Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire
  • omnibus

Murder of Daunte Wright Ruined Derek Chauvin Show Trial
​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
15 Apr 2021
Murder of Daunte Wright Ruined Derek Chauvin Show Trial
Murder of Daunte Wright Ruined Derek Chauvin Show Trial

The Black-murder-by-cop next door to Minneapolis shows the world the dehumanization that is built into the white supremacist DNA of settler-colonialism will continue to produce crimes against our collective humanity. 

“The murder of George Floyd was no more an aberration in U.S. society than the election of Donald Trump in 2016 was.”

The fix was in. The U.S. state was determined to demonstrate to the world that its system was able to render “justice” to its captive African/Black population.

So, unlike in the handful of cases where charges were brought against police officers for killing a Black or Brown person, the prosecutors this time did not pretend to follow the demands of the ill-informed public to bring charges of first degree or second-degree murder that would set a bar for conviction so high, it could not be met. That is a favorite strategy of prosecutors when conviction is not what they are looking for. 

The prosecutors in the Derek Chauvin case did the opposite. They stacked the charges in a way that would make it impossible to escape a conviction. And everyone fell in line because the stakes were so high. Could the Shining City on the Hill, whose leadership was now associated with the “decent” Democrats, render justice for the killer of George Floyd? The answer to that question was going to be an emphatic yes. The press committed to gavel-to-gavel coverage and everything was ready for one the greatest show trials of U.S. history. 

But the intractable, racist nature of the relationship between Black people and the U.S. settler-colonial state reared its ugly head again and everything went off script right in the middle of the international production. That is because another young Black male was gunned down, ironically in the same metropolitan area where Floyd’s life was snatched from him.

“Everything went off script right in the middle of the international production.”

Everything was now confused again. What would justice mean for Floyd and any other Black individual murdered or assaulted by agents of the state even if Chauvin is convicted? Would the call for “justice” now just mean a demand for a trial since it is clear cases of Black murder will continue, as they have since the inception of this nation? Is that not what made the U.S. “exceptional” as the first republic ever established on the basis of race in human history?  

The ruling class response to Covid-19 demonstrated how cheap life is in the United States, but the lives of Black people are even lower on the scale of human value. Yet, the charade continues. U.S. authorities gun down Black people in the United States, while its armies kill Black and other colonized peoples and nations around the world in the name of advancing democracy. 

Everyone knows really that the murder of George Floyd was no more an aberration in U.S. society than the election of Donald Trump in 2016 was. Extreme, systematic, murderous violence has always been at the heart of the white supremacist settler project. The Chauvin show trial was just supposed to help us to forget that for a moment. 

It did not matter that no one was held accountable for the murder of Freddie Gray, Breonna Taylor, Tamir Rice, or the now countless murders where local prosecutors failed to bring charges and the government under the Obama and Trump administrations made political decisions not to launch federal investigations. 

This case was different. It could not be ignored or explained away. The world had seen the gruesome snuff film of George Floyd that evoked global revulsion. An inflection point had been reached in which the U.S. brand was potentially damaged beyond repair—so a sacrifice was required.

“Extreme, systematic, murderous violence has always been at the heart of the white supremacist settler project.”

With the killing of Daunte Wright, a mistrial may not be the result and Chauvin will probably be convicted. That conviction, however, will not have the effect that the plan had originally imagined. Out of the confusion around what is to be demanded when the killings continue, is the slow awakening to the unavoidable reality that unless African/Black people are able to self-govern and exercise authentic collective self-determination, the degradation and dehumanization that is built into the white supremacist DNA of settler-colonialism will continue to produce Breonna Taylors, Eric Garners, mass incarceration, and crimes against our collective humanity.  

And how do we shift that power? Malcolm X gave us a direction from the radical Black human rights tradition. He said you must be ready to pay the price required to experience full dignity as a person and as members of a self-determinant people. 

And what is that price?  

“The price to make others respect your human rights is death. You have to be ready to die… it’s time for you and me now to let the world know how peaceful we are, how well-meaning we are, how law-abiding we wish to be. But at the same time, we have to let the same world know we’ll blow their world sky-high if we’re not respected and recognized and treated the same as other human beings are treated.”  That outcome cannot be scripted by Hollywood or the state propagandists. 

Ajamu Baraka is the national organizer of the Black Alliance for Peace and was the 2016 candidate for vice president on the Green Party ticket. Baraka serves on the Executive Committee of the U.S. Peace Council and leadership body of the United National Anti-War Coalition (UNAC). He is an editor and contributing columnist for the Black Agenda Report and contributing columnist for Counterpunch.

COMMENTS?Please join the conversation on Black Agenda Report's Facebook page at http://facebook.com/blackagendareportOr, you can comment by emailing us at [email protected] 

Police Repression

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles. Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


Related Stories

Saying Her Name
Heather Ann Thompson
Saying Her Name
19 May 2021
Remains that were found to be those of a Black MOVE teen-ager who was killed by Philadelphia police in 1985 were treated as an anthropological spec
The Police “Just Launched a War”
J. Lester Feder
The Police “Just Launched a War”
19 May 2021
Do some, most or all US police departments have a pattern and practice of racial bias that makes them fundamentally unable to regulate themselves?
Police and the License to Kill
Matthew D. Lassiter
Police and the License to Kill
12 May 2021
Detroit’s wanton killing of hundreds of Blacks in the civil right era shows why most of today’s proposals to make police more accountable are bound
What Police Impunity Looks Like
Eric Umansky
What Police Impunity Looks Like
21 April 2021
They came into his own home and took his life for no reason.
More Surveillance Won’t Stop White Supremacy -- It Will Target Activists of Color
Anoa Changa
More Surveillance Won’t Stop White Supremacy -- It Will Target Activists of Color
17 March 2021
Violence from people of color and other marginalized groups – or even simply fear of such violence -- is dealt with immediately and with the harshe
We Have To Stop Valorizing Black Cops
Mary Retta
We Have To Stop Valorizing Black Cops
27 January 2021
The purpose of policing––to jail and kill Black folks––remains the same regardless of the officers’ race. 
Still Can’t Breathe
Topher Sanders and Lucas Waldron
Still Can’t Breathe
27 January 2021
NYPD officers continue to use chokeholds on civilians without any meaningful punishment.
Police Shouldn’t Tag Students as Potential Criminals 
Priyam Madhukar
Police Shouldn’t Tag Students as Potential Criminals 
20 January 2021
When cops create lists of kids “at risk” of falling into crime, it becomes a self-fulfilling indictment.
Notes Toward a National Defense Organization Against Racism and Political Repression, 1973
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
Notes Toward a National Defense Organization Against Racism and Political Repression, 1973
10 December 2020
Few records survive of the birth of a national anti-police repression organization formed by supporters of Angela Davis – but government spies pres
Spies of Mississippi: Mayor Lumumba’s Cops Put Public Under Spyglass
Adofo Minka
Spies of Mississippi: Mayor Lumumba’s Cops Put Public Under Spyglass
25 November 2020
Jackson’s supposedly “radical” Black mayor wants to make surveillance great again in Mississippi.

More Stories


  • Black Agenda Radio March 24, 2023
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio March 24, 2023
    24 Mar 2023
    In this segment, we learn why Atlanta is the site of the planned Cop City police training facility in what purports to be a Black mecca
  • Ray McGovern Connects Anniversary of Iraq Invasion and Ukraine Proxy War - Part 1
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Ray McGovern Connects Anniversary of Iraq Invasion and Ukraine Proxy War - Part 1
    24 Mar 2023
    Ray McGovern served as a CIA analyst for 27 years, from the administration of John F. Kennedy to that of George H. W. Bush.
  • How Atlanta Politics Led to Cop City
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    How Atlanta Politics Led to Cop City
    24 Mar 2023
    Tea Troutman is a community organizer, urbanist, and cultural critic from Atlanta, Georgia. They are currently a Ph.D. student in Geography at the University of Minnesota working on a dissertation…
  • Biden Continues Punitive Immigration Policies - Part 1
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Biden Continues Punitive Immigration Policies - Part 1
    24 Mar 2023
    Aly Wane is on the advisory board of the Immigrant Justice Network. He joins us from Syracuse, New York to discuss Biden administration immigration policy and its similarities with that of Trump and…
  • Commemorations of the Attack on Iraq March 20th and Libya March 19th Reaffirm that the U.S./EU/NATO Axis of Domination Remains the Greatest Threat to International Peace on our Planet
    ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
    Commemorations of the Attack on Iraq March 20th and Libya March 19th Reaffirm that the U.S./EU/NATO Axis of Domination Remains the Greatest Threat to International Peace on our Planet
    22 Mar 2023
    Iraq and Libya were both targeted by the U.S. in the month of March. The anniversaries of these war crimes must be commemorated, and the nature of the US/EU/NATO war machine must be understood.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us