The Racist, Xenophobic History of “Excited Delirium” - A new book takes on a diagnosis invented to cover up police killings: that men of color are “combusting as a result of their aggressiveness.”
The racist, xenophobic history of "excited delirium"
I'm always thinking about serial killers functioning in Chicago because there sure as hell are more than enough - and seemingly are targeting folks in minority communities. Heard about a slew of them surrounding black sex-workers who just get tossed in the trash, or done up in abandoned buildings. People have been making whispers about this on the regular. Back when I lived there, and even seen some stuff online after I didn't. Hell my one sis, who isn't even from this damn country, straight up called that shit out.
Media makes the stereotypes, which is why representation is so important. Folks want to fight it, but those who do either a) dislike change/corporate pandering (although isn't it all that?) b) haven't been negatively affected by it (or cannot see it). I love me madly most Friedkin's Cruising, which is an incredibly polarizing movie which has enraged both sides. Queers for not wanting to be misrepresented and straights because...of queers? When I look at it though, I see this beautiful slew of men who more than likely are no longer with us due to the AIDS pandemic and were out there trying their best and showing their stuff. While it's a movie, it still captured a space in time that I appreciate. I also love that Al Pacino (who is called out in the article) could allow himself to get so vulnerable to shoot such a film. When most straight men would do just about anything not to be seen as "gay." So it's like...this double-edged sword. Because media representation is powerful, but in another sense ANY representation in a way feels better than none. Because you can at least capture some essence of time to display humans of all types in some kind of space and time. Which is why I can appreciate certain films like Green Pastures and Flower Drum Song even if they're a hot mess of tossed together white imagination. Hell, even growing up I was so thirsty to see ANYONE who looked like me on the screen. Cause it just meant (to some degree) - that I existed and could in some form just be a socially acceptable human being even without being a WASP.
But of course, just like the article (and book) says - media informed stereotypes can be outright deadly. I have known people who have gone through a majority of their lives never being around any poc. I'm not talking about some, I am talking about none until they were into adulthood. So their ideas of people came explicitly from what they saw on tv. But likewise I think that media - when you don't see anyone like you or you see only x-y-z being desirable, powerful, and fortunate can fiddle up some awful idealisms that cause internal/external and communal xenophobia and limit people.
I cannot tell you how many things I have heard over my lifetime were "white" so hence "white-only." We had long since been past Jim Crow bullshit, but the reigns were still there. And they were informed through a variety of things, but a strong one was the media. I also personally think that rap is a form of control, but that's just me. You know. I know where it came from, but I also know what it became. The game is a form of control, and it did a freakin' solid job of destroying multiple generations of individuals. There's so many levels to this, but I would like to take a moment and say this is why I get pissed at people saying stupid shit all the time like "Americans are so obsessed with race!" I am glad you have had the fortune of living within a space where you are either a straight up Uncle Tom or part of some dominant culture. The reason why people are so obsessed with race is because race (among other politics) are still a huge issue here and many are suffering (and their offspring will continue to suffer) because the game is rigged and the only way to get out is to either be entertaining and interesting enough that you can gain footing or be "white" and middle-class enough to navigate. So to those people, talk about something you know - because you don't need to be talking about something you haven't lived. Tell me about some awesome cheese or some beautiful mountains or some stuff. Not that people are too obsessed with race, cause like...legit there is a real reason.
cont.
But also I had a mentor once who as a statistician. She straight told me she'd bring her folks the numbers, and they would force her hand to fudge them. You gotta play the game. So medical coroners being part of an old-guard institution riddled with racism, of course they would play the game. People wanna eat, right? People wanna do the job they went to school for, and get those bennies. There's long since been stereotypes of aggressive and overtly strong black men who cannot "handle" themselves. Look at To Kill a Mockbird, or Emmett Till, but it's been going on long since before that. Armchair anthropologist were tearing up "savage" brains with their xenophobic hot-takes on cultures they never even experienced through written observations that came pre-biased.
If anything, a huge amount of Americans who are seen as "problems" to society overall (and I am talking of any color) tend to be so due to some variety of scarcities imposed by capitalism. The solution? Hell if I know, because I am just one human. But I can tell you if your brain can't tell the difference between a video and reality - you get sucked in when it comes to media. If you are around and the only jobs around are the ones you've gotta travel for - and nobody but nobody is eating real food or getting a solid education - you're gunna be fucked. I recently watched a Channel 5 posting on the Trump assassination attempt on here. I was shocked when I saw it because I realized that so many of those people don't even realize why they're so frustrated. Because they lack the education and experience that they don't even know that they got got. I'd say the same thing in a lot of minority communities. I'd go hiking, and literally everyone I knew who was a poc - would straight up tell me that I was going to die. Or that they'll stick to sidewalks. People don't even realize that there's a whole world out here they could be exploring, and instead just stick to the same x-blocks and spaces they always knew. Or like, I legitimately had no clue how good some people got it - until I moved and saw that some people live their lives in bliss and madly most don't even notice that anyone in this world could be suffering because they are living their best lives.
And don't even get me started on what you could learn in school. Because it's like night and day. A black education, versus a white one. And I know, because I've now been through both. But you could say this, yet again - about any space of education not considered worthy of funds. And education is hands down the easiest way to understand the social norms of "money" and get some yourself. Which will never put you on equal grounds with those who had a head start, but it sure as hey can give you more cushion between that and the world where a cop shoots you dead for existing and covers it up.
Hooph! That was one big rant. I'm off but I suppose I will say books like this are needed and beautiful and I love every moment of their existence. More poc voices in academic literature - more feminine voices in academic literature - I invite it all. Only catch is I had to stop reading stuff like this, because it was making me want to punch walls - and you just can't go through life like that. But in a perfect world, I would be snapping my fingers and changing all that hurt that has been layered bit by bit through ignorance or otherwise and get things so that people didn't have to be constantly living juggling the have-nots while the haves had no idea that it was even happening in their country.
p.s. - Money will help get you away from the cops - but you can still end up getting harassed by them for DWB (driving while black) or BWB (Breathing while black). And you can see that with celebrities. Neil deGrasse Tyson talked about he has been harassed multiple times. I'm no fan of Cosby or OJ - but I bet you there have been a handful of white folks who've been dirty too and probably never saw any of the justice the hammer and pony show layed down on these two. (Mind you fuck all of them)
Also when I was growing up one of my folks had to commute two hours both ways just to get a job. They'd take me so they could watch over me because I was still pretty young. A black celebrity was incarcerated along the way, and my folk made a point of letting me know. I never stopped thinking about it because it seemed so damn sad to me. I even, as a little bubblin - would wave hi at the place and hope they "got well soon." So I think if you really think about it - and there are layers to this story too (the OJ one) - that's why white folk couldn't believe he got off and black folks celebrated. Because you know in this corrupt world all sorts are getting away with all kinds of things, but if you get a key to the kingdom - you better stay in line - because the second you get out - the floor will fall out underneath you.
If you never heard of it, it's because it's not a real thing.
It's something cops made up for an excuse when they kill someone
Cops choke someone to death. And then have the balls to blame it on their victims trying not to die for what caused them to die.