The Arbery Murderers and Routine Casual Racism

Details from their hate crime trial reveal just what you would expect.

There are people who are shocked and surprised to know that the murderers of Ahmaud Arbery’s communications were rife with racist language.

Most Black people are not surprised.

An FBI analyst testifying in the three men’s federal hate crime trial catalogued the kind of language what we would expect from them.

Travis McMichael has made phone message and social media posts where he used the N-Word, stated his preference for Black protestors to be run over and for a Black person to be murdered for pranking a White person. He also said that he loved his job because “zero n----rs work with me.”

Greg McMichael posted memes about mythical Irish slaves being treated worse than other slaves, adding that “When was the last time you heard an Irishman b----ing about how the world owes them a living?

William Bryan joked about being a grand marshal of Martin Luther King parade, referred to Black with racial slurs, and spoke of a “monkey parade.” Bryan’s daughter was dating a Black man, who Bryan referred to with the N-Word.

Black people knew that all three men spoke and thought like this.

We are not surprised that this communication rife with the N-Word was met with tacit acceptance and not questioned. (The only noted exception in testimony was Bryan’s daughter, who said about her boyfriend, “Yes, he’s Black … But honestly, it’s just a color. It doesn’t define him or make me love him any less.”).

We know that they were taught this behavior. Greg obviously sought to raise Travis to be a racist, and he accomplished his task.

Greg was raised to be a racist by his parents or learned from someone else.

The same with Bryan.

This routine, casual racism that is said to be extinct and nonexistent is alive, well, and quite active.

It’s active in the open contempt and hostility for a concept as banal as “Black Lives Matter.”

It’s found in state legislature passing laws to that hinder Black and People of Color from voting.

It’s evident that Sha’Carri Richardson was disqualified from competing in the Olympics because of smoking marijuana while Kamila Valieva was still allowed to compete after testing positive for a performance enhancing drug.

It’s alive in the thoroughly debunked myth of Irish slaves who were treated worse than Black slaves.

It’s present in the laughably hypocritical stance of people who are aghast at removing Confederate statues, but rail against teaching Critical Race Theory, and who loudly decry “cancel culture” while banning books that speak inconvenient truths.

Every Black person who is honest about life and their everyday experiences knows that racism is real and pervasive.

It is cruel and calculating, and at other times,

frighteningly mundane.