Posted on 15 February 2018

Not so long ago, I was writing a story about the death of an Indigenous man. The circumstances surrounding the death are still being investigated. I had permission from the family to use any of the Facebook pictures on his page, now converted to an “Remembering…” profile. Basically, if you die, people close to you can have the page frozen, a snapshot of your life.

A lot of the photos were of him posing with his children and smiling. Although the family had said I could use any photo, they had also said how difficult the loss of their father was on the children. So I reached out to ask about using those. The preference was not to have the kid’s photos included in the story, so I looked for one of him alone.

I found a good one. He was looking at the camera, cropped well. But he was wearing a baseball cap and a hoodie. I hesitated. Then I kept looking.

Because I read the comments.

* * *

Because I read the comments, I know there is a certain subsection of society that, upon hearing about the death of an Indigenous person, will find a reason it is no big deal, or their own fault, or at the least not anyone else’s fault, as if that’s the only reason to acknowledge someone’s death. They will fill in blanks to a story they don’t know based on stereotypes or their own experiences or stories they heard from someone else as if the circumstances in one situation can be applied broadly to all.

According to Colten Boushie’s family and friends, he was “a man of the community” who “came into the world smiling,” described as an optimist, recently trained to be a firefighter, often offering to help out with odd jobs. On his Facebook page, now a memory page since his 2016 death, there are numerous posts of him asking if anyone needs their lawn mowed or wood chopped.

That’s not how I found out about his Facebook page.
I found out about it because I saw posts on Twitter where people had screen-capped a status from April 29 2016 reading:

“Back in the saddle again throw my middle finger up to the law ain’t gotta rob nobody tonight but I do it just because I’m a nut i get bored did some pills but I want more fuck this world fuck this town”.

The post is being shared as a repudiation of his character with comments like “karma will bite you” and “thug” and “didn’t deserve to be killed but not an angel”.

A quick Google search uncovers the fact those words are lyrics from the song “Catfish Billy” by the Alabaman rapper Yelawolf.

Annotations on the website Genius.com

And a search from there will show numerous young people who’ve pasted those same words in their Facebook statuses, many whom appear to be white, including teenage girls.
I wonder if they were shot and killed if those statuses would be used as a repudiation of their character.

* * *

This isn’t a comment on the trial itself.

This isn’t even a comment on what happened to Colten Boushie, specifically. It is a comment on the public discourse when an Indigenous person is killed or goes missing. I will readily acknowledge there are people who express glee or “well, that’s what you get” comments anytime someone they perceive to be as criminal is killed or injured, regardless of race.

But I will also point out that it is only stories about Indigenous people- even positive, good news stories- that have had to have comments closed because of the amount of vitriol and ugly language they attract.

I will tell you that even though I have done zero coverage of this story, and am two provinces away from it, I got a call this week from someone asking why I hadn’t investigated whether Boushie had a criminal record. I will tell you that after another recent story I wrote, this one about a mother marking the disappearance of her son ten years ago, I got an email asking why I had bothered. You see, the mother had worried her son was getting involved in gangs so she had moved provinces in order to keep her child safe. This email suggested it was no great loss that another Indigenous gangster had disappeared.

He was 14 years old.

* * *

The screencapping of Boushie’s Facebook status brings to mind what happened to Michael Brown’s social media accounts after the Black American teenager was shot and killed in 2014. In one of his photos he was flashing a peace sign, which was interpreted by some commentators as a gang sign, in others he was wearing chains and jewelry, a sign he was a “thug.”

In response, his family spoke about Brown’s humour, his love of music, how he had just graduated high school and was headed to college. After that, Greg Howard wrote:

“By all accounts, Brown was One Of The Good Ones. But laying all this out, explaining all the ways in which he didn’t deserve to die like a dog in the street, is in itself disgraceful. Arguing whether Brown was a good kid or not is functionally arguing over whether he specifically deserved to die, a way of acknowledging that some black men ought to be executed.

 “To even acknowledge this line of debate is to start a larger argument about the worth, the very personhood, of a black man in America. It’s to engage in a cost-benefit analysis, weigh probabilities, and gauge the precise odds that Brown’s life was worth nothing against the threat he posed to the life of the man who killed him.”

Whoever went through Colten Boushie’s Facebook page looking for those Catfish Billy lyrics had to scroll past a lot of other statuses. Some are expressing frustration with car problems. A lot are “good morning everyone”. Some have rough language that you’d be familiar with if you have any young people in your social media spheres.

But the one that really strikes me is one that was posted on the same day as the Catfish Billy post, also quoting a rapper– this one Hopsin, taken from his Instagram page. It reads:

“Change is one of the most difficult that we face but change is inevitable, one reason we don’t like change is we get comfortable where we are, we get used to friends , our jobs, the place we live , even if its not perfect we accept it because its familiar , and what happens is because were it willing to change we get stuck in what god used to do instead of moving forward to what god is about to do , just because god blessed you where you are doesn’t mean you can sit back and settle there, you have to be open to what god is doing now , what worked five years ago may not work today , if your going to be successful you have to be willing to change, every blessing is not supposed to be permanent , every provision is not supposed to last forever, we should constantly evaluate friends in our lives , who’s dragging you down , who’s speaking into your life who’s are you depending make sure there not limiting you, if you don’t get rid of the wrong friends you will never make the right ones”

I don’t know if this speaks to Boushie’s character or the trajectory of his life any more than the Yelawolf post. But I know that of the two, only one has been quoted, screencapped and shared by people suggesting he somehow got what he deserved, as if that lessens the tragedy of a young man’s death, the loss to his family, and to society as a whole.

He listened to rap music.

He was no angel.

He was one of the good ones.

All of these things can be true.

The question is, do any of them matter?

Filed under: Canada