As Ahmaud Arbery’s death has called into question a generational legacy of white supremacy, the damage has been compounded by the fact that there were no arrests for this lynching for over two months. Those elected to serve and protect the people were seemingly complicit through their alarming inaction; and the mischaracterizations about this young man’s past as criminal and somehow deserving of death illustrates what has seemingly become a normal pattern in the war against black bodies in this nation.
Media narratives credited the resurfaced video as necessary within the “pursuit of justice.” It captured the last dying moments of this young man’s life.
Though not surprising, it is alarming to know that there existed a belief that this was justified. This lynching is rooted deeply in racial terrorism and statutory racism. The legal justification provided by both the arrested McMichaels, the Glynn County Police Department, and the Brunswick and Waycross district attorneys, suggest that there was nothing wrong with what happened on the afternoon of Feb. 23, 2020.
Georgia’s citizen’s arrest law predates the post-Reconstruction South. In this reality, citizens would be able to arrest blacks for any perception of crime, even if no offense was actually ever done – which in many cases would still constitute moral turpitude, and disenfranchise blacks from actual citizenship. Rights would be taken away, individual agency would be ignored and bodily autonomy would be legally forfeited. This was statutory confirmation for former white slave owners to ensure that they had a way to maintain their most profitable possession – black bodies.
These anti-black codes created legal opportunities to disenfranchise and dismantle the autonomy and agency of black life. At the white wo/man’s presumption of a black wo/man’s guilt, they could exercise the rights of a citizen to detain and use force as necessary. Laws do not necessarily deter violent crime, but their presence can surely justify it. Self- defense and use of force are invoked every time, yet somehow these laws never quite seem to apply to the black victims who were, again, literally fighting for their lives. It is impossible to not link this case to the historical parallels of structural racism and white supremacy.
Ahmaud Arbery was black. He appeared threatening and criminal. There was reportedly even consideration that he could have been armed. All of these pre-existing “names” may have already registered in the mind of Travis and Gregory McMichael; and they are charged with acting upon them, perhaps empowered by exposure to racist systems of Georgia’s code.
The very existence of these kinds of laws are not circumstantial, nor do they simply exist without consequence. For every Ahmaud Arbery video, there are other victims of racial terror who die due to codified racism.
While there cannot be ignorance to the increased need for video evidence during deadly encounters due to the insufficient nature of our criminal legal system, the narrative of necessity cannot be underestimated either. The challenge is that such a narrative lacks emphasis on the danger in continuously needing to visually see black people’s blood drain in our streets for something to happen. It also undermines and ignores the very real work that was done by the Arbery family and local community leaders who fought day and night to ensure accountability was brought forth and justice was served.
As the pursuit of justice continues, the charges filed in this case are a step towards truth. This is a type of truth that uplifts those directly affected, stands in solidarity with those who are actively fighting, and speaks in power for those who are either silent or too tired to do so themselves. The only way forward for true justice is to create a world where we do not just hold murderers accountable, but a world where we can create the kind of community where murderers do not exist at all.
This will take consistent and diligent work, but as we continue to make conscious strides towards destroying statutory racism and prioritizing judicial accountability, we can begin to cripple the narrative placed by the judicial system and its oppressors concerning black lives. Until that world exists, we will continue to ensure that those who are responsible for these kinds of heinous acts will be brought to account immediately.
Rev. James “Major” Woodall is state president, Georgia NAACP.
