Why did those officers kill Tyre Nichols? I don’t know, and I’m wary of anyone who says they do.
Thomas Chatterton Williams (author and biracial American)
Memphis is in the news because of the Tyre Nichols death video. It’s on my mind because a barbarous act there proves how divided America is today. As I heard and read the many opinions explaining why the officers killed Tyre Nichols, a sad reality set in: America has a growing black – and everybody else – race problem. This was confirmed by NBC News polling that shows support for Black Lives Matter tanking since 2020.
Back to Memphis and the video that shows one black man beaten savagely by five black cops. The officers were quickly charged with 2nd degree murder by the city’s DA. The President consoled Mr. Nichols’s family and called “for a peaceful protest.” The riots of 2020 did not erupt – because this was not a repeat of the George Floyd killing. Anyone could see a black-on-black crime.
Memphis police chief Cerelyn Davis, a black woman, called the killing a “failing of basic humanity” and explained to CNN that “problems in law enforcement (are not) about race.” I see no reason to doubt her. Still,Biden called it “another painful reminder of the fear and trauma that Black Americans experience every single day,” and Nichols’ mother told MSNBC, “I hate the fact that it was five black men that actually did this to another black man.”
Cue the anti-racism industry. They saw five black men metamorphosed into five white supremacists. Self-identified “antiracism educator” Tim Wise said, “Anyone who says Tyre Nichols can’t be about racism doesn’t understand how white supremacy works. Somewhere these men learned systems of domination aimed disproportionately at other Black people.” CNN’s Van Jones concurred: “Black cops are socialized in police departments (to) single out young black men for abuse.”
Wise and Jones are asking everyday people to believe all bad roads lead to white supremacists. Like they did in 2015 after Ferguson; majority-white police forces mistreat majority-black communities. Black Lives Matter insisted local police forces reflect local demographics. So, Memphis (65% black) created a 60% black police force and hired a black woman to be its police chief. And Tyre Nichols is still dead.
Wise and Jones now want us to believe Chief Davis is upholding “systems of domination.” With no white cop in the video, it’s unlikely Americans believe white supremacy is to blame for Tyre Nichols’s death – including African-Americans, whose protests were fewer, smaller and more peaceful than those triggered by the George Floyd video. It’s probable the extreme anti-racist voices are alienating allies.
Asian-American Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) commended “the Memphis Police Department for quickly charging the officers who fatally beat Tyre Nichols.” Black Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) said, “We must unite against this blatant disregard for human life especially from those we trust with immense power and responsibility.” Neither accused Chief Davis of upholding “systems of domination.” Why? Because of political reality.
Hirono faces a heavily Asian electorate; a voting bloc “bristling against” a 339% spike in hate crimes against Asians, with the most common being “Black-on-Asian” assaults (source: The Atlantic). Scott faces a Democrat senate majority: “Yesterday, Sen. Durbin asked [me] to come back to the table [to talk] about policing in America. Well, I never left the table. It was Sen. Durbin who filibustered my Justice Act and called it ‘token legislation.'”
Historians credit Dr. King for getting the politics right to make big change happen; inviting nuns and rabbis to march, opposing calls “for Black separatism,” and negotiating key legislation. Segregation was banned in public schools and businesses. Black numbers soared in the Ivy League and corporate suites. In contrast, today’s anti-racists sound mean and (dare I say) un-American. They don’t get the politics.
Most Americans think the black rights movement began with Rosa Parks on a bus and culminated with Barack Obama in the White House. A soul-stirring saga, but a number-driven journey. There were 5.5 million registered black voters in 1964 and 17.3 million in 2008 (source: NAACP). The champion of civil rights legislation (Lyndon Johnson) won 43.1 million votes, and the first black president (Barack Obama) won 69.5 million, meaning non-blacks obviously joined the movement in droves. That’s how democracies enact big change.
This is what troubles Democrat strategist Ruy Teixeira, who sees race-driven policies, like defund the police and critical race theory, destroying the coalition that elected Obama in 2008; what Teixeira identified in 2002 as “the emerging Democratic majority” (i.e. Asians, Hispanics, and college-educated whites). He points to Virginia 2021 and Florida 2022, where this coalition – what he now calls “normie voters” – left his party in large numbers. Thus, it’s a bad time to push a quixotic theory on why Tyre Nichols is dead.
It is a fact that the GOP ran winning gubernatorial campaigns against defund the police and critical race theory in Virginia and Florida. It is a fact that both Youngkin and DeSantis – by no means soundalikes – peeled off large blocs of Asian, Hispanic, and White voters from their Democrat rivals. The numbers are compelling, but so is a community’s state of mind. In post-COVID America, every identity group has a grievance.
The Asian-American grievance is with liberal policies that deny their kids the best educations. To wit, they’re now fighting affirmative action in the Supreme Court (Students For Fair Admissions vs. Harvard and UNC). And, the most prominent opponent to critical race theory is Indian-American Asra Nomani, who says it reduces academic standards and discriminates against high-performing Asians. She’s not a one-off, because a recent Rasmussen poll found Asian, Latino, and white voters all oppose critical race theory by a 2 to 1 margin.
Cal State researchers found “an overwhelming majority of the Latino community” wants to see police funding either remain the same or increase, and Pew Research found only 13% of Whites support defunding the police – probably because of 2020 FBI data:
- 9,913 black Americans were murdered
- 8,723 by black assailants (88%)
- 892 by white assailants (9%)
- 243 by police of any race (2%)
Like Thomas Williams (see quote up top), I don’t know why those officers killed Tyre Nichols. I doubt it was white supremacy, but the big issue here is who – based on the video evidence – is going to vote for that campaign message?
Not too many, so when are voters going to admit Democrats are full of excuses and out of ideas? If liberals really care – as they claim – about black lives, then they should give Tim Scott’s Justice Act a try. If they really care.