This happened at Waffle House: Police were called on two black women who were confused about why they had to pay for plastic cutlery they’d gotten for free the day before. Two white male officers wrestled one of the women to the ground, exposing her breasts.
This happened at Waffle House: A white male police officer assaulted a black man in his prom tuxedo, choking him and slamming him into a window and then the concrete sidewalk. The man, who had taken his teenage sister to her prom, admitted he’d gotten into an argument with Waffle House employees. That hardly justifies the use of excessive force.
This happened at Waffle House: The company completely denies that race was a factor in either incident. They insist employees called police out of “safety concerns,” which is racist code for “black people being argumentative.”
And… this happened at Waffle House: A white man, symbolically and literally naked, killed four people of color, three of them black, before another black man attacked him and disarmed him. The white man was later arrested “without incident.” No choking, no slamming to the ground, and no charge for his plastic cutlery. Instead, he was offered a bond until it was revoked due to the collective scream of “HOW WHITE IS THAT?”
Meanwhile, the mainstream media still resists calling another white man killing more people of color an act of terrorism.
The name of the company is so very apropos: White America has become a house of waffling, as we insist we’re post-racial and yet, day after day, this goes on. Starbucks, Yale, Waffle House, even the local park… and the band played on.
Originally published on The Good Men Project.