"Black death has become a cultural spectacle: Why the Walter Scott tragedy won’t change White America’s mind"

"One day after Slager’s arrest, Black folks are being treated to an endless replay of this murder on cable news. There is no collective sense that being inundated with video and imagery of these racialized murders of Black men by the police might traumatize and retraumatize Black people who have yet another body to add to a pile of bodies. Black death has become a cultural spectacle...
Police officers (of all races and genders) routinely act with excessive force and callous disregard toward Black people. But Black people’s witness of racial atrocity is never believed on its own merits. Instead, white people need to be able to pull up a chair and watch the lynchings take place over and over again, to DVR them, fast forward and rewind through them, to smother Black pain and outrage and fear in an avalanche of cold, “rational” analysis. Meanwhile, minds rarely change."
http://www.salon.com/2015/04/08/black_death_has_become_a_cultural_spectacle_why_the_walter_scott_tragedy_wont_change_white_americas_mind/

Ya. Awareness vs. Education.

And also, it's those moments where I try to talk to a friend about something shitty that happened or that I am feeling and before I can get the sympathy they might express around any other issue, I have to "prove" the racial aspect. And then it feels like I completely lose ownership over that moment in my life, as I provide it for outside analysis.

And also, thinking about the times I have done this to people, not believed them when it's like why does it matter if I "believe them"? If I love them, it should be enough for me that they are in pain.