Gun nuts like me
The gun control movement seems to be building some steam. Ever since Sandy Hook, there seems to be a new consistency to the drumbeat for change in this arena. This past election season, former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg funneled a few million of his billions into television ads targeting pro-gun candidates. I feel, however, like I'm moving against this cultural tide. I feel as if there are definitely Americans out there that should consider arming themselves. They're called African-Americans.
The idea of such a militarized and undisciplined state lording itself over a populace unarmed seems to me an increasingly imperfect idea. This country is not obscenely violent because of the citizenry's access to firearms. It's obscenely violent because the government for, of, and by the people cheapens life through the perpetual machinery of war and its commitment to frequent public executions. My problem with the pro-gun rights movement, however, is its utterly-reliable and inexhaustive racism. Absolutely no high-profile gun advocates-- no gun libertarians, no reactionary politicians, no NRA representatives, no Ted Nugents-- have spoken out against the government-sponsored murders of Michael Brown, Darrien Hunt, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, John Crawford, and others.
Crawford was the black man viewed as a danger and shot dead by police in an Ohio Walmart because he was carrying a gun through the store that happened to be a product available for purchase in said store, and one that he had recently taken off one of the store's shelves. Walmart has infamously promoted the fact that the corporation allows weapons to be open-carried in their stores if the store is located in a state in which such an act is permissible by law. But that sublime and popular act of strutting while packed would seem to be a privilege enjoyed only by white people. The idea of a black man walking armed with a gun into, around, or out of a retail store anywhere in the United States strikes me as outlandish. There's been only one "arm yourself" social movement during the course of the National Rifle Association's 15-decade existence that did not get the advocacy group's very public endorsement, and that was the Black Panther movement.
If they were carrying real guns, would Brown, Hunt, Garner, or Rice still be alive? Likely not. But knowing that I live on the safe and comfortable side of the tracks in a divisive, brutally-racist society, I can't, in good conscience, be the white guy that counsels young black men not to arm themselves. Are my fellow white Americans not irrationally terrified of young black men? And would a higher percentage of these young men carrying heat not terrify white America all the more? Yes. And probably. But Martin Luther King Jr. came to them in peace, and in the spirit of non-violence, and they murdered him too.
There is a slaughter happening out there. These stories of police brutality are popping up daily. I don't own a gun, and I never will. It never even crosses my mind to get one. But then I'm not a target of law enforcement. I enjoy the all-American privilege of being white.
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Looked like a good kid: If you have Twitter, look this one up: #CrimingWhileWhite. White brothers and white sisters of strong social conscience are posting their stories about instances in which police let them get away with ridiculous shit thanks to the color of their skin. My favorites are the ones we most take for granted as white people, those such as Alex Halpern's, "Played with realistic guns my entire childhood, wherever we wanted. #CrimingWhileWhite." Another favorite is this one: "Shoplifted when I was a teenager. Was apprehended but never charged because I looked "like a good kid."
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Another under-reported example of white privilege: The sport of hunting. If you're white, you certainly know several people that like to hit the great outdoors this time of year, every year, to sack themselves a deer, a moose, or an elegant bird. Black people won't do this. They don't go hunting. They're not "big into it." I looked up the topic of black people hunting on Yahoo! Answers. Whites there seem to agree that the aversion of black people to hunting game is cultural. "Larry" wrote four years ago, "The 19th Century paradigm of blacks hunting for meat they often couldn't afford to purchase, will be seen as low class by relatively newly monied black families easily able to hunt at the supermarket in dignity and panache. Only when the values and traditions of warrior-class and independent-minded individualists become perceived as superior to necktied Lemming's herd behavior deadend thinking, will progressive blacks take that step forward by taking that step seemingly backward, by generally more of them getting into hunting!"
Inspired thinking, "Larry." No sarcasm. This is some world wide web-epic armchair quarterbacking. And you left out only one element, but a big one. If a black "sportsman" goes marching into a rural environment holding a rifle with both his hands, it won't matter if he's dressed himself in fatigues or a bright neon orange jumpsuit. White people in that immediate vicinity are liable to lose their shit.
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Headline: "Sony cancels the December 25th release of 'The Interview.'" American state-sponsored assassinations are an unfortunate, disgraceful reality, and Seth Rogen is the un-funniest man in Hollywood, but I don't think anybody is going to call this action a profile in courage.
posted by CM @ 9:21 PM
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