Pull up a seat. We need to talk about that heinous stabbing in Charlotte. While I will lay out what happened, we need to talk about something other than the crime — specifically, the people who were witnesses to the crime. More specifically…what the hell was going on with them?!
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In 2022, Iryna Zarutska, her mother, sister, and brother fled Ukraine and moved to the United States because of the war that broke out in her home country. She settled in The Queen City, but on Aug. 22, she was killed as she rode a light rail train.
There was no mystery about what happened. Video show Decarlos Brown, Jr. attacking Zarutska in cold blood. His family says that he has a history of mental health struggles with his mother unsuccessfully seeking an involuntary psychiatric commitment because he became violent at home.
Those are the facts in the case, which has become politically charged because President Trump and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson used the crime as an opportunity to say that elected officials in Democratic led cities are soft on crime. That’s expected.
But after watching the video, one thing leaps off the screen. What the hell were the Black folks who saw this happening doing?!
There were five Black folks who witnessed the attack. They either sat next to the woman or behind her. She slowly bled out and lost consciousness, and I doubt that anyone there would have been able to do anything to save her life. But damn. Someone could have tried.
Look…in a situation like that, Black folks usually do one of two things. The first is run like hell. That’s a common response and it makes sense. If you are around a group of us and just start running randomly, we will usually run with you and ask questions later.
But we are also a deeply empathetic people. When we see someone is hurt, we will usually check on them to make sure things are okay.
These Black people did neither. They did not flee in a panic. Nor did they offer support. They just kinda sat there. The man behind Zarutska walked right past her as she was bleeding out, and the woman next to the victim calmly put her purse on her arm and walked away.
Maybe these people all attended the “My name is Bennett and I Ain’t in It” School of Blackness. Or maybe they enjoy wearing purple on Saturday mornings and are convinced about the evils of white people, so they were all disinclined to get involved.
We have no answers. But watching that video, I could not help but wonder what was going on with the Black folks who witnessed the crime.
Straight From 
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