held last night in Norway too. 😉
Hey BB, Look at this: Justice Scalia Explains What Was Wrong With The Ferguson Grand Jury | ThinkProgress
Oh yeah. Wilson didn’t have a reasonable claim to be acting in self-defense. He was repeatedly aggressive with deadly force.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/nov/26/thanksgiving-depression-give-thanks-this-year
Bakery Vandalized in Ferguson Gets More than $100K in Donations
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/michael-brown-shooting/bakery-vandalized-ferguson-gets-more-100k-donations-n256931
Thank you for this great compilation of links and good to hear you made it safely to your mother’s. So many of us recognized this was a horrid train wreck from the very beginning. I stay glued to the news these days because I need to see and have closed captioning. How could these Ferguson lawmakers be so blinded to their racists actions and not know how abhorrent their behavior is? So many deaths – so much destruction and lives turned into nightmares. Yesterday it was reported that Michael’s dad/grandfather’s church was burnt down – a good distance from any other fires. Now we know another AA young man was murdered and the body burnt in a car in Ferguson. Most of the lying can be clearly designated as a bold face lie. It’s not just the citizens of the US learning how dishonest but now international. The officials of Ferguson have the depth of a two year old(except even chlldren that young have a sense of guilt/right and wrong). Lying is so accepted and no one held accountable. What great harm (another one of my under-statements) the youth of today are subjected to. Will we ever see ‘rule of law’ again in this country? The only good thing I have heard is that Obama promising to veto another disgraceful bill the Rethugs conjured up. Well, there is the fact vast numbers are standing up, protesting peacefully – that is something I hold dear and hang hope for a better future.
Thanks Boo Radley. It is very depressing. I look back over my life and I have to accept that for the issues I have cared most about–civil rights and women’s rights, there have really only been surface changes. The attitudes behind the unfair treatment of women and minorities are still alive and well.