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Of course Cannon Hinnant’s life mattered
Five-year-old Cannon Hinnant was playing outside of his house in North Carolina when a 25-year-old neighbour shot him. Cannon Hinnant died while his father cradled him in his arms. Cannon Hinnant was white. His alleged assailant is Black.
Cannon Hinnant’s life mattered. What happened is an outrage and a tragedy. His murderer should be swiftly brought to justice. I have seen no one argue it didn’t, it isn’t, nor he shouldn’t. I have, however, seen a lot of very indignant white people pretending otherwise, and insinuating that Black Lives Matter is hypocritical or racist for not focusing on little Cannon.
As you can see, some of these posts are deliberately incindiary. Others, though, are not. Some genuinely seem to not understand the nuances and differences between Cannon’s murder and the murder of an unarmed person by a police officer. I wanted to write a brief blog about this, because while the tragedy and heartbreak arecertainly the same — and I would argue amplified by the murder of a child — there are a few things worth discussing here:
- On an individual…
