Following the release of video footage depicting the choking death of Jordan Neely on a subway last week, a troubling narrative emerged in the media and online. This narrative, pushed both by seemingly well-meaning people and those who seemed to be inspired by nefarious motives, suggested Neely, who was homeless and seen yelling on camera, was the only person in that scenario whose mental health is worth considering.
Yet, among these people, there’s seemingly been no self-reflection about how these claims, which suggest Neely’s outburst was the impetus for his slaying, further white supremacist talking points.
Many in the media watched a video of a white man choking a Black man for several minutes — seemingly for yelling too loud — and the widespread reaction was to ponder the Black man’s mental state as though this was a determining factor in his own death.
Lawyers for Daniel Penny, the man accused of choking Neely to death, said Penny acted to “protect” himself and other passengers after Neely began acting “aggressively threatening.” But it’s unclear whether Neely had physically threatened anyone. As of Tuesday morning, Penny has not been charged with a crime in the matter.
With regards to Neely’s mental health, I suggest people instead ponder the pervasive mindset many white people apparently hold, in which they feel they’ve earned dominion over other people’s lives.
To be certain, this narrative isn’t new. Over the last decade, we’ve seen the disturbing repetition of stories in which white officials, or even regular civilians, mete out violence against Black people alleged to be having mental health crises or altered mental states that made them formidable and imminently dangerous. To me, these conversations are always saturated in a sordid history of racist violence and medical misdiagnosis.
We see parallels between the past and the present in the ways Black people are expected to acquiesce to white people’s will.
Watching people opine…
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