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Subjects, not citizens

Axios: CNN’s Omar Jimenez and his crew were released after being arrested Friday by Minneapolis state police while reporting on the protests that followed the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody in the city.

This litany on privilege vs. institutional racism is going around on Facebook for some reason:

I have privilege as a white person because I can do all of these things without thinking twice:
I can go birding in the Park (#ChristianCooper)
I can go jogging (#AmaudArbery)
I can relax in the comfort of my own home (#BothemSean and #AtatianaJefferson)
I can ask for help after being in a car crash (#JonathanFerrell and #RenishaMcBride)
I can have a cellphone (#StephonClark)
I can leave a party to get to safety (#JordanEdwards)
I can play loud music (#JordanDavis)
I can sell CDs (#AltonSterling)
I can sleep (#AiyanaJones)
I can walk from the corner store (#MikeBrown)
I can play cops and robbers (#TamirRice)
I can go to church (#Charleston9)
I can walk home with Skittles (#TrayvonMartin)
I can hold a hair brush while leaving my own bachelor party (#SeanBell)
I can party on New Years (#OscarGrant)
I can get a normal traffic ticket (#SandraBland)
I can lawfully carry a weapon (#PhilandoCastile)
I can break down on a public road with car problems (#CoreyJones)
I can shop at Walmart (#JohnCrawford)
I can have a disabled vehicle (#TerrenceCrutcher)
I can read a book in my own car (#KeithScott)
I can be a 10yr old walking with our grandfather (#CliffordGlover)
I can decorate for a party (#ClaudeReese)
I can ask a cop a question (#RandyEvans)
I can cash a check in peace (#YvonneSmallwood)
I can take out my wallet (#AmadouDiallo)
I can run (#WalterScott)
I can breathe (#EricGarner)
I can live (#FreddieGray)
I CAN BE ARRESTED WITHOUT THE FEAR OF BEING MURDERED (#GeorgeFloyd)
White privilege is real. Take a minute to consider a Black person’s experience today.
#BlackLivesMatter

The list omits Breonna Taylor, the 26-year-old EMT killed by police officers in her own home on March 13.

Whatever harms social media and cell phone cameras have done, they have allowed white America a view into the country black neighbors inhabit. In that other America MSNBC’s Joy Reid described Wednesday, black people are “being treated as subjects and not as citizens.” Whites armed with high-capacity rifles can shout in the faces of police inside a state capitol and police keep their cool. The difference is not lost on “other America.”

In 2015, comedian Chris Rock gave an online course in “driving while black” after a series of traffic stops. In his appearance on Jerry Seinfeld’s “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee,” the pair got pulled over in a Lamborghini with Seinfeld at the wheel.

“It’d be such a better episode if he pulled me to the side and beat the shit out of me, don’t you think?” Rock said. “Now here’s the crazy thing: If you weren’t here, I’d be scared. I’m famous, still black. Right now, I’m looking for my license right now.”

Whatever harm he did as a Republican member of Congress, former Rep. Trey Gowdy was blunt about the police officers who killed George Floyd in Minneapolis this week. “This is murder,” Gowdy told Fox News.

White mass murderer Dylann Roof, Gowdy said, “can be arrested without incident but Mr. Floyd under suspicion of passing a counterfeit $20 bill can’t even live through the arrest.”

Digby reminded Twitter readers Thursday night that Shelby, NC police even fed Roof a fast-food hamburger at the jail.

Minnesota state police arrested a CNN film crew this morning on live TV, detained briefly at a police station, then released. CNN anchor Alisyn Camerota noted that CNN reporter Josh Campbell working a block away was not arrested.

“It’s just impossible not to note the difference,” Camerota told Campbell.

“You are a white guy. Omar Jimenez identifies as black and Latino. Since the police didn’t give us much of an explanation for what they were doing against the backdrop of these fires burning and George Floyd’s death, it’s impossible not to note the difference here.”

That difference is not lost on “other America.”

(h/t DB)

Update: Corrected spelling of Roof’s first name and burger reference. [h/t KT]

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