After Stormzy criticised May police stormed his home
Wednesday night Stormzy won 2 Brit awards before closing the award show where he rapped about Theresa May and Grenfell, Hours later police stormed his home.
Media are saying it was a case of racism, but was it or was it something more sinister?
Is dictator May going to far? Was this some sort of threat? were they hoping to find drugs or something so they can ridicule a pro Corbyn rapper?
Wed night, the Metropolitan police attended an alleged report of a person conspiring to burgle a Chelsea flat. After kicking the door down, they “found there to be two lawful occupants inside”, and no burglary. The supposed burglar was UK grime artist Stormzy. The home in question, and the broken door, was his.
Before his returning home, Stormzy had been at an awards ceremony. But the story of a successful black man going home to his West London flat does not fit the narrative. The black criminal thug who needs to be controlled does. This is what African American philosopher George Yancy calls ‘the white gaze’.
With its antecedents in Transatlantic slavery, this is not just an individual gaze, but a structural logic that threatens to engulf us all. This is a gaze that erases the humanity of black people. Looking through the white gaze, too often, white people generally, and white police officers specifically, do not see black people. What they see instead is a figment of their imagination: an imagination that has been collectively constructed for centuries. In the place of black humanity, they see The Black monster.
Certainly, Stormzy is not alone in his experience. It bears a striking resemblance to that of Henry Louis Gates Jr, a Black Harvard Professor. Gates Jr was locked out of his own home in a predominantly white middle-class area. As he and his driver attempted to push open the door, a neighbour called the police. According to Gates Jr, the police officer that arrived failed to identify himself and despite his walking with a cane, treated him as a threat.
Like Stormzy, Gates Jr has the profile to challenge what happened. As he acknowledged however, this isn’t the case for most black people who come into contact with the police.
Comments
Post a Comment