I have just recently read an article on Buzzfeed, a website I'm struggling to support. But, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to read just what it was about. I first read the words Brody Jenner Asked Why "Everything is about race" and I think I scared a passerby with my disgusted reaction. I had to read what Brody thought about how annoying it must be that everything today is about race. I can't even imagine how utterly ridiculous it must be to just hear about it!
It turns out that Brody Jenner shared an Instagram post that his friend, Taylor Mosher, created. In response to two fatal shootings of Terence Crutcher and Keith Lamont Scott, black men, Mosher posted an Instagram comment saying:
"...this is just ridiculous. I can’t even watch the news anymore without getting pissed off. This has nothing to do with race. White, black, brown, any color…if you have an officer of the law telling you to exit your vehicle (or do anything for that matter)…you comply. And not only do you comply, but you do so willingly and follow directions completely. And why in the world would you exit that vehicle with a weapon in hand (allegedly?!) That makes no sense! And if, let’s just say, you DON’T have a gun, why would you not put your hands up in the air and state “I do not have a gun” so that the officers can clearly see that you don’t??"
He decided to go further by saying that the world is getting out of hand with race. He states that he is, in fact, not racist.
It's hard for me to even begin with how fucking wrong both Jenner and Mosher are. First, a police officer RARELY NEEDS TO SHOOT ANYONE! If an officer is worried for his life because a black man is stepping out of his vehicle backwards, or pinned down to the ground, or wearing a fucking hoodie, then he needs to reevaluate his career choices or go back to the academy. I have said it before and I will say it again: The police have always suffered from a superiority complex. Somehow they see people as criminals and mass murderers before people. Their translation of "protect and serve" somehow becomes "all criminals must die" and that really confuses me. If you need to apprehend someone and they are following orders, you don't need to shoot. If they appear dangerous, if they are holding a weapon, try, I don't know, shooting them in the arm first before shooting them in the chest five times. Pulling the trigger shouldn't be every cops go to.
Do you know why they stopped Keith Lamont Scott? They saw him rolling a blunt. A BLUNT. Such a dangerous thing, I know. Obviously they needed to approach him with guns drawn.
But this is not the point. They point is that Jenner and his buddy Mosher are somehow unable to see a connection between race and these shootings. They have the outrageous audacity to be annoyed by something they are lucky enough to not affect them. How grand it must be to wave that white male privilege around.
I would just love, you know, for people to stop telling black people that our experiences aren't real. Especially when we are constantly given proof that our experiences exist.
It's so painfully obvious that neither of these men have educated themselves on systemic racism and oppression. They don't understand the system has been built against people of color. I always have this weird moment of pity for people like this, so deep into their own problems to recognize others.
Let me end with this: Everything has been about race since the colonizers first stepped foot into territories where they did not belong. It will always be about race until the system changes and people of color need to fear for their lives whenever the police stop by.
