As yet another act of senseless violence in Chicago makes national headlines, my mind drifts back to a CNN segment from 2015. It had been just days since Dylann Roof gunned down black parishioners in Charleston, South Carolina. Most newscasters on location focused almost exclusively on black grief, protest, and forgiveness amid a historically fraught act of racial terrorism against black churches.
But now we must also reckon with the brutal torture and kidnapping of a young white man who reportedly has a developmental disability—an incident that took place on Chicago’s west side and was broadcast on Facebook Live for the world to see. According to initial reports, the four black youths in the video struck the victim while saying he “represents Trump.” “Fuck Donald Trump!” they shouted, “Fuck white people!”
Such extreme expressions of black anger are relatively rare, because even peaceful protests are met with extreme blowback, brutality, and condemnation—such as when demonstrators in Ferguson were tear-gassed by a militarized police force, or when the Trump camp characterized protests at his Chicago campaign stop as a “riot,” or when activists were cursed out by Michigan Avenue shoppers on Black Friday.
Similarly the attackers in the Facebook Live case were swiftly arrested and charged. A who’s who of elected officials from Mayor Emanuel to President Obama have condemned the video forcefully. The public has rallied around the victim’s family, including his grandmother, who was visibly shaken while speaking to NBC 5. “I have no idea what kind of impact it’s going to have on his future,” she said. A #BLMKidnapping hashtag surfaced after the video made the rounds, even though the Black Lives Matter movement had absolutely nothing to do with the tragic incident.
It’s only when that anger turns to violence that white people start paying attention. And then, their retribution is swift.
