A former mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani, recently complained that people only speak up about white people killing black people, and never about blacks killing blacks. He allegedly stated, "Ninety-three percent of blacks are killed by other blacks... I would like to see the attention paid to that that you are paying to this."
This is an example of "false equivalence" - when you equate two separate concepts that really aren't equal by ignoring important facts. Giuliani equates white-on-black killing to black-on-black killing, when really, the two are treated very differently in our society. Michael Eric Dyson, who debated with him, eloquently illustrated this difference:
“Black people who kill black people go to jail,” Dyson said. “White people who are policemen who kill black people do not go to jail.”
Great post! I think that you and Dyson make a good point. They are totally separate issues which I'm sure a lot of people have tried to connect. Dyson's point really expresses the issue at hand, which is the inequality of the punishments.
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