Originally Posted by
broncofan
There's no question people are conditioned (through mass media, news, etc) to see Black people as dangerous but I also think these laws (the article mentions stand your ground and castle doctrine) condition people to try to rationalize all violence as self-defense. You see a video of someone mouthing or getting a little aggressive and then they get beaten half to death and there are people in the comments section who think it's legally or morally justified. Even with these doctrines (the castle doctrine and stand your ground) people often try to justify violence that these doctrines don't. But I think the cultural effect of making people think self-defense is not a defense of absolute necessity, with a mandatory requirement of proportionality is that people want to use violence when it feels good. Give somebody a comeuppance. Or respond to light force with mayhem.
The Ralph Yarl case is as your post indicates an example of pure racism. It shouldn't matter that Ralph is a very nice kid, a diligent student and musician (he'd still be a victim if he didn't seem so great). But I feel this also makes complete nonsense out of Andrew Lester's claim he was scared or intimidated. He saw a Black teenager at his front door and it triggered feelings of anger, which combined with a weapon and an 84 year old brain full of Fox News dogwhistles led to a horrible outcome. Ralph survived but he was shot in the head and the arm after he had already been shot in the head. Just a sad and despicable case.