woodcut of a 19th-century illustration (North Wind Picture Archives via AP Images)
On February 23, 2020, 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery was murdered in Satilla Shores, a neighborhood in Glynn County, Georgia. While jogging, Arbery had been chased down by three white men – Travis McMichael and his father Gregory, who were armed and in one vehicle, and William “Roddie” Bryan, who was in another vehicle and recorded the pursuit on his cell phone. In the end, Arbery was fatally shot. While the men were ultimately brought to justice, Arbery’s character was attacked in the process, some even likened the young Black man to being savage even though he was innocently jogging.
Despite the leaked video evidence of the mureder, it took 74 months for prosecutors to make arrests.
In late November, Travis McMichael was found guilty of malice murder, four counts of felony murder, Gregory McMichael was found guilty of four counts of felony murder, and William “Roddie” Bryan was found guilty of three counts of felony murder. All were also found guilty of other charges.
Cenk Uygur of the popular online show “The Young Turks” (TYT) was outraged at the dehumanizing of Arbery.
TYT bills itself as “America’s largest online progressive news show.” The left wing sociopolitical news and commentary program generates more than 250 million views a month, according to its website. Uygur is a Turkish American political commentator, attorney, and journalist who created of TYT.
“When they attack Black people after they have been murdered, when they did absolutely nothing wrong, you’re pushing us to the limit… You’re asking us to talk about history. The history of the South. This is in Georgia. What happened in Georgia?” asked Uygur during a recent episode of TYT.
He continued by citing the South’s history of slavery.
Impassioned, he said, “There were savages in Georgia. They where ancestors of the white right wingers. They were absolute savages! They murdered people, they lynched people, they raped people, they enslaved people. They took babies from their mothers and sold them as property! You want to talk about savages? Your ancestors were the biggest savages the world has ever seen!”
Uygur called out racism in white society. “So don’t you dare, don’t you dare call a Black man a savage after you murdered him. I’m so sick of African Americans being called violent when the world’s worst violence was done to them, not by them! Not by them!….The white right wingers of the South have hundreds of years of history of being savages, savages!”
He concluded in anger, “Screw all of you who still defend that confederacy…anyone who defends that is a barbaric savage!”
Many on Twitter agreed with Uygur.
“Lord protect this man,” tweeted @mixtapeminimusic @mixtapeminimus1.
“Facts.. except also not facts. Painting America’s savagery toward US Freedmen as “Southern, White, Right-winged”. Is a way to warp the truth. All of America was complicit, and Slavery stretched from the North to the South. And liberals today are the ones bent in erasing us,” tweeted Tony Blount @TonyBlount.
“Wow! It’s true about Ruby Red Republicans of yesteryear and it still Ruby Red Republicans today! I am too smart of a Black Man to ever be TRAPPED into the GOP and I know my history…past and modern,” tweeted Bryan Anthony Blue @Bactor21.
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