I really wasn’t paying too much attention to the Lindsay Clancy case, but now that they’ve decided to basically dox a Black juror and drag his name through the mud because he wouldn’t let this White woman off, well…now I gotta point out some things.

There was this emerging trend after the #MeToo movement, particularly among White women, of portraying grown women as “girls” who are somehow not mentally or emotionally mature enough to bear responsibility for their actions when men are involved. The infantilization of women has been used to absolve them of their choices and their actions.

A woman does something terrible and suddenly the question becomes. “But what did a man do to her?”

Now don’t misunderstand me, I know the importance of recognizing abuse, coercion, manipulation and the ways men can harm women. I also understand the importance of recognizing the affects of postpartum depression. But it seems we’re walking on this fine line between “understanding the circumstances” and “removing the responsibility.”

So this is where my ears perk up and I start observing interesting behaviors from liberal White women who claim to be allies and against “anti-black” rhetoric.

Because people tend to have a hard time holding two opposing beliefs in their heads, one concept has to win out over the other.

We have to be honest about something here: White women may be inclined to empathize with other White women and make excuses for them before siding with a lone Black man who stands firm against her.

We’re watching in real time two supposedly progressive beliefs collide:

Believe women. Protect women from misogynistic men.

And:

Don’t perpetuate racist stereotypes about Black men as inherently violent and dangerous.

So I am not particularly surprised that a White woman is being framed through the lens of female victimhood; a man must have driven her to this, therefore we need to understand her. But when a Black male juror refuses to see her that way, suddenly he becomes the dangerous, abusive, misogynistic man. He now becomes her abuser, and she his victim. The Black man becomes the threat, and the White woman becomes the one who needs protecting.

This is the part that I find fascinating to witness. The racism isn’t necessarily coming from someone consciously thinking “I hate Black men.” It’s coming from the willingness to reach for the violent Black man narrative when it conveniently protects the White woman you’ve already decided needs protecting.

From my observations, any White person who isn’t violently raging against the system will comfortably tuck themselves into white supremacy when it benefits them. White people don’t have to consciously believe in white supremacy to participate in it.

Sometimes that looks like calling yourself an ally while participating in the very anti-black rhetoric you claim to oppose.

Because the audacity of a Black man accusing a White woman of being guilty, there must be something wrong with him.

Let’s investigate him instead.