Word: goetz
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Once this assumption is made that first and foremost Goetz is white, i.e. instinctively prone to wish death upon Blacks, and that the four youths are first and foremost Black, i.e. hell-bent on terrorizing whites, then the case falls neatly into place. If the white gets off, white fear is justified and the stereotype of the Black as an innate criminal is vindicated...
...this is a theoretical mind-play which by all accounts from the jurors--Black and white--does not begin to explain what went on in their heads. The excessive concentration on race serves only to divert attention from the true danger of the Goetz decision, its approval of vigilantism, not racism...
When people make the Goetz case a referendum on race, they are forced into defending vigilantism for all in order to oppose racism. Opposition to the Goetz verdict is reminiscent of the challenge presented to the death penalty which was struck down in a recent Supreme Court decision. The NAACP challenged the death penalty on the grounds that Blacks were more likely to be sentenced to execution than whites. The challenge stood for the principle of equality with respect to race, but in this case that meant non-discriminatory use of the death penalty...
Which brings us back to Goetz. What the jury decided was that the parameters for an individual's right to use deadly force in self-defense have been greatly expanded. If you are a young tough kid, carrying a potentially dangerous weapon, possessing a past history of criminal offenses, and you surround a subway passenger and ask him for money, it's open season on you. That's the issue that needs to be discussed. But too many critics of the Goetz opinion discount the fact that white hoods can travel in packs and harass Black people too. By their...
...viewing the Goetz case as a purely racial issue, we demean what it is to be human. The sole good becomes insuring that whatever whites can do, Blacks can do too--even if it means killing young people as a result of irrational fear. Is society so crime-ridden that it is just assumed that vigilantism is all right? And is our challenge now merely to ensure that racism not prevent Blacks from having the equal opportunity to act outside the law in self-defense? The recent flurry of commentary on the Goetz case suggests that we are at such...