[BLOGS.DETROITNEWS] The recent grand jury decision to not indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson for shooting and killing unarmed teen Michael Brown resulted in protests across the country for those disappointed with the outcome. But for those who believe Wilson’s actions were justified the response was slightly different. There are those, like Ted Nugent, Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck who chose to react with all the class of an Anthony Weiner Twitter photo. Some, like Sean Hannity, took the opportunity to blame President Barack Obama for inciting violence and heightening racial tensions. Others have decided to use their victory lap as a way to “educate” the African American community.
It is this last category of people that are the most frustrating. They avoided the outlandish talking points offered up by conservative race-baiters, but still managed to prove they were completely out of touch with reality. Longtime Fox News contributor Cal Thomas opinioned that the “real problem” for the African American community is that they have “an attitude of victimhood”.
This has been a popular narrative for conservatives — who tend toward victimhood themselves — for a long time. Rather than admit that there are systemic inequalities that make being black in this country inherently unlawful, they bury their heads in the sands of the echo chamber and trivialize this struggle with patronizing rhetoric.
While protesters try and get people to recognize the racial bias of the U.S. legal system that has resulted in the deaths of numerous black men at the hands of law enforcement, conservative media portrays these men as violent thugs and claim it is the officers who are in fact the victim. There is perhaps no bigger disconnect in the mind of these conservative pundits than suggesting the biggest problem in these cases is a “victim mentality” while simultaneously asserting the murderers are the victims.
If you want to see a true victim mentality on the topic of race, look no further than conservatives. These are the people who whine that they can’t say anything about race without being called racist. They also think it is a huge injustice that black people can use the ‘N’ word but they can’t.
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