The Beauty of Gray: When Tragedy Becomes a Talking Point

“This is not a black and white world

To be alive

I say the colours must swirl”

– Live, “The Beauty of Gray”

Within an America divided between blue and red, there is no gray. Everything is black and white, as perceived realities are colored by how we need the world to look. Lost is the ability to see nuance, especially when it makes us question the correctness of “our side.”

The shooting of Renee Nicole Good in Minnesota provides yet another example of our division. Ignoring the reality of three children who have lost their mother and a partner who has lost her spouse, we immediately jump into the narrative that will bolster our ideological position. How can this incident help "our side" to win?

These narratives are set by our leaders. Blaming the shooting on the “Radical Left Movement of Violence and Hate,” Trump described the video of the incident as a “horrible thing to watch.” Apparently, his sympathies were not for the young mother, whom he described as being “very disorderly, obstructing and resisting.” Instead, it was for the shooter, whom he said was “lucky to be alive.” While the video shows the ICE agent walking away from the scene after shooting Good, Trump maintains that he was “violently, willfully, and viciously [run] over.”

Also contradicting all available video evidence, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem claimed that protesters had attacked ICE agents as they tried to get their car unstuck from the snow. While still in the midst of what is supposed to be an independent investigation, conducted without a predetermined outcome, she labeled the event an act of "domestic terrorism."

While many opponents of the Trump administration would agree that the event was meant to terrorize, they would disagree about who the terrorist was. Noem was clearly signaling to supporters of the crackdown on immigrants that opponents of this policy are not merely expressing an opinion; they are dangerous. Those on the other side see the terror that ICE has laid upon American communities and hold up the shooting in Minnesota as a manifestation of their worst fears.

I do not doubt that the killing of Good could have been prevented, but the credibility of that argument is diminished when her culpability is ignored. While Good's actions should not have resulted in her death, different choices may have saved her life. Even if the ICE agent did not have the legal right to order her out of her car, driving away with a 4,000-pound hunk of metal was not the best decision. Of course, I say this without being panicked as masked gunmen converge upon my car.

One can acknowledge that mistakes were made by the deceased without feeding into the "she got what she deserved" narrative. This should be clear to many Trump supporters who just one day earlier were commemorating the events of January 6, 2021. Part of that narrative has been a continued call for the police officer who shot Ashli Babbitt to be jailed.

The circumstances of the deaths were, in some ways, similar as both victims were advancing when told to stop. The notable difference is that Babbitt was illegally in the Capitol building while Good was on a public street. Yet, Trump's supporters apply the "if she had listened, she would not be dead" label only to the person who was allegedly opposed to their viewpoint while turning Babbitt into a martyr.

Dialogue is impossible when no one can admit that there were imperfect decisions made on both sides. Getting past our national stalemate depends on us learning to appreciate the beauty of gray.

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Carl Petersen is a former Green Party candidate for the LAUSD School Board and a longtime advocate for public education and special needs families. Now based in Washington State, he writes about politics, culture, and their intersections at TheDifrntDrmr.