Steve QJ
2 min readApr 30, 2021

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It's so infuriating that you feel like you need to explain any of this to me. Not only am I black, I'm a black writer who writes about racism. I'm incredibly confident I know the statistics on these issues better than you do. But here's what's missing from your analysis of Daunte's case:

Daunte would still be alive if he hadn't tried to run because of an outstanding warrant.

You can mind read about racism or talk about hypotheticals all you want, but I, who actually wants that black life to still be here with us, am more concerned with the facts regarding his death than whether we can minimise his culpability by crying racism when that obviously wasn't why he died.

This is what genuine solidarity looks like. Not making excuses, but looking at a situation as honestly and clearly as you can so that the people who are harmed aren't harmed in future.

As for who cares about whether we "screw up a few white lives", Martin Luther King cared for one:

"We will not seek to substitute one tyranny for another, thereby subverting justice. We will not seek to rise from a position of disadvantage to one of advantage. This is why I say that a doctrine of black supremacy is as dangerous as a doctrine of white supremacy.

God is not interested merely in the freedom of black men and brown men and yellow men, but God is interested in the freedom of the whole human race and the creation of a society where all men will live together as brothers." - https://www.smu.edu/News/2014/mlk-at-smu-transcript-17march1966

And more to the point, I care. Anybody with an ounce of sense and compassion cares. Yes, bias works from a deep place, but ignorance and bitterness work from somewhere far deeper and more terrible. I suggest you have a serious think about what the world you want to create looks like.

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Steve QJ
Steve QJ

Written by Steve QJ

Race. Politics. Culture. Sometimes other things. Almost always polite. Find more at https://steveqj.substack.com

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