Mainline media will deny it and most casual observers will just brush it off, but there is a distinct racial element to this incident.
On June 2nd, Ethan Liming, a 17-year-old white student was savagely beaten to death by 3 black males outside of Lebron James’ I Promise School in Akron, Ohio. The men were upset that Ethan's 2 friends (who were both black) had the nerve to shoot a water pellet gun at them as a prank. So they killed Ethan in response. It's still not clear why they decided to specifically kill Ethan and not his 2 black friends, but therein lies the racial element that I believe plays a significant role in this case. For what it's worth, Lebum James offered some perfunctory condolences to the victim's family on Twitter and quickly moved on from the tragedy. But I’m not going to waste any words on him. Let's just dive into the racial aspect of this homicide.
As far as race is concerned, the racial factor behind this murder is implicit rather than explicit. While race did not initially play a role in the genesis of the conflict, it almost certainly played a role during the beating itself. For some reason, they zoned in on Ethan and spared his 2 black friends, even though according to preliminary information, they were the ones who took a more active role in shooting the water guns. I am convinced that during the physical confrontation, the embedded rage and racial bias of the black perpetrators was provoked and that made them focus on Ethan. They probably thought to themselves, “This white boy has the nerve to try to step to us and tell us chill? We might as well beat his bitchass. Let’s teach his white ass a lesson.”
In essence, their murder instinct kicked in specifically because he was white. Had Ethan been a black kid who did the same thing, he probably would have received a similar pummeling. However, the killer instinct of his attackers may have been abated once it was clear that he had been beaten enough or knocked out. The intended message would have sent and Ethan would have "learned his lesson." Unfortunately for Ethan, he wasn’t black. He was white, and quite possibly, "privileged." Thus, in the eyes of his black assailants, there was no good reason to spare his life.
They took every brutal avenue possible to make sure that he would die. Even when Ethan was clearly unconscious, they continued to savagely batter him. Their visceral hatred for him was so strong that they purposely prevented his friends from driving his badly beaten and bleeding body to the nearest hospital. They wanted to make sure he died on the spot and they wanted to see it happen as well. This kind of demonic rage against a stranger who had done nothing more than be tangentially involved in a harmless prank is not normal. No regular person would react in the way that these callous murderers did. It is evident that at some point during the altercation, the three black assailants ceased to view Ethan as a fellow human being. In their fury, all they saw was his white skin, all they heard were his pitiful cries for mercy, and all they felt was his bleeding flesh against their fists. Obviously, there was a deep seated rage within their hearts that drove them to kill. And that anger comes from the racial differences between them and Ethan. It’s really as simple as that.
Let me emphasize that this analysis is not by any means a blanket indictment of black people. As I've already mentioned, Ethan's friends were black and they deserve credit for trying to rescue him. But that being said, I do believe that his killers took note of Ethan's race in a negative way either consciously or subconsciously. In fact, Ethan’s father hinted that his son's race played a role in his death, and for the record, I agree with his sentiment. Here is what he had to say:
“My son Ethan Liming was murdered by three African American males and a female who stood by and did nothing...We live in a sick world. People look at each other based on the color of skin or the fact somebody disagrees with somebody else. And because you disagree with me, you must be evil. And we have so dehumanized each other in our society — that’s why my son was murdered.”
Based on available photos circulating online, it appears that Ethan Liming came from a multiethnic community and seems as though he got along well with black people. Unfortunately, it looks as if his status as a white male enhanced the fury of his attackers, which ultimately led to his murder. Even though the case is still in its early stages, it is evident that the justice system will not apply hate crime charges to the three black defendants because there is no evidence of apparent premeditation on their part to target Ethan because of his race. And that is to be expected. As I said before, the racial aspect of this crime isn't overt. It's implicit. Nonetheless, I believe that the underlying racial animus that fueled this horrific attack should be acknowledged. Statistically, Black people commit more violent crimes against white people than vice versa and that is caused by two major factors: 1) significant differences in propensity for criminal behavior and 2) deeply embedded anti-white racial animosity that some black people have. Both factors almost certainly played a role in Ethan Liming's demise.
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