He was 30 years old.
— Ayanna Pressley (@AyannaPressley) May 4, 2023
Black men deserve to grow old—not be lynched on a Subway because they were having a mental health crisis.
Jordan deserved better. Accountability now. pic.twitter.com/aX5qcryrbx
Black men certainly deserve to grow old. So do black women, white women, and white men. So do all others, regardless of gender/sex and ethnicity. (They don't deserve to die violently on a subway nor after eating at Subway, a reference suggesting Ayanna Presley never has ridden on the first).
Reacting to the black lives movement of the second half of 2020, a few whites would express the notion that "All Lives Matter." They were typically derided and mocked as being racist.
The tweet by Pressley, an educated and accomplished individual, may as well have been posted to justify that slogan. Here is a United States congresswoman who could have easily stated "young people deserve to grow old." But, no, when attempting to stoke racial resentment, nothing works quite as efficiently as limiting your wish to "black men." It leaves out a whole lot of people, as it is intended to do.
And of course, the death of Jordan Neely wasn't a lynching, as a member of the United States Congress should know, as she does. A black woman is no more (nor less) justified in using strategically, and dangerous, language The imagery of a lynching is especially gruesome, however, thus particularly effective at stirring anger. The following were Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith in 1930 in Indiana. I'll say their names. Pressley won't.
Were the congresswoman aware of this post, she might complain that as a black American, she would know more about lynching than I do. It is at that point I'd note that as a white person, I can assure her that there may be no more enduring stereotype of African-Americans than that of a smiling black guy cutting a rug like no one's business. Congratulations to Representative Pressley for reinforcing that puerile image.
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