Photo Credit: The Daily Mirror
For those of you looking at the headline in a quizzical
way, there’s a reason for it.
As the global outpouring of anger and despair over the
killing of Cecil The Lion outside of a wildlife preserve
in Zimbabwe by a dentist named Walter Palmer from
Minnesota dissipates, I thought that it might be best
to sit back and think about this situation in line with
a request a good friend made. A request that covers
an issue that is just as outrageous & anger-inducing
and has been for quite some time. But, not for everyone.
That reasoning has its roots in history, forgotten to
some extent either on purpose or by indifference.
That second issue? Black Lives Matter. The movement
that has risen like a volcano from the ocean floor to
billow and explode, a movement that is a declaration
of the fact that the lives of Black people are meaningful
and should not be further subjected to the degredation
and extermination of system influenced by patriarchy
and white supremacy. A movement that is about Black
self-love and determination. The Black Lives Matter
movement, founded by three queer Black women in
Alicia Garza, Opal Tometti and Patrisse Cullors, has gained
tremendous strength since the heinous acquittal of George
Zimmerman for the murder of Trayvon Martin. And as
it has grown, so has the number of tragedies involving
the deaths of Black men, women, trans women and
children at the hands of some police officers as well as
“lone wolf” white domestic terrorists and rednecks. It
seems as if there’s a hashtag commemorating these
tragedies every few hours on social media, which has
been a better platform than the 24-hour news networks
who seem to be on top of other stories rather than these
Black deaths. Yet there’s a trend online that grows like a
rabid infection among some people. The response of, “All
Lives Matter.” You’ve seen this before - someone will make
a post about one of these stolen lives and someone will
undoubtedly make the response, “but ALL lives matter.
We’re supposed to be unified, blah blah.” Sometimes as
a twist, they’ll throw in a Dr. Martin Luther King quote as
a sort of “I’m more committed to being anti-racist than
YOU” trump card. It’s been the basis for many vicious
arguments and is now a favored weapon of bigoted trolls.
Now keep that in mind as we speak about poor Cecil.
The death of Cecil The Lion at the hands of a dentist who
is essentially proud of being a big-game hunter is galling.
Galling because Palmer paid a professional hunter by the
name of Theo Bronkhorst $50,000 to help him lure Cecil
out of a habitat and wound him with a bow & arrow, then
track him for close to 2 days before dispatching him with
a rifle. Palmer issued a statement that wasn’t really an
apology, which angered the public even more to the point
that they trashed him on Yelp and began an online petition
to have him answer for the crime. Even late-night talk show
host Jimmy Kimmel was moved to tears over Cecil’s killing,
prompting him to donate $15,000 to the Oxford Wildlife
Conservation Fund, a group that had saved Cecil and his
brother seven years ago and put a tracking collar on him -
which was removed along with his head and pelt. And the
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Department has begun investigating
and lawmakers in Congress put a bill together to try to
stop illegal game hunting and trophy imports of animals. Cecil’s
killing within the boundaries of the Hwange National Park
is no doubt one of the more apalling instances of illegal
hunting and poaching on the African continent. But there
is a question or two posed within all of the online outrage
and the mob justice mentality that has risen in response.
That question, whether you may ask it or not, is: why are
there more people who seem to be moved to concern and
outrage over the death of a lion than the almost daily deaths
of Black people in the United States and globally in horrible
incidents?
The answer seems to be empathy, or a distinct and broad
empathy gap that has been nurtured and reinforced by an
era where information is rapidly distributed but not fully
ingested and understood. There’s a historic element to this
that has to be taken into account that can explain the plight
of Cecil and Black lives. That element? The “great white hunter”
trope. The term, used to refer to those European and later
American white males who went into the African continent to
hunt animals for sport beginning in the late 1800’s, is a relic
of those days of privilege and bloodletting. It’s been romanticized
in literature thanks to Isak Dinesen, Ernest Hemingway and
even former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt and praised
in films like “King Solomon’s Mines” and “Mogambo” among
others. The white hunter, standing as a shining light in the
“Dark Continent”. The term represents an elitist attitude that
was brutally reinforced through the years by the slaughter of
countless lions, elephants, giraffes, rhinos and other animals.
Which was in addition to the brutality inflicted on the natives,
with the Congo of King Leopold II as a particularly bloody example.
The wave of independence movements sweeping across the
African continent in combination with the concerted efforts of
wildlife conservation groups helped to greatly diminish the hunter.
But not completely. It didn’t extinguish the sentiment. And if
anything can fuel racism and other brutal behavior, it is sentiment.
A longing to recreate a time long gone. Think about the furor
over the Confederate flag in this country and the sheer resistance
laden with racism by those clinging to it as “part of their heritage.”
Empathy flies out of the window. This is what fueled Palmer.
I mean, for all of his supposed feelings of being sorry, the man
is now nowhere to be found as there are calls for his extradition
back to Zimbabwe and death threat levied against him.
That same nostalgia, whether some want to admit it or not, exists
in the indifference and outright disrespect of those Black people
who have been murdered in this country since 2013 in ways that
have grabbed national attention. From Trayvon to Rekia, to Eric
to Sandra and many more in between, there is no doubt that
these people died for just being Black and a perceived threat. Look
at the recent murder of Sam Dubose in Cincinatti by a university
cop who claimed he was afraid for his life during a routine traffic
stop. If it wasn’t for the body camera footage, his story would not
have been questioned. Yet there is not the general consensus of
outrage for his and all of the others’ lives. Again, a sentiment that
is nudged on a political and social level and reinforced by systemic
inequities. A sentiment of distrust of ‘scary, uppity Negro boogiemen’
that dates back as long as that of the ‘white hunter’. I’ve seen some
commentary online that is so rank and vile that it would make a
Klan member blush coming from seemingly ordinary people. Mostly
white but also from those of color who want to get in where they fit
in. Commentary that debases these men, women and children as
nothing. And in the same breath, elevating the lives of animals over
them. Even some vegans and their organizations, who are not above
using slavery as a poor analogy to eating meat. Don’t believe me?
Look it up. And out of all of the deaths of Black people in police custody,
there’s only 3 cases where an indictment has been brought against the
officers in question. The disconnected empathy lies at the root of why so many
feel compelled to speak out about any issue that doesn’t hit close to
home. Like Cecil. Or any other issue that has set social media ablaze.
Now am I saying that you shouldn’t have empathy for Cecil’s death?
No. I feel that you can and should be highly upset about that and the
fact that Black and Brown people are dying under horrible circumstances
that criminalize and degrade them even as they’re laid into the ground.
I also feel that one should state that Black Lives Matter without having
to add a disclaimer to it or having to hear “All Lives Matter” as code for
“get over it”, another verbal microagression that’s all the rage. Or to
have to deal with someone employing a naive approach steeped in not
trying to acknowledge differences and celebrate how they can add to
harmony if allowed. The tragedies stemming from 2013 to now have
started to really affect some people and spark a dialogue, however
fleeting in this country. We keep talking about having this conversation
on race. You cannot have a conversation without someone or some
people who are willing to actively listen with empathy. As much as some
don’t want to admit it, they’re going to forget about Cecil as soon as the
next TMZ headline crawls across their TV or smartphone screen. And
they wish they could do that with Black Lives Matter. And in that gap,
lies the ugly truth that gets hidden in online mob justice and distraction.