Is "it was a perfect storm" really a way to cover up

[gretchenindisguise]

implicit racism?

Bear with me here, this may be disjointed.

I have been talking with a friend back and forth about Tamir Rice, and she said it boiled down to "a perfect storm." It's something that's shown up in several articles too.

While I was researching other links to send her - I started noticing it as a theme in killing of young black men. They were all the results of "a perfect storm."

This is odd, right? Or am I reading too much into it?

John Crawford: www.cnn.com/2014/12/16/justice/walmart-shooting-john-crawford/index.html

Tamir Rice: www.salon.com/2015/12/28/no_charges_grand_jury_refuses_to_indict_policemen_in_fatal_shooting_of_12_year_old_tamir_rice/

Trayvon Martin: www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/Trayvon-Martins-Shooter-Defended-By-Fellow-Neighborhood-Watch-Captain-143579196.html

[UMaineTeach]

My initial reaction is that it's not so much racist as dismissive. Throwing your hands up, not acknowledging the system that created the storm is able to be changed. A very, 'that's just the way it is' attitude.

[NewOrleans]

A perfect storm is a rare, once in 100 years kind of event. As we have seen, killing black people is NOT rare. So yes, I think it is a copout and a way to dismiss root causes without evaluating further or thinking deeply or confronting uncomfortable waters.

I like how you were recognizing patterns of diction.

[gretchenindisguise]

Dec 29, 2015 17:26:52 GMT -5 NewOrleans said:

A perfect storm is a rare, once in 100 years kind of event. As we have seen, killing black people is NOT rare. So yes, I think it is a copout and a way to dismiss root causes without evaluating further or thinking deeply or confronting uncomfortable waters.

I like how you were recognizing patterns of diction.

I get nerdy sometimes.

And I really appreciate you articulating what I was thinking better than I could. Can you hang around my office and help me out on a more regular basis?

[W.T.Faulkner]

A perfect storm of bullshit from "thin blue line" apologists.

The officer who shot and killed Tamir Rice was on the scene for two seconds before he murdered a child whose only crime was being black.

NO ONE should be comfortable living in a country in which an officer in training can fire a lethal weapon after assessing the situation for less than five seconds and get away with not even a motherfucking indictment.

[gretchenindisguise]

Dec 29, 2015 17:30:35 GMT -5 W.T.Faulkner said:

A perfect storm of bullshit from "thin blue line" apologists.

The officer who shot and killed Tamir Rice was on the scene for two seconds before he murdered a child whose only crime was being black.

NO ONE should be comfortable living in a country in which an officer in training can fire a lethal weapon after assessing the situation for less than five seconds and get away with not even a motherfucking indictment.

She's not typically a thin blue line apologist so it surprised me.

[05heel]

Dec 29, 2015 17:39:50 GMT -5 gretchenindisguise said:

Dec 29, 2015 17:30:35 GMT -5 W.T.Faulkner said:

A perfect storm of bullshit from "thin blue line" apologists.

The officer who shot and killed Tamir Rice was on the scene for two seconds before he murdered a child whose only crime was being black.

NO ONE should be comfortable living in a country in which an officer in training can fire a lethal weapon after assessing the situation for less than five seconds and get away with not even a motherfucking indictment.

She's not typically a thin blue line apologist so it surprised me.

that's the thing. The perfect storm can be any assortment of circumstances that fits the narrative that so many people are comfortable with - white people are inherently good and blacks are inherently bad. The only necessary constant is that the victim is black and the perpetrator is white. Anything else is fair game, logical consistency be damned. It's just a softer spin on the same old message. And when people demand change, they're told to wait for a similarly "perfect" storm of circumstances, which, funnily enough, never seem to come together quite as readily. Lol. You're definitely not overthinking anything.