Emmett, Trayvon, and Brock: Reading Symbols And Analyzing Analogies
Two books that I recently read, WHEN THEY CALL YOU A TERRORIST, by BlackLivesMatter co-founder Patrisse Khan-Cullors, and REST IN POWER, by Trayvon Martin's parents, Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, compare Trayvon to fifties murder victim Emmett Till. The similarities are obvious. They were both innocent teenagers whose senseless murders helped launch civil rights movements. In both cases, the murderers were tried and found not guilty, so both young boys became symbols of racial injustice. And the mothers of both murdered boys played active roles in publicizing their sons' murders.
There are, however, some major differences between the two cases. Trayvon's father Tracy was as visible as his mother Sybrina in the fight to bring their son's killer to justice and later to prevent other parents from experiencing what he and his ex-wife had to endure. While the two men who killed Emmett went looking for him in his relatives' home and tortured and beat him, the fatal encounter between Trayvon and George Zimmerman was briefer and less sadistic. Most important, Zimmerman suspected that Trayvon was a burglar, possibly a gang member, or on drugs. He was not hunting the young black boy because he thought he had raped or insulted his wife. (Ironically, Trayvon's female friend, who was listening to the encounter on the telephone, thought George might be a pervert, seeking to rape her friend.) The men who hunted and tortured fourteen-year-old Emmett were defending a white woman who (probably because she didn't like his light-colored eyes or his superior northern black boy attitude) falsely accused him of whistling at her.
A passage in Khan-Cullors' book drew my attention (not for the first time) to the primary difference between Trayvon and Emmett--the role played by a white woman and sex in the younger black boy's murder. In making her case that black boys and men are given harsher prison sentences often for relatively minor crimes, Khan-Cullors mentioned Brock Turner. Like too many people who comment on the privileged former Stanford student's case, the black activist used "alternative facts." She claimed that the drunken Emily Doe was raped when she wasn't and said that her brother, who had broken the furniture of a paralyzed woman (his son's mother), and an eighteen-year-old acquaintance, who was found guilty of robbery, didn't hurt anyone while Brock did. That's a ludicrous statement; if by hurt, she means physically hurt, then Turner's crime also didn't involve physical injury. But having one's furniture destroyed and being robbed can cause the same kind of emotional injury as having to discuss a "sexual assault" (even one that you don't actually remember) during court hearings and a trial.
At first glance, Brock Turner seems to have nothing in common with Emmett Till. First of all, he's alive and was never physically injured. Second, he's a privileged, rich white guy who received the best defense money could buy. And third, he wasn't completely innocent since he was illegally and publicly drunk, and he pawed a drunk woman. Maybe he thought she was giving consent, but it's just as likely that he was drunkenly taking advantage of her. Still, his fate shows how dangerous white women can be, especially when sex is involved. Turner is alive, but he is now a registered sex offender and a poster boy for white privilege and sexual perversion just because he pawed a privileged, narcissistic, spiteful white woman who decided to turn her drunk ass into an innocent victim and him into a pervert. It worked only because she was a privileged white woman. It's true that if Brock had been a young black man (he wouldn't have to change his name), he probably would have been given a harsher sentence after Ms. Doe's lengthy, well-written drama queen victim statement, but it's even more likely that if he had drunkenly pawed a black, brown, or working-class white woman, he wouldn't have been arrested. In fact, she might have been arrested for public drunkenness. If Zimmerman, who had once attacked a police officer, could turn himself into a victim after murdering a teenager, walking home from the store, carrying candy and fruit juice, certainly champion swimmer, never-before-arrested, Stanford student Brock's lawyers could make him the victim of a drunk black, brown, or poor white woman.
Even though lawyers and judges have made it clear that the sentencing for Brock Turner was appropriate for a first time offender committing sexual assault, he has been portrayed (as he was in Khan-Cullors' book) as receiving a too light sentence. In fact, the judge who sentenced him was recalled due to a campaign led by a friend of the well-connected, drunk "victim." Turner's fate reminds me of a passage in another recently read book, former White House stenographer Beck Dorey-Stein's FROM THE CORNER OF THE OVAL. Dorey-Stein describes a visit by President Obama to a prison. As he was speaking about the inmates he encountered, Obama said that it was luck that kept him from landing in jail. He's very lucky that he didn't paw a privileged, spiteful white woman like Emily Doe when he was drunk or high. If he had, he would never have been President. Even the whiter, richer George W. Bush, with all of his privilege and connections, may have been taken down by the eloquently spiteful Doe.
Emmett Till and Trayvon Martin are symbols of racial injustice, of the failure to value black lives, of how dangerous life is for young black boys, and how dangerous white (or half-white) men are. Till and Turner are symbols of how much white females are valued, especially privileged ones, and how dangerous white female "victims" are for all males, no matter their race or class, when sex is involved.
There are, however, some major differences between the two cases. Trayvon's father Tracy was as visible as his mother Sybrina in the fight to bring their son's killer to justice and later to prevent other parents from experiencing what he and his ex-wife had to endure. While the two men who killed Emmett went looking for him in his relatives' home and tortured and beat him, the fatal encounter between Trayvon and George Zimmerman was briefer and less sadistic. Most important, Zimmerman suspected that Trayvon was a burglar, possibly a gang member, or on drugs. He was not hunting the young black boy because he thought he had raped or insulted his wife. (Ironically, Trayvon's female friend, who was listening to the encounter on the telephone, thought George might be a pervert, seeking to rape her friend.) The men who hunted and tortured fourteen-year-old Emmett were defending a white woman who (probably because she didn't like his light-colored eyes or his superior northern black boy attitude) falsely accused him of whistling at her.
A passage in Khan-Cullors' book drew my attention (not for the first time) to the primary difference between Trayvon and Emmett--the role played by a white woman and sex in the younger black boy's murder. In making her case that black boys and men are given harsher prison sentences often for relatively minor crimes, Khan-Cullors mentioned Brock Turner. Like too many people who comment on the privileged former Stanford student's case, the black activist used "alternative facts." She claimed that the drunken Emily Doe was raped when she wasn't and said that her brother, who had broken the furniture of a paralyzed woman (his son's mother), and an eighteen-year-old acquaintance, who was found guilty of robbery, didn't hurt anyone while Brock did. That's a ludicrous statement; if by hurt, she means physically hurt, then Turner's crime also didn't involve physical injury. But having one's furniture destroyed and being robbed can cause the same kind of emotional injury as having to discuss a "sexual assault" (even one that you don't actually remember) during court hearings and a trial.
At first glance, Brock Turner seems to have nothing in common with Emmett Till. First of all, he's alive and was never physically injured. Second, he's a privileged, rich white guy who received the best defense money could buy. And third, he wasn't completely innocent since he was illegally and publicly drunk, and he pawed a drunk woman. Maybe he thought she was giving consent, but it's just as likely that he was drunkenly taking advantage of her. Still, his fate shows how dangerous white women can be, especially when sex is involved. Turner is alive, but he is now a registered sex offender and a poster boy for white privilege and sexual perversion just because he pawed a privileged, narcissistic, spiteful white woman who decided to turn her drunk ass into an innocent victim and him into a pervert. It worked only because she was a privileged white woman. It's true that if Brock had been a young black man (he wouldn't have to change his name), he probably would have been given a harsher sentence after Ms. Doe's lengthy, well-written drama queen victim statement, but it's even more likely that if he had drunkenly pawed a black, brown, or working-class white woman, he wouldn't have been arrested. In fact, she might have been arrested for public drunkenness. If Zimmerman, who had once attacked a police officer, could turn himself into a victim after murdering a teenager, walking home from the store, carrying candy and fruit juice, certainly champion swimmer, never-before-arrested, Stanford student Brock's lawyers could make him the victim of a drunk black, brown, or poor white woman.
Even though lawyers and judges have made it clear that the sentencing for Brock Turner was appropriate for a first time offender committing sexual assault, he has been portrayed (as he was in Khan-Cullors' book) as receiving a too light sentence. In fact, the judge who sentenced him was recalled due to a campaign led by a friend of the well-connected, drunk "victim." Turner's fate reminds me of a passage in another recently read book, former White House stenographer Beck Dorey-Stein's FROM THE CORNER OF THE OVAL. Dorey-Stein describes a visit by President Obama to a prison. As he was speaking about the inmates he encountered, Obama said that it was luck that kept him from landing in jail. He's very lucky that he didn't paw a privileged, spiteful white woman like Emily Doe when he was drunk or high. If he had, he would never have been President. Even the whiter, richer George W. Bush, with all of his privilege and connections, may have been taken down by the eloquently spiteful Doe.
Emmett Till and Trayvon Martin are symbols of racial injustice, of the failure to value black lives, of how dangerous life is for young black boys, and how dangerous white (or half-white) men are. Till and Turner are symbols of how much white females are valued, especially privileged ones, and how dangerous white female "victims" are for all males, no matter their race or class, when sex is involved.
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