A hug of forgiveness for Amber Guyger is not absolution for America's racism | By Issac Bailey for CNNOpinion
Issac Bailey is a long-time journalist based in South Carolina and the Batten Professor for Communication Studies at Davidson College. He's the author of"My Brother Moochie: Regaining Dignity in the Face of Crime, Poverty and Racism in the American South." His next book,"A Black Man in Trumpland: Why We Didn't Riot -- But Should Have," will be released by Other Press in 2020. The views expressed here are his. Read more opinion on CNN.
Had a young black man with a history of saying racist things about white people shot and killed a white police officer in her own home, he likely would not have gotten hugs from a white judge, a hair rub from a white police officer in the courtroom and been granted a kind of absolution by the white cop's brother. Instead of being sentenced to 10 years, he would have likely been sent to prison for the rest of his life, if not to death row.
Issac BaileyHis actions would probably have been used as yet more evidence in the long line of excuses made to ignore or downplay rampant racial disparities that have been with us since the American criminal justice system was created, used to drive home the racist idea that it's OK for police to brutalize or shoot black people because we are supposedly uniquely violent.
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