By now you have probably seen memes asking why a white child killed by a black man hasn’t brought people out in the streets. “Why does George Floyd’s life matter, but not Cannon Hinnant’s?” the meme asks.
That this trope chooses for comparison a crime in which a black man is accused of killing a white child is no accident.
There was a day not long ago in this country where a black man accused of a crime against a white person did – as the meme suggests – bring protesters into the streets. And they brought with them ropes.
I’m not talking about some hazy, distant past history. I’m talking about within our own lifetimes, and those of our parents or grandparents.
This trope is a huge dog whistle harkening back to those days. It may not be consciously noted by many who pass it on – in fact I would bet most would vehemently swear that neither they, nor the trope itself, is racist; and that they honestly, deeply believe so – but there’s a reason it struck them so viscerally, and they identified with it so strongly, that they felt the need to share it.
That is the essence of institutional racism. It so permeates our culture people don’t even consciously realize it’s there, but yet it affects how they view reality.
For once, I said it nicely.
Thanks to an author anonymized* by multiple Facebook shares, here’s something more akin to my usual writings:
Cannon Hinnant.
Seeing a lot of mutuals sharing that post comparing a cop murdering George Floyd to the murder of a white child by a Black man. The post that’s asking why the murder of George Floyd matters but “Cannon’s didn’t”
I see that you still don’t get the message.
Justice doesn’t need served for Cannon…because his murderer has already been charged.
Protesting for Cannon isn’t needed because he wasn’t murdered by a cop. He wasn’t a Black child murdered by the system built to fail him.
Our country all stands united on murdering a child is wrong.
Our country clearly STILL doesn’t stand united on Black people being murdered by the people we pay to “protect and serve.”
No one questions why a child was murdered. No one justifies a child being murdered by their past or their behavior. But I sure see a lot of people saying “well if you’d follow the law…” “did he resist?” “He was a drug addict.”
No shit, a child being murdered is disgusting. But don’t you dare compare that murder to a Black man being murdered by a cop.
What really bothers you is that you sit united with the whole world on Cannon, but Black Lives Matter makes you uncomfortable because your humanity is being questioned because you’re cool with Black people being murdered under the “right” circumstances.
Fuck child murderers. Yesterday. Today. Tomorrow.
Black Lives Matter. Yesterday. Today. Tomorrow.
But don’t you dare compare the two.
* If anyone knows the author of this piece, please let me know so I can attribute it