Every white person talking about how Poussey Washington’s murder at the hands of police/security officers is meant to “teach us something” needs to shut the entirety of every fuck up.
What you fail to realize is that this is NOT something that Black people, especially Black WLW need to learn. We. Already. Know. We are constantly mourning our fallen sisters. I don’t need to see my favorite character senselessly murdered so I can “learn something” from the “message they’re trying to send.”
White writers killing off Black WLW so that white people can feel something or learn something is trash, racist, and white privilege at its finest.
It only works because white people have the emotional distance and lack of empathy for Black characters required to view a senseless death and think “hmm…what am I supposed to learn from this” instead of the visceral angry reaction they have when white characters they personally relate to are murdered on screen. That’s why there was an entire internet campaign and articles from media outlets about Lexa’s death while Poussey’s murder is met with “oh this was a well executed message” and “omg spoiler alert!” White people were angry about Lexa because they saw themselves in her. It was personal. But a dead Black WLW is an accurate and appropriate enough representation of “real life” to “teach a lesson” because of course this is what we expect to happen to Black WLW on screen and off, it’s what happens to “those people.” Black WLW are supposed to be miserable and brutalized and then senselessly murdered because that’s how society always treats us. That’s why it’s a “message.”
Too often media “messages” are really just white writers saying “we created a fictional version of what happens to Black people in every day life for guiltless white entertainment & consumption because we can’t admit we’re entertained by the actual 24/7 news coverage of murdered Black people.”
Sandra Bland is real. Eric Garner is real. All the Black trans women who are murdered and get no justice are real. There is plenty of real video footage of Black women and men being brutalized and murdered by the police. In fact, many Black folks are trying to get a reprieve from that reality when we turn on shows like OITNB to see happy, smiling Black WLW. The reality of being Black in America is bleak enough, we don’t need to turn on the TV to see people that look like us being murdered, especially so that white people can “learn something.” Now, Black people are left to mourn yet another Black person because white entertainment and “learning” is more important than Black people’s emotional well-being and careers (because Samira Wiley is real and is now no longer on the show).
In the end, when white people say Poussey’s death was well-executed, or was meant to teach people something, or send a message, they mean “white writers murdered a Black person on screen to entertain and teach white people.” Because it sure as hell isn’t meant to teach Black people anything accept what we already know: we’re expendable and our deaths are and always will be entertainment for white people. If you wanna teach white people something, get them a book or link them to Google, don’t kill off a Black character.
In short, fuck white Hollywood’s “lessons” about police brutality & the lack of care and respect for Black bodies and lives. BLACK PEOPLE ALREADY KNOW AND IF WHITE PEOPLE NEED FICTIONAL “LESSONS” BECAUSE THE REAL LIVE DEATHS OF BLACK PEOPLE AREN’T GETTING THROUGH, THEY WERE NEVER GOING TO LEARN ANYWAY.
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