Reason First: Is the Black Woman a Target in the World?

The fury of the alleged white supremacist man is a thirst, that may never be quenched. For Austin Shuffield, the man charged with aggravated assault, interference with a 911 call, and public intoxication, against a twenty four-year-old woman of color, L'Daijohnique Lee, the advent of mobile devices recording his moves, including uppercuts and jabs stood against him. All of this activity shows how something as small as blocking an exit can lead to acts of the initiation of physical force.

While matters could have remained verbal, Shuffield took it upon himself to step outside of the boundaries of the law. This isn’t a missive against all white men, just those who find through no evidence, their race to be superior to all others. As he pummeled the young woman, it appeared as a modern day lynching. This time however, a cell phone camera caught his action. The emotion-driven cult of using force to deal with problems is afoot in America and the world. The fact that the woman seemed to possess no hand skills may impel women and men to take martial arts and defense classes. Of course males like Shuffield should be men, or rationality and learn to discuss disputes on a higher plane of discourse.

This sentiment that other people outside of the white race or the Christian faith are inferior has been perpetrated for centuries. The latest incarnation was of course the Christchurch, New Zealand mass murderer. The ideology behind that massive attack and this unfortunate scuffle remains the same. In order to maintain superiority, the white supremacist must seek to instill fear.

His aims are to break down the social fabric, and any signs of reason to bits. Shuffield is responsible for attacking this woman’s physical self, but the pain of her soul is more profound. From slavery to Jim Crow Laws, black mothers have been raped, mutilated, told to have more than a dozen babies to purchase their freedom, shot, stabbed, strung upon trees, burned alive. It is because figures like Shuffield that blacks still hold onto a distrust of all whites. While this is a error on their parts, it is more important to examine the psychology behind the vicious acts that allegedly white supremacists start, against people with darker complexions and coarser hair. Intellectual Ta-Nehisi Coates in his work Between the World and Me (2015) makes it a point to say that “black bodies” have been damaged and that’s true, but what about the the black minds that have been hampered, and destroyed by racial bigotry?

The mentality of a black person is what is most important. The reasoning mind is what separates the animals from man. The woman in the video seems to be on the defensive as Shuffield commits his first act of aggression by slapping the phone out of the woman’s hand, thus interfering with a 911 call. His barrage of punches to the woman’s face stand as symbols of injustice perpetrated by the alleged white supremacist hand.

It’s a wonder how events that seem so trivial can escalate, and become fodder for the digital news agencies, blogs, vlogs, and established news sites. This altercation reflects poorly on white supremacy, but not white people. To lump all melanin challenged people into a box, and check it as deplorable would be an injustice to Caucasians everywhere. It is important to point out the individual is the sovereign factor in any discourse, about what a person does. Shuffield represents Shuffield. His acts should be condemned for its flagrant nature, and his inability to stand up to a man and fight. Is Shuffield too afraid to face someone of his own weight, height, build and other physical traits? For his actions, Shuffield’s charges remain apt. While it is unclear to what he will be sentenced, the fact remains that his ugly, puny, display of the start of physical force will be yet another chapter, in the ongoing saga in the black woman’s struggle to be a first class citizen on the world stage.