CNN host and political commentator Van Jones sparked backlash when he suggested that all five of the black Memphis police officers involved in the deadly Jan. 7 traffic stop of Tyre Nichols were likely motivated by racism.
“The police who killed Tyre Nichols were Black. But they might still have been driven by racism,” wrote Jones in a headline of an opinion piece published Friday.
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Jones opened the piece reflecting on the protests and outrage three decades ago regarding the Rodney King incident when white Los Angeles police officers were videotaped beating the African American man at a traffic stop in 1991.
“From the King beating to the murder nearly three years ago of George Floyd, American society has often focused on the race of the officers — so often White — as a factor in their deplorable acts of violence,” Jones wrote. “But the narrative ‘White cop kills unarmed Black man’ should never have been the sole lens through which we attempted to understand police abuse and misconduct.”
The pundit continued to explain that we need a “more nuanced discussion” about police violence.
He went on to explain that “black people are not immune” to making anti-black messages.
“One of the sad facts about anti-Black racism is that Black people ourselves are not immune to its pernicious effects,” he wrote.
He expressed that society spreads messaging that “black people are inferior, unworthy and dangerous” and it’s infiltrating black minds.
“Self-hatred is a real thing,” Jones explained.
He laid out the criteria for how to view the racial component of police violence.
“It is the race of the victim who is brutalized — not the race of the violent cop — that is most relevant in determining whether racial bias is a factor in police violence,” he wrote.
Jones called for more aggressive oversight of police abuse and swift punishment for police officers of any color harming black citizens.
The former Obama administration official repeated on his view on television on Friday.
“There’s a very simplistic notion that says, ‘Well if a white cop is doing something to an unarmed black person then that’s racism,’ but we sometimes forget unfortunately that African Americans can also be guilty of hatred and bias against other African Americans, ” he said.
Van Jones of CNN claims that the 5 Black Officers beating Tyre Nichols to death, who was also black, was due to Racism. pic.twitter.com/FZyvvwBdS7
— Ole Murica (@OleMurica_) January 28, 2023
Jones received criticism on Friday night when his op-ed went viral on social media.
Columnist Thomas Chatterton Williams wrote on Twitter: ‘What if, stay with me, these five men were actually agents responsible for their own reprehensible actions and not merely hapless puppets being manipulated by the invisible hand of inescapable and omnipotent white supremacy?’
“Van Jones is pointing out the very real fact of ‘Intra-Racial’ Racism that exists in the Black Community,” Pastor Dr. Darrell Scott, a former adviser to President Trump, wrote on Twitter.
“How can @TheBabylonBee compete with @VanJones68?” wrote another social media user.
The CNN host is not alone in suggesting the actions of the black police officers stem from racism.
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Freshman Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL) in a now-deleted tweet called the incident a “result of white supremacy” Friday night.
“Doesn’t matter what color those police officers are,” Frost tweeted. “The murder of Tyre Nichols is anti-Black and the result of white supremacy.”
