The other night, four Chicago teens brutally tortured a mentally disabled person publicly via Facebook Live. We all should be disgusted and horrified in response to this violent action. The teens have been arrested and being charged with a hate crime. As emotions (and racism) are running deep with this horrifying event, some people were very quick to point fingers.
"#BLMKilling" was trending on Facebook and Twitter. Many (white) people were pointing fingers at the Black Lives Matter movement because in the video, the teens were exclaiming "F*ck Trump!" and "F*ck white people!" At no point in the video did the teens ever say that they were representing Black Lives Matter. Just because the teens are black and are anti-Trump does not mean that they represent the Black Lives Matter movement. Also, the Black Lives Matter movement isn't "anti-white." The reason why "anti-white" is in quotations is because it corresponds with reverse racism which is the false belief that white people can be negatively impacted by racism. The hashtag was created to again falsely label the movement as a terrorist organization. Some went as far as using and spreading fake mugshots of the suspects. The leading activists of the Black Lives Matters movement even came out to say that they condemn the actions of the group as we all should. So black people along with members of the Black Lives Matter movement do not owe anyone an apology for the actions of a few.
What's funny though is that many white people want to generalize and penalize whole groups of people for the actions of a few. White people want to generalize black people as monsters for one event or for crimes that have been statistically proven to be committed at relatively the same rates as white people. Or how white people stereotype Muslims for terrorists. But you don't see many minorities associating white people with the KKK nor do they demand apologies for their actions. It's hilarious how Dylann Roof can murder a slew of black people out of racism and white people and the media seek to humanize him into a "troubled soul" who "needs help" but as soon as a black person is merely involved in a headline then it's instantly their fault.
What's also hysterical about white people's reactions is how they reacted (or had lack of reaction) to when a white high school football player raped and murdered his disabled black teammate and called him a plethora of racial epithets and even taunted him with a KKK song. Again, the mainstream media wasn't to be found but common excuses made for the man was that "boys will be boys". The football player escaped a prison sentence and charges of rape and murder by only getting probation.
I'm absolutely cackling at the fact how President-Elect Trump, the messiah for white republicans, literally mocked and humiliated disabled reporter at one of his rallies a couple years ago. People laughed with him and did not care for the regard of the reporter. This just proves that white people are more concerned about maintaining their bigotry than the well-being of others.
I know what some people are thinking. "You really cannot compare the brutal public torture of a disabled person to mocking a disabled person." Saying that is similar to saying "You really cannot compare a lynching of a black person to calling a black person the n-word." The two events are comparable. Just because one action is physically violent and psychologically more violent than the other doesn't mean that they cannot be compared. One analogy pertains solely to racism and the other to ableism.
Ableism is defined by "discrimination or prejudice against disabled people, particularly those with physical disabilities, in favor of those considered to be able-bodied." The point I'm making is that the torture wasn't out of racism but out of ableism. Racism is institutionalized to reproduce the same ethics of oppression in a social structure in order to keep the superiority powerful, privileged, and prejudiced. It is an act of ableism against an innocent victim. On the record I am no way defending the teens' actions as I'm deeply disgusted by what had happened. I'm just calling it by how it is.
Link to a clip of the video of the torture can be seen below.
WARNING: Brutal torture, emotional distress, humiliation
http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/05/us/chicago-facebook-...
