Tyre Nichols Killing: Not about Black White Supremacy

The mainstream media, almost with one voice, recently made a claim so bizarre that it is worth unpacking in some detail. Following the beating to death of a black Memphis man, Tyre Nichols, by five black Memphis police officers, major news and opinion outlets rushed to declare that the real problem was white supremacy.

Congressman Maxwell Frost (D., Fla.) told the news outlet TheGrio that the beating, and indeed all of American policing, was “rooted in white supremacy,” and this was reported with a straight face by Yahoo! News. The Los Angeles Times ran an op-ed under the headline “What finally sunk me on the Memphis videos? Five Black officers’ embrace of racist depravity.” The equivalent in the Boston Globe was “Tyre Nichols and America’s Systemic Failure” (italics mine). On the more underground side of things and close to my old stomping grounds, the well-regarded Milwaukee Independent offered analysis of “How the Culture of White Supremacy Killed Tyre Nichols.”

About the Author

Wilfred Reilly

Wilfred Reilly is an associate professor of political science at Kentucky State University and the author, most recently, of Lies My Liberal Teacher Told Me.

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The mainstream media, almost with one voice, recently made a claim so bizarre that it is worth unpacking in some detail. Following the beating to death of a black Memphis man, Tyre Nichols, by five black Memphis police officers, major news and opinion outlets rushed to declare that the real problem was white supremacy.

Congressman Maxwell Frost (D., Fla.) told the news outlet TheGrio that the beating, and indeed all of American policing, was “rooted in white supremacy,” and this was reported with a straight face by Yahoo! News. The Los Angeles Times ran an op-ed under the headline “What finally sunk me on the Memphis videos? Five Black officers’ embrace of racist depravity.” The equivalent in the Boston Globe was “Tyre Nichols and America’s Systemic Failure” (italics mine). On the more underground side of things and close to my old stomping grounds, the well-regarded Milwaukee Independent offered analysis of “How the Culture of White Supremacy Killed Tyre Nichols.”

About the Author

Wilfred Reilly

Wilfred Reilly is an associate professor of political science at Kentucky State University and the author, most recently, of Lies My Liberal Teacher Told Me.