As is our weekend habit, please do treat this as a semi-open thread. What matters of public or private concern would you like to share? Any interesting news items? Labor Day holiday plans? Sleeping? Eating? Rutting? All three?
I have written several pieces about The Ritual of obligatory (and often immediate) expected public forgiveness by black people towards those white folks who have committed racially motivated violence against them. The Ritual is a salve for white guilt as it offers a type of "cheap forgiveness", one that demands no redistributive, recuperative, or compensatory justice.
The tragic killing of Alison Parker and Adam Ward by Vester Flanagan is an opportunity to apply the ritual of forgiveness on the other side of the color line.
Thus, a basic question.
When will the Parker and Ward families be asked by a reporter or other person in the news media if they forgive Vester Flanagan for killing their loved ones?
Several days have passed since Vester Flanagan's violent deeds. Considering that black folks are almost immediately asked to perform The Ritual, one would think that the Parker and Ward families would also be doing The Ritual very soon.
I know that white privilege permits white anger and white vengeance, but one can still hope for a bit of fairness regarding the healing and redemptive power of forgiveness on both side of the color line.
"Christian" forgiveness supposedly uplifts black people, would it not do the same for white folks too?
No comments:
Post a Comment