The racial context in the shooting death of 17-year-old Jordan Davis is in black and white.
BLOG: Jordan Davis Isn’t Trayvon Martin, But Isn’t Michael Dunn The New George Zimmerman?
The fact that a 45-year-old white man with a concealed weapons license is pleading self-defense after shooting a young Black man because he felt “threatened,” speaks volumes. We saw this exact same scenario occur earlier this year, when George Zimmerman, a white (looking) man, shot Trayvon Martin, a black teen armed with Skittles and ice tea. Even in 2012, we’re taught to fear Black men in America who are stereotyped as threats and thugs. As a consequence, innocent African-American boys like Trayvon and Jordan are murdered.
On Wednesday, Current TV brought the racial implications surrounding the death of Jordan Davis to light in a discussion featuring Cenk Uygur, TYT’s Ana Kasparian, Current TV contributor and Brown University professor Tricia Rose, and Avvo.com legal analyst Lisa Bloom.
During the discussion, Cenk made a great point:
“Remind me which race went to somebody else’s home, kidnapped them, put them in chains and violently kept them enslaved?” asked Cenk. “And white people get so mad when you bring this up. … You know what they immediately did in the news stories? They said, ‘Oh, the kid was not in a gang.’ Why is there an assumption that the black kid is in a gang? When a 17-year-old white kid gets shot, do they write, ‘Well, the white kid was not in a gang’? The assumption is, of course, it must have been the black person who is violent. But it was a black person who was shot and killed! When I talk about slavery, I’m not saying you did it. But look at the ramifications when you still have that stereotype against black people today. Not 200 years ago, not 400 years ago, but today.”
Watch the video clip above.
