George Floyd is a prop

Whitlock: Veneration of George Floyd is racist and must be stopped

OP-ED

JASON WHITLOCK

JUNE 22, 2021

https://www.theblaze.com/op-ed/whitlock-veneration-of-george-floyd-is-racist-and-must-be-https://www.theblaze.com/op-ed/whitlock-veneration-of-george-floyd-is-racist-and-must-be-The statues unveiled last week in Newark, New Jersey, and Brooklyn, New York, that memorialize the final nine minutes of George Floyd's life denigrate and diminish the reputation of black men.

George Floyd was a victim — of his drug addiction, self-destructive behavior, and Derek Chauvin's misconduct.

Floyd is not Jesus. He's not Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, or Medgar Evers, black men who died tragically in service of promoting racial fairness. Floyd isn't Crispus Attucks, the first man killed in America's Revolutionary War. Floyd isn't Emmett Till, an innocent victim of anti-black bigotry.

Floyd isn't any of the black men I know who are terrific fathers, husbands, providers, and protectors. Floyd isn't "Uncle Jimmy," my media sidekick, whose primary job is father to his young sons, James and Jamill.

George Floyd is a prop corporate media uses for attention, a pawn liberal politicians use to push policy, and a punching bag social activists use as a symbol to explain black people and promote themselves.

A prop, a pawn, and a punching bag.

That is not the recipe for deification and statues. It's a recipe for the impugnment of the character, integrity, and reputation of black people.

The politicians, activists, celebrity influencers, and media personalities — the exploiters of George Floyd — are determined to transform an amateur porn star, violent criminal, and drug abuser into a national hero. They do so because they have no respect for black men or black people.

Yes, I'm talking about Nancy Pelosi, Maxine Waters, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Shaun King, LeBron James, Don Lemon, Anderson Cooper, Rachel Maddow, Jemele Hill, Michael Eric Dyson, Al Sharpton, Joy Reid, Joe Scarborough, Chris Cuomo, Jack Dorsey, Colin Kaepernick, and the editors and writers at the New York Times, the Washington Post, Buzzfeed, and the Daily Beast.

The entire satanic cabal of cultural elites, both white and black, are using George Floyd and other forms of racial division to overthrow a flawed system of governance that has outperformed any other system ever invented.

The orchestrated destruction of the American black man is an orchestrated attack on America's moral conscience. The retelling of the black American journey as a narrative of victimhood rather than victory is the central strategy in painting the American experiment as a failure in need of a Marxist overhaul.

America's global elites prefer China and the Communist Chinese Party. That's why we're erecting statues honoring George Floyd's last nine minutes of life. That's why President Biden suggested Floyd's death was more meaningful than Dr. Martin Luther King's.

Biden and the elitist revolutionaries want us to believe that America's system of government denies black people agency. We're defenseless punching bags for Trump supporters, Proud Boys, conservative evangelicals, rural militias, Republicans, and every other group that doesn't pledge allegiance to the Democratic Party.

In their reimagining of our history, we have no accomplishments more compelling than our suffering. Our story isn't about what we've done or will do. It's about what has happened to us. We're an American tragedy.

George Floyd is relevant only because of the actions of Derek Chauvin, a white police officer. The new fixation on the "Tulsa Massacre" is a story about what happened to black people. The new Juneteenth national holiday is a story about what happened to black people.

No one who wants to promote a positive self-image and inspire young people to achieve would explain their journey the way black people are being coerced into explaining theirs.

It's offensive to build a statue celebrating a man whose most memorable accomplishment is having a policeman kneel on his neck and back for nine minutes. It's insane.

Let me use the story of LeBron James as an example. If LeBron wanted to inspire his own kids with a story about his basketball career, would he tell a story about what happened to him in the NBA Finals series against the Dallas Mavericks or what he did in the Finals series against the Golden State Warriors in 2016?

Would he paint himself as a panicked loser or a courageous champion?

How does the George Floyd statue paint black men? The statue in Newark has Floyd seated on a park bench wearing a "wifebeater" shirt. I'm shocked the sculptor didn't put a crack pipe in one hand and a 40-ounce of beer in the other.

The statues of Floyd need to be torn down immediately. They're racist.

They're designed to symbolize that America turns black men into lazy, criminal drug addicts. I reject that in the name of Frederick Douglass, Richard Allen, Booker T. Washington, Benjamin Banneker, George Washington Carver, Thurgood Marshall, Clarence Thomas, Colin Powell, Muhammad Ali, Jackie Robinson, Ben Carson, Nat Turner, and so many more. I reject it on behalf of my father, my brother, and so many of my friends.

As black men, we must put a stop to politicians, activists, and corporate media using us for an agenda that doesn't serve us. And those of you who love this country must join us in putting a stop to this exploitation and bigotry.

Elites denigrate black men as a means to tear down America. Elites finance, platform, and promote black degeneracy in music, movies, social media, podcasting, police interaction, etc., as a means to destroy America.

Challenging the left's systemic racism is the duty of every God-loving, patriotic American.