by Mia McKenzie
If you haven’t heard, yesterday George Zimmerman, the man who stalked and murdered Trayvon Martin, was shot at. Many initial reports offered vague headlines such as “George Zimmerman Shot In Face” in the hopes that people would click to see if he was dead or not. Turned out, he wasn’t dead. To the dismay of a lot of folks, including myself.
Yeah, I said it.
(Note: if you’re black and you don’t hate Zimmerman that’s your choice. I won’t tell you that you must, so please don’t tell me that I shouldn’t.)
When I heard that George Zimmerman had been shot at, my initial reaction was:
Oh so George Zimmerman got shot in the face but is still alive? Just a flesh wound? … Oh. http://t.co/7GsmnKEac4
— BGD (@BlackGirlDanger) May 11, 2015
*wishes the shooter had better aim* — BGD (@BlackGirlDanger) May 11, 2015
Don’t get me wrong, though, I appreciate just the fact that anyone is shooting at George Zimmerman for any reason really. IJS try harder. — BGD (@BlackGirlDanger) May 11, 2015
Wouldn’t encourage folks to shoot at him (don’t want my ppl in prison), IJS if you’re doing it of your own accord, why are you so bad at it? — BGD (@BlackGirlDanger) May 11, 2015
Then, of course, some random white man jumped into my mentions to tell me that I was inciting violence against another “human being”. I ignored said white man for obvious reasons (1. George Zimmerman doesn’t qualify as a human being in any way that matters to me and 2. Go fuck yourself) and continued being pleased by the idea of Zimmerman being shot at.
Me when I heard it was just a flesh wound. pic.twitter.com/w7d4YJg3qA
— BGD (@BlackGirlDanger) May 11, 2015
Looking at the shooter like: pic.twitter.com/XQPc3dE2kv — BGD (@BlackGirlDanger) May 11, 2015
Me when I heard Zimmerman didn’t actually get shot at all, just hit with shattered glass. pic.twitter.com/O4FLFahprr
— BGD (@BlackGirlDanger) May 11, 2015
So, in the end, Zimmerman was fine. Not even shot. But by then, all over my Twitter timeline, were people arguing about whether or not it’s okay to wish violence and death, even jokingly, on George Zimmerman. The faux morality police say absolutely no. Others, including me, say absolutely yes.
First of all, let’s be real: most of the people who jump in to condemn folks who are pleased at the idea of this murdering racist getting what’s coming to him are people who were gleeful when Bin Laden was killed, who support the death penalty, and who believe that cops should be able to shoot (non-white) people for pretty much any reason at all. They’re folks who never have a word to say in support of the victim of George Zimmerman, Trayvon Martin, the 17 year-old boy he stalked and murdered. Their moral outrage is reserved only for those who hate Zimmerman, for those who hate the man who killed a boy for no reason other than his blackness, and never for that act of racist murder itself. They’re the “no matter how you feel about Zimmerman” crew, most of whom seem to feel just fine about him themselves.
This is a dead giveaway for anti-blackness poorly disguised as morality. If people wishing bad things on the man who stalked and killed an unarmed black boy gets your goat more than, oh let’s say, the fact that that man stalked and killed an unarmed black boy, you might just hate black people (read: you definitely just hate black people).
Let’s take it a step further, though, and examine what it really means for anyone to say to black people, “You shouldn’t be happy if George Zimmerman gets shot.”
Yesterday, @desusnice tweeted this:
“Not cool to joke about George Zimmerman being shot” is the new “massa, we sick?” — Desus Nice (@desusnice) May 11, 2015
I was reminded how far back this narrative goes and how insidious it is. Desus Nice references a quote from Malcolm X, who spoke about “house Negroes” and “field Negroes” during slavery.
Malcolm talked about how the “house Negro”, who was treated better than the “field Negro” (but who, it’s important to remember, was still very much enslaved), loved the master and did everything he could to help and protect him. When the master was sick, the house Negro asked “massa, we sick?” because the “house Negro” cared even more for the master’s well-being than the master did himself. When the master’s house caught fire, the “house Negro” would try to put the fire out. Whereas, the “field Negro”, who was treated much worse, and who hated the master, would hope the master died when he got sick and hope “for a strong wind to come along” when his house caught fire. Malcolm called himself a “field Negro.” In this way, I am one, too.
I do not love my oppressors. I do not hope for their well-being.
While George Zimmerman’s race has been in constant debate since he killed Trayvon Martin, the fact is that whether he’s white or not, we know for sure that he’s not black. And as a non-black person who saw a black boy minding his business and decided to follow and kill him, Zimmerman is an eager representative of white supremacy. He is the oppressor, a role he wholeheartedly embraced that evening in February 2012. Telling black people that it’s wrong to wish for his death is the same as telling us to love the master, to love white supremacy, to love it more than we love ourselves.
The message behind the “high ground” argument is that no matter what is done to us, it is wrong for us to hate our oppressors. We’re told, in fact, that it’s bad for us. That it’s bad for our very souls. We’re told that all that anger and hatred makes us “no better than” people like Zimmerman.
I call bullshit.
As oppressed people of all sorts, we are constantly being fed the line that we always have to take the so-called “moral high ground” (as defined by the oppressor, of course). We are always expected to turn the other cheek. No matter how much racist or misogynist or transphobic or ableist violence is inflicted upon us by the oppressor, we are lectured that we should never “stoop to their level”. We should be “better than that”. This narrative strikes me as extremely useful for those doing the oppressing. And not very useful at all for the rest of us.
Which is exactly why it persists.
Anytime a survivor talks about killing rapists, even if she isn’t completely serious, here come the faux morality police to tell her how wrong it is, that even thinking such a thing makes her no better than the rapists themselves. Anytime a transgender person, traumatized and fed up by the incessant violence of cisgender people, says “I hate cis people!” here come the faux morality police again to say that’s not okay, stop the hate. What these people are really saying is “there is nothing we can do to you, no matter how heinous, that makes us unworthy of your kindness, because we are white or male or cis or all of those things, and you are nothing. Take our abuse and love it—it’s better for your soul!”
No.
I will hate George Zimmerman and the violent, murderous anti-blackness he represents. I will save my love and kindness for myself and for people who don’t want me dead.
That’s what’s best for my soul.
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Mia McKenzie is an award-winning writer, a speaker, and the creator of Black Girl Dangerous.
