As protestors continue to rage across the country over the death of Eric Garner, many are asking whether Garner would’ve been killed by the police had he been White? The question of whether cops treat Blacks differently—meaning, worse—is a valid one. But I don’t think that race is at the heart of this case.
Let me be clear: When a man pants, “I can’t breathe,” that means he can’t breathe. Garner’s death is tragic, shameful, and shocking. That a grand jury failed to indict Daniel Pantaleo, the officer who choked Garner to death, is even more appalling.
But I want to be clear about something else: While I think the way that police officers mistreat Black people in our country is a serious issue worth further exploration, Garner’s race is not what killed him.
It was his size.
Republican Congressman Peter King thinks so too. He told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that Garner would still be alive today if he were an Olympian, sort of. “You had a 350-pound person who was resisting arrest,” King said. “If he had not had asthma and a heart condition and was so obese, he almost definitely would not have died from this.”
In one sense, King may be right. On the other hand, it turns out that you don’t have to be fat or sick to die of a chokehold. But even if Garner’s weight was a factor, King’s remark is disgusting because it shames the victim. It’s akin to telling a woman that she caused her rape by strolling down a dark alley at 3 a.m. in a tight dress. Technically speaking, she probably should’ve known better. But that hardly means she is responsible for the violent actions of others.
Similarly, Garner probably should’ve had a few more carrots and few less Big Macs. But his diet hardly makes him responsible for his death.
Regardless, King’s ridiculous fat shaming is not what I have in mind when I say that Garner’s girth caused his death. Rather, I mean that because he was large, Pantaleo likely felt that he needed to use extreme force to force compliance—that is, the officer didn’t react so brutally because Garner was Black but because he was fat.
The latter is just as worse as the former. Both involve stereotyping. The difference is that overweight people do not have a fat Al Sharpton to champion their cause. That’s because even Sharpton—whose own belly has shrunk in recent years—must know that the only thing worse in this country than being Black or gay or an atheist is being fat, the worst four-letter word there is.
