Following former president Donald Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts in New York, TheGrio, a Black-led cable and podcast network, published an article on the nation’s response to the verdict. Specifically, they analyzed the phenomenon of victim mentality among White Americans. The publication argues that this victim mentality is a foundational element of the country’s anti-Blackness, and cites a CPE report on police use of force to support this argument:
This mentality is more than just a feeling; it is a foundational element of America’s anti-Blackness. Legislatures created slave codes to prevent Africans from reading, writing and gathering in groups to protect white people — not just slave owners — from becoming casualties of slave revolts. The Fugitive Slave Clause made every American a constitutionally bound slave-catcher because the founders imagined themselves as victims of Africans’ desire to be free. White people kill more cops, and according to a 2016 report by the Center for Policing Equity, the rate of police killings has no correlation to crime. But because of systemic white victimhood, police officers can shoot unarmed Black people and claim they are the ones who feared for their lives. This victim mentality explains why Kyle Rittenhouse and George Zimmerman became victims of the people they killed.
Read the full article on TheGrio’s website.