Can the Williams Shooting Teach Us About Race?
On New Years Eve 2007, Darrent Williams, a second-year pro and starting corner for the Denver Broncos, was shot and killed outside of a night club in Denver. It would have been tragic had anyone been killed that night. But because it was Darrent Williams, because Denver is really Bronco Town, it turned into a painful loss and a horrific reality check for the Broncos, the city, the NFL, and the fans.
That day, Michael David Smith was the first to cover the story on the Fanhouse, and he reported it as news, only adding the word ’sad’ to describe the incident. It was a commenter on the blog who first brought race into the picture, and it wasn’t isolated. In fact, four of the first five comments on the blog were negative. Instead of being incensed by the violence and pure stupidity of the incident, these people were trying to find a way to blame Darrent Williams for the gun wounds that killed him. They all found a way to do it through race.
Let’s pause it right there. I am white. I am a member of middle-class, white America, and because race has become such a sensitive issue on this topic, I have to preface the rest of my post with this disclaimer: I’m white, and I’m going to talk about race.
I feel it needs to be done because no one has gotten to the bottom of the issue, and that’s become a real problem for me. Four days after the shooting, Dave Krieger wrote a column in the Rocky Mountain News about race. He cited hip-hop culture as negative, and blamed society for not giving African-Americans enough of a chance to break out of, as he called it, “drug-infested urban neighborhoods” like Williams had done as kid growing up in Ft. Worth, Texas.
Two days later and four days after that, he called on both fans and players to support anti-gang charities and reported the Broncos’ offer of $100,000 for information leading to arrest and conviction. All noble causes, to be sure, but throughout Kreiger’s coverage, he hasn’t been able to draw any meaningful conclusions. In my opinion, he’s skirting around the issue and encouraging behavior that, though well-intended, masks the real issue.
The closest Kreiger came to a definitive statement on race was saying that white people cared about this incident only because the black person who was shot was a member of the Broncos. Sadly, that’s true. Krieger went on to write about how our culture glorifies sports figures, but he didn’t address the real issue.
The real issue is entwined in the fact that had Darrent Williams been just another black 24 year-old shot outside a night club, the coverage of his death would have lasted twenty seconds on the nine o’clock news and two short articles in the newspaper - one when the murder was reported, and one when the police announced they couldn’t find any suspects. If a white person had been killed at 2am on New Year’s Eve in the first homicide of 2007, it would have made the front page. The real issue is manifested in the power and anonymity of the blog, something that I’m in a unique position to look at. The issue is in the commenter who posted on the blog saying that all blacks are good for is violence, and the subsequent commenters who agreed with the first.
This goes far beyond the fact that whites only care about this murder because Darrent Williams was a popular football star. The incident brought to the surface a startling dichotomy of the true nature of race relations in American society. On the one hand, the terrible truth is in fact that whites would not have cared about any average black man killed outside a night club at 11th and Grant on New Year’s Eve. There would be no public mourning and no profound community outreach. But on the other hand, this ordeal has brought the racism that was previously allowed to permeate only at the darkest depths of American society bubbling to the top with a new rage. Because if any average black man had died a week and a half ago, there would be no national news segments, no thousands of articles, and no blog post. In short, absolutely no one would know or care about the murder. The comments would have never been made, and the thoughts would have stayed deep inside their owners.
The statements on the Fanhouse expose it, but those same ideas are swimming through the heads of hundreds of thousands, maybe millions or tens of millions of white Americans. The thoughts remain because these people have never been told that it isn’t okay to view America as a two-tiered society, with “honest, hard-working” whites at the top, and “unscrupulous, gang-banging” blacks on the bottom. And Denver is hardly a vestige of the old south. In a fairly integrated, mid-western city, Darrent Williams’ murder has proved once again that multiple forms of racism are still doing fine, right here in America.
In 1994, Ali Kahn, a professor at Washburn University, wrote about institutionalized racism in the United States. He talked about the Civil Rights Movement and how all it had done was force racism under the floorboards. He talked about how when oppressors control the rights of the oppressed, the oppressed really have no rights at all. Some have called him a conspiracy theorist, but this tragic situation with Darrent Williams makes his writing look a lot more truthful. At this awful circumstance where tragedy and fame have met minority, the racism is literally seeping from the floorboards of society. Racism isn’t gone from this supposedly modern, liberal society. In fact, it’s worse - it’s been hidden from the masses, and it’s taken a high-profile tragedy like this to expose it.
And that’s why you won’t find a solution in, as Krieger suggests, giving “other young African-Americans a chance to do the same” as Williams. Not only does Krieger not explain what he means by this, but trying to somehow step in and “help” blacks succeed in the world is exactly what allows the racism to exist. It allows whites to feel they’ve done their share eliminating racism, and to ignore the real problems.
No. The first thing we need to do is acknowledge that the problems exist. The best way to “honor [Williams'] memory” is to recognize the racism it exposed and use that exposure to confront it head on, instead of trying to write ’subtly’ about race and leave people to continue throwing money at problems because it’s a convenient way of life. The truth is, donating to anti-gang programs is going to take some kids of the street and help them out. But the racist sentiment that still exists in this country won’t be eliminated, and the frustration and institutionalized poverty that causes much of the gang activity won’t be gone.
That said, we also can’t forget that a person brought us here. So now I’ll join in with the hundreds of other unrecognized people on the blog who aren’t mentioned here because they responded with the best of the human spirit. This was a horrible murder that ended the life of a very wonderful, popular, and talented human being far too soon. May he rest in peace.
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1. Sam Handler - January 23, 2007 @ 5:13 pm
“The real issue is entwined in the fact that had Darrent Williams been just another black 24 year-old shot outside a night club, the coverage of his death would have lasted twenty seconds on the nine o’clock news and two short articles in the newspaper - one when the murder was reported, and one when the police announced they couldn’t find any suspects. If a white person had been killed at 2am on New Year’s Eve in the first homicide of 2007, it would have made the front page.”
I don’t necessarily know if I’d agree with that… I’m not saying the media isn’t racist(see Katrina coverage), but you may have taken that too far. Random dudes of all races get killed without too much press all the time. Cops of all races get much more press than citizens when they are killed. I can’t say i’ve watched the news in a very, very long time, but I remember pretty much all murders, unless there’s some sort of exploitable angle, get cursory coverage.
2. Fraquar - January 27, 2007 @ 5:59 am
Ummm - this guy had two kids (i.e family) at home in Fort Worth waiting on him. He chose going to a party for Kenyon Martin over returning home to his family - a party being held at a public nightclub no less - flaunting excesses in a stretch Hummer.
Bad choices. Too bad the light bulb didn’t go off in his head and say “just go home to your family”.
That decision he made to go to that party instead of returning to his family would eventually cost him his life - and race has nothing to do with that decision.
Is it sad, sure. There are two kids now without a father.
3. Gabe Stein - January 27, 2007 @ 10:28 am
Except that he was in Denver for a football game a few hours ago - it would have been difficult to fly to see his kids after the game, the following media blitz, the clean-up. And they were supposed to check out the next day.
So if you were stuck in Denver without family and were 23, what would you do? Sit at home watching TV, or go party with some teammates and friends?