Brent Staples has a low opinion of white people. Or more accurately, he thinks white people, at least a “healthy majority” of them, think police killing black men under any circumstance is just fine “no matter what.”
Staples made the comments on Twitter in response to an article his colleague at The New York Times, Nicholas Kristof, tweeted about reported errors made in the tragic case of 12-year-old Cleveland resident, Tamir Rice.
Activists perhaps should have focused less on Michael Brown, more on shooting of 12-yr-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland http://t.co/lWevkqrY2x
— Nicholas Kristof (@NickKristof) January 23, 2015
Rice was shot dead by police on November 22 when they mistook a toy gun with which he was playing for the real thing.
Kristof wondered if Rice, and not the death of Michael Brown, should have been the rallying cry for nationwide protests against alleged police brutality. Brown was originally painted by the media as a “gentile giant” who was attempting to surrender when he was fatally shot by police officer Darren Wilson. It has since come to light that Brown had been involved in a strong-arm robbery immediately before his encounter with Wilson, had fought with Wilson, attempting to grab his gun, and forensics and eyewitnesses showed he was charging the officer when he was shot.
Rice, on the other hand, was just a kid being a kid.
This anger would morph into a series of nationwide anti-police protests coalescing around Brown, making him a martyr. When the narrative of him having his hands up and surrendering was proven false, protest groups became smaller and more militant. Then, on December 20, two New York City police officers were assassinated by a crazed man who expressed solidarity with the anti-police protests for Michael Brown and others.
It’s logical to at least wonder if things may have played out differently had Rice been the focal point of protests and not the discredited story surrounding Brown’s death. That is what Kristof did on Twitter.
Staples responded to Kristof’s query by saying he didn’t think it would have mattered because “healthy majorities of white public supports police action in death of blacks – no matter what.”
@NickKristof Doubt that would have helped, Nick. Healthy majority of white public supports police action in death of blacks – no matter what
— Brent Staples (@BrentNYT) January 23, 2015
But Staples didn’t stop there. He responded again with: “The issue lies not in the facts of the cases. It lies in the normative, white view of those facts – where lethal racism resides.”
@NickKristof The issue lies not in the facts of the cases. It lies in the normative, white view of those facts – where lethal racism resides
— Brent Staples (@BrentNYT) January 23, 2015
Still not finished, Staples expanded even further.
also @NickKristof: The virtue of the Brown protests: they depart from the historical view that only perfect peoples' lives mattered.
— Brent Staples (@BrentNYT) January 23, 2015
Kristof never replied to his Times colleague. He did, however, reply to others.
@jeff_deeney Michael Brown case is more ambiguous and uncertain; Tamir Rice case more clearcut and likely to persuade people of a problem.
— Nicholas Kristof (@NickKristof) January 23, 2015
@Panthro5000 @deray Yes, absolutely. But Brown received more attention than Rice, and I'm suggesting it should have been the other way
— Nicholas Kristof (@NickKristof) January 23, 2015