What Happens When Black Rage Becomes Uncontrollable?

Now that my intensive summer course (on civil rights by the way) is over I have time to reflect upon recent events in the ongoing drama over race and law enforcement in this country.

On June 14th a gunman opened fire on Republican Congress members practicing for the annual softball game against Democrats. Congressman Steve Scalise, was critically wounded, but the gunman was was killed by two African American Capitol police officers. In quick succession over the next two weeks, we saw police officers in the Twin Cities and Milwaukee, one white and one Latino, acquitted in the killings of unarmed black men. And in Cincinnati we saw a second mistrial in another case where a university policeman killed an another unarmed black man.

Two intellectuals of African descent responded on social media to these events. Johnny Williams, a sociologist at Trinity College in Connecticutt, responded to an online article in which the anonymous author disapproved of the actions of the Capitol police saying:

     “If you see them (whites) drowning. If you see them in a burning building. If they are
     bleeding out in an emergency room. If the ground is crumbling beneath them. If they
     are in a park and they turn their weapons on each other: do nothing,” ... Let Them
      Fucking Die!"

So Williams didn't actually say "let them die" himself. He did however, offer that he was ...

     “fed the fuck up with self-identified ‘white’s’ daily violence directed at immigrants,
     Muslims, and sexual and racially oppressed people," (and) ...  “the time is now to
     confront these inhuman assholes and end this now.”

After his post went viral in conservative social media, Williams receive death threats and has since taken his family into hiding. He has also been placed on Administrative leave by the college pending investigations.

Then there is the case of Marlon James, Jamaican professor of English at MacAlester College, and winner of the prestigious Booker Prize for English literature. In an online article entitled "Smaller, Smaller and Smaller," James shares his confusion following the recent acquittals and the mistrial.

    " Do I kneel and get shot? Do I reach for my ID and get shot? Do I say I’m an English
     teacher and get shot? Do I tell them everything I am about to do, and get shot? Do I
     assume that seven of them will still feel threatened by one of me, and get shot? ...
     (Finally) Do I fold my arms and squeeze myself into smaller and get shot?"

James offered us an almost traumatic befuddlement over what black men can do to be safe. He comes across as very reasonable. In contrast, Williams' suggestion that blacks should do nothing when they see whites in life-threatening danger, seems harsh and even inhumane. But when Williams implores blacks not to protect those whose system does not protect them, and James wonders what he can do to secure his black body, they both call attention to what can be done to dismantle institutional racism in law enforcement in this country.

Ta-Nehishi Coates makes a similar to Williams near the end of his Between the World and Me. He calls white people "dreamers," because they believe in the American Dream and can't see how institutions built to assure it systematically oppress black people. Coates also advises his son not to be concerned about white people, but to worry about securing his black body.

White anti-racist educator Robin DiAngelo has written a seminal training manual called What it Means to be White. She talks about active versus passive anti-racism. Average white people; the decent people who teach their kids to treat everyone the same and not see color are passive-anti-racist. They don't actively work to change our racist institutions, elect anti-racist politicians or call out racism when they see it in their day to day lives.

As jury after jury fails to convict black people being murdered by the men in blue, as they allow gross racialized inequities in school funding, as some white people systematically work to suppress the POC vote, and other whites sit back and allow it to happen, one cand see why Coates calls "yall" Dreamers, and Williams supports his kind of black passive humanism, when white folks are in danger. As a black university professor who has been teaching students to assertively work the system since Ferguson, I also wonder if I can continue to sell that argument?

This country is in trouble. I add my voice soon to the debate about the rest of what's wrong with America ... but for now, your thoughts?