Prof: Principle that Black Lives Don’t Matter ‘Re-Surfacing’

University of Pennsylvania Associate English Professor Dr. Salamishah Tillet argued that the principle that black lives don’t matter is “re-surfacing” on Saturday’s “Melissa Harris-Perry” on MSNBC.

Tillet started by discussing “state-sanctioned” violence against black people, adding “or you have individuals, as in the case with Renisha McBride or Trayvon Martin, individual citizens who feel complete power to just kill black people as they see them, even if they’re no real threat. In Renisha McBride’s case, she was asking for help. So, what does it mean to be part of a country from its very beginning…that was predicated on black lives not mattering, or mattering only in the service of property or service of maintaining the power of white slave-holding society. So, it’s a founding principle, the fact that black people have been denied humanity as a part of the democratic experience is not just shocking, but it’s true. But now we’re at another moment where that same principle is just re-surfacing, and we have to deal with it as a nation” she stated. 

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