Brown, Simone. Dark Matters: On the Surveillance of Blackness. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 2015.
In Dark Matters, Simone Brown analyzes the effects of surveillance on black youth, and contends that the current systems of discriminatory surveillance are part of a system of “unfinished emancipation” (Brown 13) where 21st century black Americans are experiencing an extension of the white prejudicial fears that lead to 19th and 20th century black Americans being surveilled. Brown discusses that the inclusion of black experiences into surveillance studies is nuanced in its own rights, and that the topic of surveillance is routinely associated with white experiences who fear governmental control. However, black Americans, who disproportionately experience the effects of improper surveillance including stalking, police brutality, and misidentification, are not only left out of the narrative of peoples affected by improper surveillance, but the lack of black and brown representation in the study of surveillance is reflective of American’s lack of understanding of the unique surveillance experience of black Americans.
I focused primarily on Brown’s theories about black surveillance being tied to historically unfinished process of emancipation. Brown clarifies that an “unfinished emancipation” suggests that America’s contextual history of slavery matters in explaining the reasons why black Americans are surveilled (Brown 13). She contends that we must grapple with the historical significance of systemic mistrust of black bodies before we are to engage with current elements of racialized surveillance (Brown 13). Brown’s contention on racialized surveillance related to my studies into the Michael Brown case. Officer Darren Wilson stated that he believed that Michael Brown was the culprit of a gas station store robbery, later verified to be true. However, as the former police chief of Ferguson expresses in an address to the media, the reason officer Wilson initially stopped Michael Brown was because he was “walking in the street”, an action that most white people are afforded non-intervention from law enforcement (https://www.cnn.com/2014/08/15/us/missouri-teen-shooting/index.html interview with former police chief of Ferguson). The actions of Officer Wilson clearly demonstrate a belief that Michael Brown and his friend Dorian Johnson, two black teenagers, were improperly surveilled for “walking while black”, and explains the racist levels of surveillance as stated by Brown in her book.
Williams, Dana A. "'Dusk of Dawn': An Essay toward an Old Concept of Race; Or, on the Death of Michael Brown." CLA Journal 58, no. 3/4 (2015): 212-20. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44324396.
In Dusk of Dawn, Dana A. Williams analyzes how W.E.B. Dubois’ ideas on race relations permeate the slaying of Michael Brown. In her essay, Williams explains Du Bois’ idea of “The Great Fear” where black people, upon garnering some form of esteem or social status, are immediately scene as a threat to white Americans. Williams offers that Brown’s slaying was tied to this belief that black people are dangerous when outside of their designated “place”. Williams asserts that Brown violated this place by engaging with officer Darren Wilson and challenging his authority to stop Brown (Williams 215). Any form of black bravado was insufferable, and officer Darren Wilson, impacted by his own threated white masculinity asserted his state ordained dominance by gunning down Michael Brown.
I focused mostly on the quotes by Du Bois that Williams used in her piece. An understanding that a black man’s self-assertation as a human being could lead to a deadly encounter with white officers informed my understanding of the Michael Brown shooting. I applied both Williams’ and Du Bois’ theories to my question about media’s role in proliferating the image of black youth as dangerous, even when killed. With greater analysis from this source, it becomes clear that media acts as an agent of warning to black youth, and as way to justify white fears surrounding black youth in the status quo. When officer Wilson defended himself in an interview with George Stephanopoulos, he added key phrases that signaled Michael Brown as an almost inhuman force that was fighting officer Wilson. By allowing officer Wilson space perpetuating blatant lies about Michael Brown’s appearance, strength, and size, news media played a vital role in making the lie of dangerous black teenagers more accessible to white Americans who needed a way to justify the slayings, and assess Michael Brown as a dangerous black youth who got out of his “place” and challenged a police officer.
Eligon, John. “Two Lives at Crossroads in Ferguson.” The New York Times, August 25, 2014.
In John Eligon’s The New York Times article, Eligon documents Michael Brown’s background, specifically looking into the months leading to his murder. Eligon’s article focuses specifically on Michael Brown’s previously dangerous behaviors of drinking and drug use. The article offers insight from Michael Brown’s parents who categorize him both as a prankster, and a young man who struggled to move forward in the world. Eligon’s article is part of a two part, front page article that puts the life stories of Officer Darren Wilson and Michael Brown side-by-side one another. Interestingly, the New York Times is a reputable left-leaning source, yet despite this, the Times’ coverage of the Michael Brown case offered one of the most glaringly anti-Brown reports during the beginning of the investigation.
As one of my primary sources, I focused on Eligon’s propensity to focus on the darker side of Michael Brown’s past as opposed to the case at hand. First, by juxtaposing Eligon’s article on Michael Brown with the complementary one about Officer Wilson, the NY Times is making an implicit statement that both Michael Brown and Officer Wilson were fault for Brown’s murder. Along with the dark, grainy photo of Brown in a flat-bill cap next to Wilson in a police uniform, the Times paints a racialized picture that is known all too well in America: the white officer and the black thug. Starting with this juxtaposition immediately makes Michael Brown less sympathetic, and unfairly forces him into a dangerous stereotype that white Americans can more easily identify with black youth: a stereotype that can help white Americans justify an unjustifiable slaying at the hands of a police officer. Furthermore, Eligon goes out of his way to negatively categorize Michael Brown’s drug and alcohol use despite its irrelevance to his murder, and makes it appear that Michael Brown is in some way on trial for his own murder do to his past actions. The real racist homerun is Eligon’s statement that Michael Brown was “no angel”, a phrase that sparked a backlash on twitter and other social media platforms (link to article about backlash= https://publiceditor.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/08/25/an-ill-chosen-phrase-no-angel-brings-a-storm-of-protest/). Eligon’s words reflect Du Bois’ claims about the “Great Fear” of white Americans, who use conceived stereotypes about black Americans to justify their conceptions about race. By casting Michael Brown as a person who abused drugs and alcohol, who was “no angel” in his past, white Americans are able to reason why Officer Wilson felt threatened by an unarmed teenager, and why Officer Wilson would not need to be charged for the crime.
Wilson, Darren. “Officer Darren Wilson Says He Struggled with Brown, Feared For His Life.” Interview by George Stephanopoulos. ABC News, November 25, 2014.
In this interview conducted by ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, Officer Darren Wilson shares his accounts of the death of Michael Brown on August 9, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri. Stephanopoulos questions Officer Wilson on his actions, what Officer Wilson’s options were, and how Officer Wilson felt personal during the night of Michael Brown’s death. Most importantly this interview produced soundbites that many conservative media outlets reused and treated as fact in Michael Brown’s case.
I focused on the language that Officer Wilson used when describing his shooting of Michael Brown. At one point in the conversation, Officer Wilson is asked by Stephanopoulos to explain how Michael Brown interacted with him as Officer Wilson pulled his vehicle in front of Michael Brown to prevent him from proceeding on his way home. Officer Wilson responded by stating, “I put the car in reverse just past them… I kind of blocked them from escaping and I kind of provided security from everybody… He pushed the door shut and just stares at me… It looked like he was trying to intimidate me...” Officer Wilson’s words depict Michael Brown as an individual with little fear of law enforcement, and feeds into the existing stereotypes of black youth whose hatred of police manifest in dangerously belligerent behaviors when dealing with police officers. Officer Wilson goes onto explain that Michael Brown grabbed his arm inside his car, and that Brown’s grip was “like a 5-year-old holding onto Hulk Hogan”. Officer Wilson is a man comparable in size to Brown, but based on his description of Brown’s features, Wilson would have one believe that Brown possessed some form of inhuman strength and body characteristics. This exaggeration in Wilson’s account is representative of existing stereotypes of black men, who are perceived by white individuals to be both more dangerous, and also inhuman or animal like in description and action. For example, Officer Wilson describes shooting at Michael Brown, and, despite the fact that “he saw his body kind of jerk”, Officer Wilson still contends that Michael Brown “appeared to be bulking up” as if “it was making him mad that I was shooting”. Not only is it ridiculous to think that an unarmed teenager would attempt to run through bullets, but Officer Wilson’s categorization of Michael Brown makes him appear more like a possessed animal than a human being. The George Stephanopoulos interview with Darren Wilson is important to analyze because this was the first time that Americans heard the account of the events from the point of view of Officer Wilson. ABC and George Stephanopoulos create a space for Officer Wilson to both dehumanize Michael Brown and connect Brown to an existing stereotype of the dangerous, inhuman black thug who puts their own life in danger to challenge the “rightful” authority of police officers. Even more so important, Officer Wilson’s words became solidified as facts in the case, based on no external merit or factual evidence, and were spread by conservative media outlets including news outlets, podcasts, and even some public messages from online personalities, reproducing the stereotypes that conservatives used to justify the slaying of an unarmed black teenager.
