Tashawn Bernard, 12, was detained by Lansing police officers while he was taking out the garbage in a video clip that has drawn criticism on social media.
It repeatedly mentions “the young man” particularly as quoted by the police chief.
No, that is not a “young man.” That is a boy. Unequivocally so. This wasn’t a 18-year-old man. It was a 12-year-old boy. Absolutely ridiculous that nobody calls out authority figures making statements like that.
Excellent catch, thanks. I’d completely missed it, but four times this 12-year-old is referred to as “young man,” and all four come from the police chief. It’s language intended to obfuscate.
On the flip side, black boys and teens are often referred to as older than they are, hence “young man”. I’m guessing in the pigs’ minds it’s so they rationalize their disgusting and inhumane treatment
It’s almost as if the English language has multiple ways to say a young person. Like say…young person…kid…child…pre teen…teen…I could go on but I think I made my point which is it was intentional to downplay the police being useless pieces of shit.
It repeatedly mentions “the young man” particularly as quoted by the police chief.
No, that is not a “young man.” That is a boy. Unequivocally so. This wasn’t a 18-year-old man. It was a 12-year-old boy. Absolutely ridiculous that nobody calls out authority figures making statements like that.
Excellent catch, thanks. I’d completely missed it, but four times this 12-year-old is referred to as “young man,” and all four come from the police chief. It’s language intended to obfuscate.
Maybe they were hesitant to call a black person “boy”.
Why?
“Boy” has historically been used in a belittling way towards black people in the US.
On the flip side, black boys and teens are often referred to as older than they are, hence “young man”. I’m guessing in the pigs’ minds it’s so they rationalize their disgusting and inhumane treatment
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It’s almost as if the English language has multiple ways to say a young person. Like say…young person…kid…child…pre teen…teen…I could go on but I think I made my point which is it was intentional to downplay the police being useless pieces of shit.
If only there were other words to describe him… Oh, wait! I just thought of these off the top of my head:
There’s also kid, young person, son, youth, youngster, teen, preteen, tween, highschooler, and more.