Maxine Messes Up

By Miss Kubelik

It looks like Maxine Waters may not have helped things in the Derek Chauvin trial when she told reporters this weekend that she wanted a "guilty, guilty, guilty" verdict — better yet, one of first-degree murder — and that people should get confrontational in the streets if Chauvin gets off. (Regrettably, murder in the first degree is not what Chauvin is charged with.) Prompted by a complaint from Chauvin's defense attorney, the judge went a little bats about Waters today. Thankfully, the jury had already left the courtroom to deliberate.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has rushed to censure Waters. Yep, that Kevin McCarthy — the same guy who can't be bothered to take any action against Matt Gaetz, who still sits on the Judiciary Committee despite the DOJ's current investigation of him. And of course, nobody on the Republican side ever really stood up to Donald Trump for his many incitements of violence. But, whatev.

Our first thought when we heard about Waters was, oh no, don't let this screw up the trial. Our next thought was, after George Floyd, Daunte Wright, Philando Castile, Breonna Taylor, Adam Toledo, Walter Scott, Michael Brown, Eric Garner — and countless others — we should think twice before lecturing Black people about the words they use.

Derek Chauvin is white. His defense attorney is white. Judge Peter Cahill is white. Kevin McCarthy is white. All the Republicans screaming about Waters are white. (Marjorie Taylor Greene has already made a video on the Capitol steps.) For that matter, nearly all of the insurrectionists on January 6 were white. None of them have to worry the way Black people do if they get pulled over by police.

As best-selling author Ibram X. Kendi has eloquently pointed out, police violence against people of color in America is a natural descendant of slavery: absolute obedience expected, but mercy not always granted even to those who comply. "Black and brown people’s defiance is not the problem," he says. "Our compliance is not the solution. Police defiance of our humanity is the problem." So yeah, do we wish Maxine hadn't said what she said? Yep. But after this horrible, ugly year, we can't blame her. We cats decline to HISS.