Kneeneck
/ˈniː/nɛk/
noun
kneeneck, kneeneckist, kneeneckism.
1. Hostility or prejudice towards, or suppression of, Black people.
2. Active, passive, or tacit support for any activity that perpetuates the suffocation and subjugation of the human and civil rights of Black people, individually and collectively.
3. A person who consciously or thoughtlessly displays or manifests hostility or prejudice against Black people.
verb
To kneeneck (conjugates: kneenecks, kneenecking, kneenecked).
4. The act of displaying hostility or prejudice toward Black people.
5. To constrict or suffocate the full human and/or civil rights of Black lives.
6. Denial of the systemic racist oppression of Black people.
Narrative definition
The relentless, brutal, centuries-long terrorization, stifling asphyxiation, and oppression of Black people, Black culture, and Black lives. To kneeneck is to hold a racist perception of people with visible or perceived Sub-Saharan descent (a.k.a. ‘Black people’), which may be expressed as hatred toward Black people and/or a perception of their inferiority.
Rhetorical and physical manifestations of kneenecking are directed toward Black people, individually and in groups, and/or towards their property, their community institutions, businesses, and organizations.
The explicit or unintended outcome of kneenecking is any loss to humanity of the full potential of Black people, individually and collectively.
Etymology
The death of George Perry Floyd Jr (October 14, 1973 – May 25, 2020), caused by Derek Chauvin, a White police officer, pressing his knee to Floyd's neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds during Floyd’s arrest, was met with mass revulsion and condemnation around the world. The image of the manner of his death quickly became a metaphor for the treatment of Black people, put most succinctly by Rev Al Sharpton in his address to the George Floyd memorial service in Minneapolis on Thursday, June 4th, 2020, where in his eulogy, he said:
“…George Floyd’s story is the story of Black folks. You kept your knee on our neck. We had creative skills, but we couldn’t get your knee off our neck. It’s time for us, in George’s name, to stand up and say, ‘Get your knee off our necks.’”
“…We don’t want favors, just get up off of us, and we can be and do whatever we can be.”
"…George Floyd's story has been the story of Black folks. The reason we could never be who we wanted and dreamed of being is you kept your knee on our neck... Like George, we couldn't breathe... You wouldn't take your knee off our neck."
“…A man comes out of a single-parent home, educates himself and becomes president of the United States and you ask him for his birth certificate because you can’t take your knee off our neck.”
Use Examples
“The appalling statistics of Black deaths at the hands of police forces show kneeneckism in its most pernicious institutional form.”
“She was persistently kneenecked by her employer, doing nothing to overturn a culture that denied her promotion for years.”
“Donald Trump’s refusal to apologize for spending $85,000 in front-page ads calling for the death penalty for the exonerated Central Park 5, demonstrates his deep-seated kneeneck attitude.”
“Kneenecking tropes about people in Africa having ‘watermelon smiles’ and being ‘piccaninnies’ are shameful.”
“He’s not only an anti-Semite and an Islamophobe, he also suffers from kneeneckophilia.”
“Amy Cooper knew that she could rely on using and weaponizing both her White privilege and the widespread acceptance of old, insidious kneeneck stereotypes when she dialed 911.”
“Reflecting underlying kneeneck cultural norms, after enduring months of lockdown, African workers in China are now being targeted for eviction from their apartments.”
“Whilst I sympathise, Home Secretary, the question was not about racism in general, but rather the kneeneckist outcomes of your government’s actions specifically.”
References
This article "Kneeneck" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Kneeneck. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
