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They Called Me a N****r. What Do I Do Now?
Rule No. 1: Don’t shoot the messenger — or beat them unconscious.
I just watched a video that will likely be on my mind for the rest of the day. The violence in it makes my stomach churn and so does the certainty that certain White people will use it to absolve themselves of their own racism because of a Black antagonist who gave as good as he got, only much worse.
In the clip documenting a March 29 encounter on a New York City subway, a Black man pummels an Asian man until he’s unconscious, allegedly for calling him the N word. As I watched the Black man repeatedly punching the Asian man and then putting him in a chokehold, a few thoughts ran through my head.
1. Racial prejudice is a pandemic that also infects people from minority groups who should be supporting each other.
2. This bashing will clearly be viewed by many through the lens of recent anti-Asian violence, but it might just be a random showdown with terrible timing. The beating would be equally despicable if the guy who allegedly said the N word was White.
3. Wait. Why isn’t anyone even attempting to break it up? Are they afraid of making body contact for pandemic reasons? Or have we become a society of camera-wielding voyeurs who are more concerned with documenting…