United States: The Drama of Dearborn Heights

In a residential neighborhood in Detroit, a young black woman was killed Nov. 2 by a white resident at close range and without warning. This dirty business reflects an increase in racial tensions in the country.

No one has forgotten Trayvon Martin, the black teenager killed in February 2012 in a Florida subdivision by a watchman named George Zimmerman. Over the course of last summer, Zimmerman (who was just arrested again for threatening his girlfriend with a gun) was eventually acquitted by the court. The emotion aroused across the country by the unjust ruling led Barack Obama, generally stingy in this type of confidence, to publicly evoke his own experience as a black man in the United States.

But on Nov. 2, a similar tragedy took place in Detroit, Michigan. That night in Dearborn Heights, a white residential neighborhood in the west of the city, the quite tipsy Renisha McBride, a 19-year-old African-American woman, lost control of her vehicle and caused a minor accident. Haggard, she refused the help of residents and disappeared. Several hours later, she reappeared on the porch of a house. The homeowner is named Theodore P. Wafer. He is white, 54-years-old and a security agent at the city airport. Believing it to be a burglary, he shot at close range, without warning, at the face of the young woman, who was instantly killed.

The Racial Factor Involved?

Detroit is such a poor city that it officially declared bankruptcy on July 18. Tempers are flaring up quickly. The African-American community doesn’t understand why it took two weeks for the presumed killer to be arrested — like in the sad Martin case. Kym Worthy, the (black) city prosecutor, indicated that the racial factor didn’t play any role in the tragedy, but the family of the victim doesn’t believe it for a second. Neither does the majority of the African-American community. Legitimate defense? Are you kidding? How can an unarmed young woman present an imminent danger, justifying her shooting?

A community leader noted that this type of case is not rare in the United States. An example? In September, in Charlotte, North Carolina, Jonathan Ferrell, 24, came from Florida by car to meet his girlfriend and looked for help after an accident. He was shot 10 times by a police officer — again, without warning. “If Mr. Ferrell was not black or brown, wouldn’t they have asked him a few questions before showering him with bullets?” asks the family attorney.

This time, the police officer was indicted a few hours later — the first time in Charlotte in more than 30 years. But Ferrell is the sixth person in that same city to have been fired on by the police since 2012. “Always the same story,”* commented the local manager of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), a civil rights organization.

“Racial Profiling”

Less dramatic but equally revealing was the recent arrest of two young black customers who were shopping in a New York luxury store. Accused of racial profiling, the managers of said store were convinced that they didn’t have the financial means [to shop there]… The scandal splashed [across the reputation of] the rapper and businessman Jay-Z, associated with the store through the creation of a line of clothing and who, under pressure, just canceled the launch party. This just goes to show that maybe America hasn’t changed as much as we think. When he was young, wasn’t Barack Obama frequently closely monitored in supermarkets?

Anyway, on the political front, the president’s second term has a tendency to focus more on the question of race than the first one. The reason is simple: the resistance to the lingering, often nauseating, stench of opposition by white conservatives — united under the banner of the tea party — to ongoing reforms, intended to primarily benefit minorities.

Obamacare, the famous law on health insurance (the implementation of which has been, incidentally, disastrous), is supported by 60 percent of blacks and only 55 percent of whites. Same thing for the bill on immigration that should lead to the legalization of about 11 million illegal immigrants: 63 percent of blacks are in favor and only 51 percent of whites. The Republicans are pushing to review the bill in 2014.

Preventing Minorities from Voting

At the instigation of the tea party, Republicans have also drastically diminished the program for distribution of food stamps to the poorest families, most of whom are black. In the states that they control, they have adopted very strict laws concerning the identifying documents that are necessary to produce before being authorized to vote. Their effort, more and more openly admitted, is to reduce the rate of participation of minorities — who, annoyingly, have the tendency to vote Democratic. A Republican precinct official in North Carolina confirmed in a televised talk show that the law passed in his state would prevent “lazy black people that want the government to give them everything” from voting. In the face of the following outcry, he was forced to resign.

As for Rand Paul, ultraconservative senator of Kentucky and the candidate for the 2016 Republican primary, he has co-authored his latest book, “The Tea Party Goes to Washington,” with a former radio host who created the “Southern Avenger,” a superhero character who wears a mask with the pattern of the Confederate flag …

As one observer points out: “Few white conservatives envisage the Obama presidency in racial terms. But they are, on the other hand, very conscious that the weight of minorities continues to increase. The Republican base has the distinct impression that it is in the middle of losing control of the country.”* This also corresponds with a demographic reality: By around 2043, whites will represent less than half of the American population. This landslide poses an existential dilemma to the Republican Party. To survive, it must curry favor with the minorities, particularly through a more flexible position on immigration. But in doing so, it runs the risk of alienating its white conservative base.

So the specter of racial tensions continues to haunt the country, but should decrease over time due to the greater tolerance shown by the majority of young Americans. As the liberal think tank Center for American Progress explains in a note, “As rising generations replace older ones … concerns about rising diversity will recede and openness to diversity will increase.”

*Editor’s Note: The original quotation, accurately translated, could not be verified.