Was Sandra Bland guilty of "driving while black"?

[Happy Monkey]

There will, however, be the same story again, with different people.

Plus, with the poorly edited video, and the botched autopsy, this story may have more than a week left to it.

[gvidas]

Sure, the same basic narrative -- white supremacy kills again -- will bubble up in the news. Probably real soon.

In my experience, the more that I pay attention to that narrative, the more I realize how omnipresent it is. It's like picking at peeling paint in an old, old house. The roots of white supremacy run deep in the USA; the effects are everywhere; and the current forms are sometimes subtle but always close at hand.

Focusing on the delivery of the narrative -- say, that our news media is reactionary, hot-take heavy, fickle, and just in it for the $$$ -- serves to undermine the point without addressing it. I see it as very similar to the confederate flag issue getting diverted into one about free speech.

I think the biggest obstacle to dismantling white supremacy in the US is that essentially every white person in the country benefits. Some more than others, but usually the benefit is proportional to ones social or political standing. Why should anyone vote or otherwise mobilize against their own self interest?

[xoxoxoBruce]

Hey now, don't disparage our long proud tradition of shooting ourselves in the foot.