The Root's contributing editor Demetria L. Lucas reflects in a piece for Clutch magazine on how the real-life drama surrounding the Chris Dorner saga was covered and what was missed.
As commentators and "experts" kept yapping, I wondered if I — you know as a Black member of the general public — was even the intended for the audience for these broadcasts. The experts and the reporters on CNN and MSNBC were talking about how Dorner should surrender so the LAPD would no longer be terrorized, and how sad it was that the LAPD was being targeted and living in fear. And all I could think was, "Well, now they know how Black and Brown people in LA feel!"
Don't get me wrong, I want Dorner caught, but it's because he killed that poor girl and her fiance. And because round-faced, caramel-colored Black men (that means you, LL) — and apparently, Hispanic grannys — ain't safe on the streets until Dorner's dead. The last thing on my mind was the pain and suffering of the LAPD. I came of age listening to NWA's "[F—k] da Police" and watching the grainy footage of the Rodney King beating. What the dominant culture calls the LA "riots," I refer to as an uprising. Frankly, I'm real "meh" on the LAPD and its "chickens coming home to roost" Moment.
And I wish I'd caught the expert's name on CNN who referred to the part of Dorner's manifesto when he choked out a fellow white officer who was dropping n-bombs left and right. When confronted by Dorner, the officer told him, "I'll say it when I want." Oh, word? The expert said it was evidence of that Dorner was "unstable," and I thought "oh, he must be talking to the dominant culture" because Black folk might think that's out of order, but not nowhere does it hold water as evidence of being crazy…
Read Demetria L. Lucas' entire piece at Clutch magazine.
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