“Unpacking the fantasy of black men as dangerous and violent, she does not simply fact-check it; she shows the myth’s usefulness to white people — to obscure the historical brutality against African-Americans, and to justify continued abuse.”
Perhaps the author should spend a few weeks on the streets of Baltimore underscoring this “myth.”
As a male, I am sympathetic to black men who feel they are suspect just for being born a certain color and sex. At the same time, the crime statistics are not a “fantasy.” This is a reason “white privilege” exists. If you sliced it another way, you could just call it “female privilege” since it appears men are considered “dangerous and violent” compared to women. Or maybe it’s “elderly privilege” since most over 60 are not beating others or staging home robberies. In any case, such blind dismissal of facts as fantasy displays the author’s bias.
