Black teenagers as violent thugs
who want nothing more than to
rape white women and kill white
men. We take from them all of the
sensibilities which we afford to
white children and makes beasts
from boys.
Every interaction a person has with
a Black man will be conducted
through the lens of their potential
violence. The Black man will be
watched and observed to see if
he meets the mold which you are
taught to find. Those who fail the
examination are dismissed as other
others. They cannot be understood
with this particular set of lens, are
outside of the possibilities of the
narrow American imagination.
Thus they are given new identities
– good kid, intelligent, white.
Those who pass the test, who meet
the criteria, are comforting, for
in passing the examination, they
prove that the test itself is not a
farce. And of course if you create
a large enough net with small
enough holes, you will succeed,
no matter what, in catching
something – or someone.
Jordan Davis was just loud
enough, and just disrespectful
enough, and just dangerous
looking enough to warrant the
perception of him as menace, as
threat in Michael Dunn’s American
imagination. As he says himself,
and as his attorney reiterates in
the closing remarks, Michael Dunn
is not racist. Or better yet, he
does not embody the archetype
28
of American racism to which we
have grown accustomed. He
does not masquerade around in
sheets, burning crosses and calling
himself a wizard or a dragon.
He has not shaven his head and
tattooed over his heart those
swirling Sanskrit arms which are
now synonymous, in the West
at least, with twentieth-century
industrial horror. He is not a racist,
has not adopted the identity of
racist as a means of describing
his worldview, his politics, but he
is racist in his understanding of
"Every interaction a
person has with a
black man will be
conducted through
the lens of their
potential violence."
his own protection coming at the
necessary cost of the lives of one
person, and potentially three more
Black boys, all of which had the
duty to live just as Dunn did. He is
racist in his understanding of his
being on trial for murder as being
a fluke, as being a testament to
America’s undeserving devotion
towards the prioritization of
a race of inferior people in a
traditionally white country. He is
racist in his equivalence of black
music’s historical discussions and
glorifications of aggression with
the illusion of the Black man as
violence incarnate. Michael Dunn
is racist and it is his denial of the
reality of his internalized racism,