AnonymousRacism, George Zimmerman, and the Death Penalty
About a week ago, I wrote about all the people who took to the internet to rejoice at the possibility that George Zimmerman might be charged capitally for Trayvon Martin’s murder.
Today, I received the personal confirmation of what I wrote in my original post, namely that “Anyone who opposes the idea that Zimmerman is a monster who needs to be tortured and/or killed is immediately accused of derailing the conversation or of being a racist who supports Zimmerman.”
In other words, I’ve just been notified that I’m a racist.
All of this provides me with an excellent opportunity to write a bit more about this nonsense that supporting some executions makes one a good person while opposing all executions makes one a racist.
See, you’re an absolutist, which is such utter bullshit. Literally every single absolutist principle falls apart in real life morality and situations, because life does not run on formulas.
It’s racist for a white person to dictate how PoC, especially Black people, should react to racism.
It would be further racist application of the death penalty when Troy Davis (among others) was executed (as he was) if George Zimmerman is allowed to live. Because of the way societal forces are aligned, a push to prevent Zimmerman’s execution is far, far more likely to succeed than the push to prevent, say, Davis’s or Reggie Clemons’s executions.
This means that any push to prevent Zimmerman’s execution is a push to continue applying the death penalty in a racist way, and not a push to end the racist application of the death penalty. Because Zimmerman is protected by white supremacy ingrained into US culture and application of US law, stopping his execution will be of no benefit to the PoC (mostly, specifically Black) victims of the death penalty. Preventing Zimmerman’s execution will only have the effect of upholding white supremacy. Zimmerman being allowed to live does not bring us any closer to a world or even country without executions than executing him would.
Holding to a principle of how we should act in a perfect world does not always advance us closer to it. So, yes, putting the principle that there should be no death penalty above anti-racism is a racist act. I, too, oppose the death penalty. But anyone whose anti-death-penalty politics are not firmly grounded in anti-racism is no comrade of mine.
First of all, let me make perfectly clear that I’m not telling anyone how to feel about George Zimmerman. If you feel that George Zimmerman deserves to die, that’s fine; lots of people feel that way. But our justice system shouldn’t cater to people’s feelings; it ought to be dispassionate.
It is remarkably dispassionate when the victims are people of color. Dispassion is not always a good thing.
When we say someone deserves to die, what we’re saying is that an offense has been committed that is so far beyond the range of normal behavior that we can’t even begin to imagine the worldview of the offender and we can’t imagine continuing to occupy the same plane of existence.
Uh, no. That’s a leap. When I say [x] deserves to die, I mean that’s the only form of justice left. I mean they don’t deserve to live anymore. That doesn’t mean I can’t empathize with them or imagine their worldview.
I don’t want to be read as saying these feelings are abnormal. Indeed, it’s quite normal to want to express our solidarity with the families of murder victims, make clear our outrage at the terrible crime that has been committed, ensure our safety, and punish these offenders for what they’ve done. But I think there’s a disconnect between these normal feelings and the desire to punish in a manner that causes the most suffering and that strips the offender of his human dignity.
What about the human dignity of his victims? What about the human dignity of Trayvon Martin? What about the human dignity of his mother and his parents and his family, who will always be scarred by Zimmerman’s actions? Why aren’t you defending their dignity?
Indeed, here’s a brief exerpt from my original post:
[W]hen so many people have prematurely tried, convicted, and sentenced George Zimmerman to death with such joy, I’m reminded once again how far removed we are from a time when we might conceive of justice as more than simply the paying back of violence with violence. When we gloat over the dead bodies we’ve managed to pile up — regardless of the reason that led to those deaths — we’re really celebrating the basest part of our nature.
[…]
Personally, I’d like to see Americans reflecting on the idea of justice and the proper role of compassion, on why corpses are the only possible validation for so many of us, on what a society that applauds a body count is ultimately missing, on the prejudices and privilege that allow us to cheer and sing when others die … but we’re so very far away from doing any of those things right now because, despite all the killing that’s happening all around us and in our names, our bloodlust somehow still hasn’t been sated.
I’m not clear on why writing about the difference between justice and vengeance amounts to racist or derailing behavior, and I suspect that my critics aren’t clear on it either. The entirety of their argument amounts to the claim that any response that deviates from their feelings, or from the feelings of some people of color, is a racist one that derails people of color from having the conversation they want to have.
See, here’s the thing. Riley wrote a while back on how vengeance can be justice, and I very much agree with them. Furthermore, I see no reason why vengeance is only unjust when the people who want vengeance are Black. Apply your own damn principles evenly, or stop claiming you have them.
From their perspective, I ought to be focusing on people of color who face execution (I do, allthetime)
Yeah, that doesn’t excuse your actions. Defending child murderers because the death penalty is racist is like saying that serial killers shouldn’t be arrested because of police brutality. It’s not actually a logical argument.
and on the racism of the death penalty (again, there are fiften pages of death penalty posts for you to look through). They claim that opposing the death penalty for George Zimmerman (who isn’t considered a person of color by my critics because he looks white) “is a push to continue applying the death penalty in a racist way, and not a push to end the racist application of the death penalty.” In other words, because Troy Davis was executed — and that was racist — then we must also execute George Zimmerman, or we will be reenforcing the racism of the death penalty.
Wow, reading comprehension is difficult for you. I’m unsurprised you consider yourself an academic.
This is nonsense.
The death penalty is racist. Full stop. People of color are disproportionately represented on death row and an offender is much more likely to be tried capitally in a case with a white victim. But putting more white people on death row or putting to death more offenders who kill people of color in prominent cases like this one isn’t going to solve what is ultimately a systemic problem.
Killing white people won’t kill racism, but, frankly, changing the race ratio of the death penalty would, in fact, change the race ratio of the death penalty. Arguing with tautologies is not logical.
Let me reiterate my position, then: No one ought to be strapped down and poisoned to death by the government, regardless of the color of their skin or the color of their victim’s skin. The death penalty system as a whole is racist, arbitrary, and unfair. I oppose it in all cases, not in a manner that picks and chooses cases that make me feel better or worse.
Then why are you, in specific, defending George Zimmerman? Because that looks an awful lot to me like a white person who cares less about a child murdered because that child was Black and was killed for it. That says to me that Trayvon Martin’s human dignity, Trayvon Martin’s right to not be killed by the government, Trayvon Martin’s unfair slaughter in a racist world matters less to you than the possible execution of a man who murdered a child and has shown no remorse for it.
Furthermore, I suggest you go see “anti-Blackness in Latin@s” because you and many other white critics are massively missing the point. Until then, kindly stop talking.
