Prof Claims ‘Black Men Dying’ Due to Whites not ‘Policing’ Their Imaginations
It sounds like someone has an active imagination, that’s for sure.
The College Fix reports.
USC English prof/poet: ‘Black men dying’ due to whites not ‘policing’ their imaginations
Claudia Rankine, the Aerol Arnold Chair of English at the University of Southern California, is also an award-winning poet.
Her book, Citizen: An American Lyric, was the winner of the National Book Critics’ Circle poetry award, and in a recent interview with The Guardian’s Kate Kellaway, Rankine was asked about a rather interesting line from the work:
“Because white men can’t/ police their imagination/ black men are dying.”
What was in your mind when you wrote that line?
When white men are shooting black people, some of it is malice and some an out-of-control image of blackness in their minds. Darren Wilson told the jury that he shot Michael Brown because he looked “like a demon”. And I don’t disbelieve it. Blackness in the white imagination has nothing to do with black people.
Why is it so hard to call out racism?
Because making other people uncomfortable is thought worse than racism. It has taken me a while to train myself to speak out.
Making people uncomfortable is “worse than racism”? If anything, discomfort most likely comes from (whites, typically) being worried about accusations of racism.
Rankine also provides virtually no context about why she was stopped once at an airport, where she claimed racial profiling:
“You can’t know – but they stopped me. Then they said: ‘Go.’ No explanation. When I said: ‘I’m being racially profiled’, the official asked: ‘Why are you saying that?’ And he did look chagrined.”
USC English prof/poet: ‘Black men dying’ due to whites not ‘policing’ their imaginations (The College Fix)
Comments
Oh, is that why Baltimore and Chicago had such an increase in the number of people shot? Imagination kills people. Who knew! Colleges are hiring too many dumb profs.
I cry when I think of all the black children who died because I used to play Dungeons and Dragons.
How many awards has she won because she is black? Probably, all of them. She is ignorant and dangerous.
“When white men are shooting black people, some of it is malice and some an out-of-control image of blackness in their minds. Darren Wilson told the jury that he shot Michael Brown because he looked “like a demon”. And I don’t disbelieve it. Blackness in the white imagination has nothing to do with black people.”
So the fact that Michael Brown was trying to murder Officer Wilson when he was killed had nothing to do with the officer’s motivation?
Little imagination was needed to produce the demon image as the 300lb stoned out of his mind thug was smashing the face of the police officer and wrestling for the police officer’s service weapon, then after being shot and backing away continued in a second attack towards him in a charge.