But violent deaths at the hands of the police and those at the hands of gang members don’t exist in some kind of competition. They are two sides of the same coin. When those outside the Colony point with derision at the violence within it to justify its continued existence, they reinforce how undervalued black lives are. In ways large and small and constant, the Nation exhibits contempt for the lives of its subjects in the Colony and indifference to their value. This is the central component of the white fear that sustains the Colony: the simple inability to recognize, deeply, fully totally,
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