I’m listening to the audiobook of New Nigeria County by Clare Brown. It’s a satire I found on Audible.com about a Black woman who calls 911 on a White youth in her neighborhood. She assumes he’s a gang member because he’s wearing cargo shorts. Whites are marginalized in the community. For instance, Blacks tell them their names are difficult to pronounce, and Europe and European culture are disparaged. The book plays off of race-based stereotypes, and to some degree, gender-based stereotypes too. The things I like best about it so far are the writing and the readers/actors. Inflections in the voices of the actors made me chuckle, and several clever jokes stood out. Try it if you like satire.
I’m following the story about George Floyd. It’s unbelievable that he was choked on a sidewalk for eight minutes by police. The cops first said Floyd was resisting arrest, but I saw the video compiled by the New York Times. It does show that Floyd flopped on the ground, but it also shows that the officers were able to put him in the police vehicle. Then, he was dragged out of the vehicle and held down by two officers while another knelt on Floyd’s neck. The whole thing makes no sense.
Here are some questions I still don’t see answers for:
1. Why did Derek Chauvin kneel on Floyd’s neck even after handcuffing him? As onlookers pointed out in the video, Floyd was already on the ground in handcuffs. Why the need to inflict suffering on him? Plus, how could Chauvin have thought he could get away with this? There were onlookers and even people filming. The audacity of his actions angers and baffles me.
2. What were the other complaints already on Chauvin’s record? Has he been accused of using excessive force before? Also, he looked so comfortable with choking Floyd that it makes me worry that this isn’t the first time he’s knelt on a person’s neck. I’m waiting for others to come forward and report that he choked them, too. There’s already a report from NBC news that says since 2015 Minneapolis police have used neck restraints at least 237 times, and that during this period they choked forty-four people unconscious.
Thanks to a lovely email from a magazine called Creative Nonfiction, I received links to some very helpful resources that are highly educational in the areas of racism and racial profiling and the Black Lives Matter Movement. If you’re interested in learning more or helping, here are some links:
Monic Ductan 