White Society is to Blame for Black Cops Beating Tyre Nichols to Death

I imagine there was more than just a sigh of relief from many white people when five Memphis police officers were charged with murder for the beating death of an unarmed Black man. The sigh of relief was because all five of the former police officers charged with the murder to Tyre Nichols are themselves Black men. Some people may believe that the five former officers were charged with murder because they are Black men, but the police chief who fired them and had them arrested them for murder is a Black woman. 

It may seem like a difficult challenge to untangle how all these Black people treated one another and to blame it on white society, but it is easier to understand if some terms are clarified. 

White people are people who are not people of color. White people were not involved, nor were any people of color except Black people.

White supremacy is an ideology that the rights of colonizers exceed the rights of people from whom land was stolen and whose cultures were eliminated. It has also come to describe the groups of people who believe that there is a conspiracy to eliminate the white race. This was not an act by white supremacists.

White society describes the accepted norms in a social structure that is systemically racist. Chasing people who run from cops is an acceptable social norm, but cops bullying Black people just because they are Black is a social norm that is no longer acceptable.

Black people have been given the opportunity to meld into the white society that once allowed their ancestors to be beaten and lynched just for being Black people. It is, indeed, significant and good that Black people are better represented in government and law enforcement. Social change is under way, but it is also under attack by those who are comfortable with the social structure as it is today. 

I have heard some Black people describe the police officers as something like "white men in black skin." It is equally wrong for Black people to disown these officers as it is for white people to use the fact that the officers are Black men against them. I haven't read about the backgrounds of the five officers charged with young Mr. Nichols' murder, but each of them undoubtedly has family and friends who will give testimony about these young men's characters. 

If we are not to see race in the justice system, then five police officers are charged in the beating death of an unarmed citizen who ran from cops who were beating him despite that he was trying to cooperate. To those who think racism was resolved when Black people were given employment opportunities equal to those of white people, then five police officers are charged with murder for another unjustifiable beating death of an unarmed Black man. 

The social change that is evident in this case is that the officers were fired immediately and charged with murder before the public saw what happened. If we delve deeper, the social change that is more responsible for the immediate firing of the officers with charges of murder following that was the department's police chief, CJ Davis. She is a Black woman who actively supported reforms in policing to address "environments that foster unfettered racial tension, and the continued desecration of what (she has) always thought to be a noble profession." 

Chief Davis's perspective on this as a Black woman cannot be broken down into equal parts Black and woman. As a Black woman, she can literally relate to the victim as her son and the officers as her brothers. She properly described the beating death as "heinous, reckless, and inhumane." 

Her goal is not to hold police officers accountable for unjustifiably killing Black people. Her goal is to stop the unjustifiable killing of Black people by holding police officers accountable for the consequences of their decisions. 

Chief Davis made the decision to fire the officers and charge them with murder after watching another Black victim of police brutality call out for his mom. I believe she would have held officers of any race to the same standards because once people put on the uniform of a police officer, they are to lose all other labels and behave as responsible stewards of the law.

The harsher treatment that Black people receive by law enforcement is a systemic problem in white society that has never not existed in America. It is good that it is evolving, but it has not fully evolved. It took a huge evolutionary step in this case because of the prompt disciplinary decisions of a Black woman who is an activist for reform in policing. At least, we should hope that it took an evolutionary step for Black people to receive equal treatment under the law. I don't understand how that reparation from white society is even debatable. 

If systemic racism were resolved, however, five officers would have followed the lead of their chief instead of their brother on the street who instantly and unjustifiably escalated the situation to out of control. They would be going home to their families, and Tyre Nichols would be going home from watching another sunset to those who described him as a beautiful soul.