THE FUNERAL has been held for Tyre Nichols, who was brutally beaten by Memphis police before dying in the days which followed.

Some commentators have been quick to suggest that because black officers beat Nichols, that Nichols’ death has nothing to do with racism or the system of white supremacy.

Somehow, according to their logic, another black man dying at the hands of police in America has miraculously defied all odds and has nothing to do with the conditions of racism in the country.  

Apparently another black death from police custody is separate from race because black officers were complicit.  Let’s deal with this nonsense.

Firstly, at least one officer allegedly involved in Nichols’ brutal killing, was white. Preston Hemphill was said by Ben Crump, attorney for Nichols’s family, to have dragged the 29-year-old from his car and shocked him with the often lethal Taser stun gun.  Hemphill was named after the black officers involved, and questions have been levelled at the Memphis Police Department as to why.

Secondly, we don’t yet know how many white officers were potentially involved in any administrative corruption which might have taken place following Nichols’ death.  If there was a paper trail cover up following his beating it may transpire that white officers were involved in that too.

Regardless, some commentators continue to push the idea that race and racism is separate from what happened to Nichols.

Piers Morgan is a prime example of this.  He’s done some decent work in supporting the NHS and in holding government figures to account, but is out of his depth when it comes to issues of race and racism.

Morgan, who once needed educating by rapper Akala as to why knife crime is not a black issue, tweeting about the Nichols incident to his 8 million plus followers on Jan 28th wrote:

“I’m seeing people claim that five black men killing a black man was ‘racism.’

This is further evidence that the world’s gone nuts.”

He followed this up with a column in the New York Post (which is viewed by many as anti-black) entitled: 

‘Racism didn’t kill Tyre Nichols – moronic poorly trained cops did.’

Finally also on Jan 30th he also tweeted:

“Unbelievable. Five black men kill a black man – but apparently it was because of ‘white supremacy.’ Race-baiting liars like Dr Shola do enormous damage to the cause of racial equality.”

Let’s be charitable for a moment.  Let’s assume that racism itself was not direct factor in the killing of Tyre Nichols (and it may yet prove to be).

White supremacy, as an ideology and system (which is upheld by some black people too) is certainly a factor and here’s why.

From the US’s police’s inception, starting out as slave patrols, to the present day US law enforcement remains corrupted by white supremacy as well as being a direct legacy of it.

This reality is what created the long standing conditions in which Tyre Nichols was killed. Those conditions which have yet to be tackled continue to send the message to all police, that black lives hold less value as white lives.

The evidence supports this.  While black Americans only account for 13% of the population, they are roughly three times higher to die at the hands of the police.  Those who do the killing are not proportionately held to account.  The relationship and gap between black people dying from police violence and the lack of legal accountability is clear.  

The police are an institution.  That institution, presents a disproportionate danger to black communties regardless of the representatives within it. 

Black officers beating and killing of Tyre Nichols does not suddenly mean that race no longer becomes a factor in another black death in custody.  It makes the officers involved, whatever their complexion, complicit in a system blighted by white supremacy.

There’s another element to this.  No one would dream of suggesting that because some Jews collaborated with Nazis, that racism was therefore no longer a factor in the barbaric crimes inflicted on Jewish communities last century. That would be both grotesque and absurd.

But, when it comes to black communties we see similar arguments put forward.  Black people were involved in the slave trade, and so slavery wasn’t really about race goes the thinking.

Now, goes the argument, because black officers beat Nichols (even though a white officer was also involved) race could not have been a factor in his death.

People employing this argument must have no grasp of history, and how it influences the present, or are not interested in the facts. 

So, let me make things plain for those at the back, still clinging to such Mickey Mouse logic; if Tyre Nichols was white he’d probably still be alive.  Why?

How many videos have you seen showing five black officers beating a white man to death? I’ll wait.