Arrests Give Lie to Thug Life Depiction of Taylor Murder--and Black Males

The Sean Taylor murder ignited what has to rank as the dumbest, wrong-headed orgy of stereotype laced speculation in living memory. The instant the Washington Redskins all-pro safety was gunned down in his suburban Miami-Dade County home, a pack of talking head sports analysts, writers, and fans filled the airwaves and newsprint with their see I told you so pontifications that Taylor's alleged thug life style did him in.

The initial accounts of his murder fed ample fuel to the contention of the self-styled experts that the supposed self-destructive ghetto culture has done in countless numbers of young black males. Taylor, of course, was the latest, but by no means the only tragic example of that. They insisted without a shred of evidence that the break-in at his home was not random, that he was a target, and that the killing was a hit.

The initial news accounts were a heavy handed pile on of Taylor's misdeeds, run-ins and altercations with the law. Subsequent news accounts dropped the obsessive itemizing of the full litany of Taylor's missteps. But they still managed to do a sneaky broken record sounding reminder that Taylor had had past problems with the law. That further imprinted in much of the public's skulls that Taylor was a bad guy and that there had to be a direct connect between his past, that really wasn't past, and the murder.
The arrest of four suspects in the Taylor killing, of course, makes the speculation seem just what it was dumb, and ill-informed and worse driven by the skewed, negative typecast of young black males such as Taylor as inherently crime-prone, dysfunctional, menaces to society. The four suspects by their own admission went to the home solely to commit a burglary and not to kill Taylor. There is no evidence that any of them were acquaintances of Taylor, let alone that he had any unsavory dealings with them.

Yet the ease in which so many blithely jumped to the conclusion that Taylor was a victim of his past is no surprise. It fit neatly the standard, and all too infuriating pattern that when a young black male, even, or maybe especially, a famed black athlete or celebrity meets tragedy, the automatic assumption is that the violence was organically linked to their criminal or checkered lifestyle. The usual suspects are gangs, drugs, bad crowd, and the wallow by young black males in hip hop, and rap music that glorifies and encourages gangsterism, misogyny, rebellion, and anti-social behavior.

Other than his reputation as an aggressive, hard hitting player, with a bit of swagger, and that's sanctioned fare in football jock culture and reveled in by the fans, there was absolutely no evidence that Taylor remotely fit the bad guy image on the streets. Friends, relatives, teammates, Redskin coaches and management repeatedly told of a young man who was a quiet, introverted, stay at home, family man. They also burst with pride and admiration that Taylor was fast evolving into a respected team leader. This was the diametric opposite of the stereotypical, chip on the shoulder, troubled image of young black males that many believe, or want to believe.

There were two tragedies in the Taylor murder. The first is the murder itself. It snuffed out the life of a talented, promising, young man who was well on his way to becoming a solid role model and leader for his teammates and other young players, and in time may well have been that same solid role model off the field as well.

The second is that for an enraging instant it gave the legions of know it alls the irresistible chance to point the blame finger at the killer lifestyle that supposedly ensnares all young black males, and that included Taylor. Fortunately, the arrests of the suspects and their confession of what actually happened that fateful evening at the Taylor home gives lie to that notion. But even in Taylor's death, and even after the truth came out about it, the truth is still a casualty to stereotypes. Witness this, every news account of the arrests, confessions, and background on information on the suspects, was still punctuated with the reminder of Taylor's scrapes with the law. The thug life fascination with black males is still very much alive and kicking in some press rooms, and beyond.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His new book is The Latino Challenge to Black America: Towards a Conversation between African-Americans and Hispanics (Middle Passage Press)
[e-mail]

Comments

[MARTYB]

Nommo, while i can appreciate some of your ferocity
in defending your position. I also see that cocaine and heroin are being brought in the neighborhood by US and i do not see any white people putting guns to the heads of us to take this poison. What i see/hear is the glorification of violent behavior and the overweening desire to get rich/paid no matter the cost. There was not a white man in sight when i saw this brother jump on another because
he asked him to turn his music down in front of his house. I could go on and on about "self" inflicted crap but i have a suspicion you would defend such behavior as a consequence of white
hegemony or some such and i of course am "white washed"

[1will]

Taylor was a celebrity and when a celebrity is murdered it's news. Go figure. In the absence of any hard information about the crime the news media is left to comment on the victim's life. This includes the good and the bad. That's what happens when you have a 24/7 news media competing against each other. It's also what happens when you've had a colorful life.
Recently a young woman named Emily Sander was killed. She was also known as Zoey Zane in the porn world. Although her porn work had absolutely nothing to do with her murder the pornagraphy is mentioned in every story. It seems that whether you are white, black, male or female that your past is brought up by the media (despite being irrelevant). Of course no one is claiming her memory is being maligned because Sander is white, female or in porn.
Maybe Hutchinson just had a deadline to meet and this subject seemed like an easy few thousand words.

[kellygrrrl]

I truly fear for the youth of this generation.
They have been sold the "Thug Lifestyle" from every angle.
The Pimps and Ho's and Gangsta's are their idols.
Parents should really think about this before they agree to the video games, clothing, music, etc. which promote these ideals.

[MyNameIsJames]

A Final Word on Race and the United States

To RedWhiteandBlueState:

You think that I am ignorant: What a laugh! I would challenge you any day of the week to a debate on race, racism, prejudice or whatever else you want to talk about when it comes to the Black experience in this nation. My qualifications – I hold a BA degree in both history and sociology where I did extensive research on the issue. I also hold an advanced degree in Public policy. I don’t have to pull things out of my behind to defend myself, or make valid points.

I am not sure if you are white or not. It really doesn’t matter. I love all people, but I will be g -damned if I go along with those who try to avoid the issue of race by claiming that what is clearly a racially charged issue - really isn’t. A white person trying to argue with blacks on what is racist or not is like a German trying to argue with Jewish people over what is anti-Semitic – it just doesn’t pass the smell test.

Nommo and V Samuels –
You guys rock. Thanks for holding the line on ignorance when it comes to race on the Huffington Post.

One note to everyone:
Black people have NOT advanced in this society by listening to Whites people who deny the existence of racism and discrimination. Blacks made advances by ignoring these types of people and pushing forward with their agenda. If we listened to the nay sayers we would still be on the plantation. To be sure, Blacks have s number of serious problems in their community – Some of them are internal problems but most have been precipitated by a system of racial marginalization that has now metastasized in the form of cultural anguish and confusion.

[badgirlinchicago]

More for the ignorant:

In his 1935 Black Reconstruction in America, W. E. B. Du Bois first described the "psychological wages" of whiteness:

It must be remembered that the white group of laborers, while they received a low wage, were compensated in part by a sort of public and psychological wage. They were given public deference and titles of courtesy because they were white. They were admitted freely with all classes of white people to public functions, public parks, and the best schools. The police were drawn from their ranks, and the courts, dependent on their votes, treated them with such leniency as to encourage lawlessness. Their vote selected public officials, and while this had small effect upon the economic situation, it had great effect upon their personal treatment and the deference shown them. White schoolhouses were the best in the community, and conspicuously placed, and they cost anywhere from twice to ten times as much per capita as the colored schools. The newspapers specialized on news that flattered the poor whites and almost utterly ignored the Negro except in crime and ridicule.

[badgirlinchicago]

For the ignorant and unenlightened white masses:

White privilege is a sociological concept describing the advantages enjoyed by white persons beyond what is commonly experienced by the non-white people in those same social spaces (nation, community, workplace, etc.). It differs from racism or prejudice by the fact that a person benefiting from white privilege need not hold racist beliefs themselves. (Allen, Theodore. The Invention of the White Race: Racial Oppression and Social Control (Verso, 1994) ISBN 0-86091-660-X.)

[ms.understood]

I believe that the way this young man lost his life is terrible, as well as being a complete waste of talent and living his life as a devoted father. I believe in the death penalty, but I believe that it doesn't deter criminals because they wait too late to carry through with it. If they start immediately sentencing idiot basturds like these four fools to the death penalty and carrying it out within a month, all this senseless killing would stop. We certainly don't hear of such crimes in areas where punishment for crimes are severe, like Sudan and parts of the Middle East. Remember Singapore?

[SteveStephens]

I don't care what color these animals are. I will personally come down to Florida and pull the electric switch on all four. They are not human. They have no souls.

[DatelessNerd]

Sean Taylor was not done in by his thug lifestyle.

He was done in by the thug lifestyles of four other young men.

As long as people see this as a racial issue, the problems will only get worse. People of all races must unite to push for economic opportunity, and an optimized distribution of wealth in America. And we need an open, honest dialogue about parenting--that it's not okay for women who lack the time, resources, intelligence, and temperament to raise children to pump them out like there's no tomorrow.

[pennyfortheguy]

Ask Spike Lee of his opinion. View this article through the prism of his 'Bamboozled'.
It's Da Bomb.

[Hugo de Balsac]

boy things get ugly when ethnicity is at the core of an issue. it's the one topic that shoots staight for the lizard brain and makes humans act more like animals (who can type).

all i know is that people of every ethnicity go on presumptions about people other than themselves. in many cases, it's not "racism", it's ignorance, or perhaps, being naive but not openly curious. and of course, there's a high level of envy involved in some instances.

speaking of mammals, the Miami Dolphins sure do suck this year.

[Boris]

If Racism is prejudice based on skin color, then it is practiced by ALL colors of people throughout the world. In India, lighter skinned northern Indians are regarded as higher caste than the nearly black Dravidians of South India. The irony here is that both are 'Caucasian' peoples. On the Reservation, Indians who are mixed blood Black and Indian have lower status than Indians who are mixed blood White. Just as the Cherokee Nations.
Prejudice and racism are easy ways of judging people without interaction. And, in today's hurry, hurry world, isnt that just what we need? We just dont have time to deal with individuals as humans, do we?

[MyNameIsJames]

African Kings had no knowledge of race. The people who they sold into slavery were not their "own people" they were "others". Their "own people" - the phrase that you used is only relevant when you look from the eyes of a white. Because Africans didn't consider themselves related based on skin color.

RedWhite and Blue State - You are SOOO ignorant because you don't even know what a racist is... Racism has a particular root historically. It refers to white people who collectively identified themselves as a group in relation to all other non-whites. Then they created a system of discrimination to take resources and rights away from those groups based upon their racial characteristics. Whites came up with the term RACE. They are the ones who classified the races and finally they are the ones who have benefited from the racist practices. So unless Nommo is white I don't think that he can be a racist! If he doesn't like white people that makes him prejudice not racist. Racism is a white invention for appropriating resources from Non-whites -- end of story. If you can come up with an example of Black people inventing a system to exploit whites then let me know.

[MGhamma]

When was the last time a white pro athlete was murdered like this?

[lisakaz]

I basically care little to nothing about the politics of who did it or why. I find the whole thing really sad, esp. for the young child who will never know her Daddy.