that was the “justification” for his murder – but i would be highly suspect about the idea that till whistled at any one. even that wikipedia article states he probably didn’t and suggests various other things that might have happened.
i’m not sure what your point is.
the prior poster said the “pedestrian who “whistled” at the soldier’s wife” – so, the post as read suggests that the victim did something other than simply exist. perhaps not “whistle” but surely “something”.
the man was simply out walking, just like ahmaud arbery was simply out running. there would be no reasonable justification for what happened to either of them ( arbery was killed by his assailants. ) but there isn’t even the thinest basis for an “encounter gone wrong”.
that’s how completely f-d america’s everyday racism is. existence triggers it. nothing else needed.
i don’t know. maybe the point is too subtle for an internet forum, or too besides the point because there is no justification for assault or murder. full stop.
it just there feels like an undercurrent of “surely the victim must have done something” and the truth is – no, the victims didn’t have to do anything. there are some people that are awful. and those people feel empowered by all of the politics and rhetoric that exists in their bubble.
Right? And most of the time, that’s the case. Even in cases where the victim “did something” the reaction is usually a violent, often life-ending over reaction.
People having cameras is sousveillance. People are not the state.
What is it we are always told by those with power? If you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear. If that is true then what do people with power have to fear from being recorded by us?
It infuriates me to no end that Carolyn Bryant, Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam are all still alive and free today. I hope that every moment they continue to live is filled with bad karma and suffering…
With all due respect, you misread their post. They were alluding to excuses that are made by white folks when they assault and/or kill POC. They noted that back when there wasn’t a ready-made video camera in everyone’s pocket, they could get away with that excuse, since there wasn’t any evidence to the contrary.
Please check out all links before jumping to conclusions!
It was the young Black man’s friend who recorded the video. Not the soldier’s wife. The Good Morning America clip mentions it and even has a statement from her.
I was going to respond to your first post a day ago, explaining that @deltaecho was saying that if there hadn’t been video footage, and the kid were injured or killed, it would have just been justified on some flimsy excuse like the kid whistled at the white lady, as has happened to black teenagers and men in the US for over a hundred years.
But then I saw that two others had responded to say the same thing, so I didn’t, figured you must have understood by then. I guess I should have chimed in with the others after all.
I really don’t think @deltaecho original post was all that subtle. Sometimes when we read things expecting to read something else, though, it can be hard to unsee our original expectations.
Doesn’t say it happened, because it did not happen. However, without video, and in a 1950’s era mindset, that could have easily been an excuse to lynch the young man and no one would have blinked. That’s the “alternative history” here.
i appreciate that different people read things differently, especially when words are typed as opposed to spoken. i asked for clarification from the poster, never received it, and multiple people wrote on their behalf already.
i apologize if anything i wrote was interpreted as a criticism of the poster. i tried to articulate my point and the greater context. if i failed, the fault is obviously mine.
Here’s some additional information that states the young man had allegedly touched a young girl without her permission and picked up someone’s baby without permission, and that he had a medical condition that caused him to do those things. It doesn’t justify the soldier’s behavior, but may shed some light as to why the soldier confronted the man in the first place.
Edit: Added additional wording to avoid further confusion.
