Aaron Boyd
2 min readOct 17, 2020

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I get what you're saying and while I agree with the general sentiment, I think the particulars of this specific argument are a little weak.

I've been saying this a lot lately, but PLEASE stop referring to not getting murdered by the police as a "privilege". It's not a privilege, it's a right. Equal protection under the law should never be framed as a luxury or special treatment, it should be regarded as the bare minimum, the absolute baseline for what we expect from a functioning society.

When we start discussing fundamental civil liberties as if they're perks for the few, bad actors will sense an opening and exploit it; just look at how treating American healthcare as a luxury has become a mainstream conservative talking point shared by tens of millions of people despite the fact that it's insane and amoral.

Second--and let me stress again that I know where you're coming from and don't disagree with the broader point--in the specific context of police brutality in 2020, the police have made it very clear they have no problem brutalizing Whites, even on camera and in front of dozens of witnesses. While it is true that it's objectively far more dangerous to be Black, that's nowhere near the same thing as not being in any danger at all. And there's a world of difference between asking someone to become more politically engaged and asking someone to potentially get their skull caved in.

In the George Floyd case specifically, it's entirely possible the main reason the cops didn't arrest the White woman was because they were surrounded and weren't wearing armor. Had they been kitted out with full riot gear, they may have suddenly found the "courage" to start beating her too.

(Of course, the most likely explanation would be both; there's a good chance Chauvin's thought process was "If I kill this Black, that's okay, but if I kill a White woman, I'd be crossing the line.")

My third issue is that there's a bit of circular reasoning in the "What if Karens weren't total assholes to POCs?" because it's essentially saying "What if racists fought racism?" The answer, of course, would be that racism would vanish. It only exists BECAUSE Karens and Kens and others like them perpetuate it.

I'll admit this is a bit nitpicky and pedantic, and I know that's not literally what you were going for, but I had to point that out.

Otherwise, awesome work.

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