Renisha McBride, 19 and killed for asking for help

Richard Mellor

What madness there is in the US.  Now a 19 year old girl whose car crashed in Deerborn Michigan and who went knocking on doors for help is dead.  She was a young black woman in a predominantly white neighborhood, although from what I remember about Dearborn there is a sizeable Arab community there also.

She walks up to a door and knocks on it according to reports so far and the homeowner shot her in the head.  The homeowner is claiming self defense according to reports in the media over here but the "Stand Your Ground Rule" hasn't been mentioned yet; Michigan has that law.

I'm sitting here and thinking to myself that black folks have the patience of Job.  My granddaughter is black, a couple of years younger than Renisha McBride, the young woman shot on a porch trying to get help after an accident. I can't get this off my mind and what I would want to do if I were the parent of this young woman. I couldn't fault the black community for exploding and tearing up Dearborn or any other community; it is open season on young black folks in this country, especially young black men

I have no idea if this person that shot this young woman was a hard core racist, I'm assuming the person is white.  I know though that racism is institutionalized, built in to the fabric of society and that people have racist views about other people as a result of the institutionalized racism in society, the same with sexism.  This week a young transgender teenager wearing a skirt and asleep on a bus is in hospital after another youth set fire to his clothes as he slept. In Renisha's case I am trying to fathom how this homeowner felt the need to shoot a young unarmed girl in the head.  How was his life threatened? "Self Defense"?  How can you claim self defense in this situation?

Malcolm X said that you can't have capitalism without racism. This is so true, but you can't have peace or equality or put an end to poverty, or healthy human relations under capitalism either.  

This is not a civilized society, it is a very sick society, there is no cure for it except to cut the cancer out and discard it. I'm so mad it's hard for me to write at all, I just had to say something I can't get it off my mind and I can't stop thinking about her parents and loved ones and what they must be going through. I want to hug them.