Land of the "Free," Home of the "Brave"
Before delving into the topic at hand, I would like to express my condolences to the victims of the Parkland shooting and to their loved ones.
For those who do not own a calendar, February is Black History Month. In this time of the year, we all have the motivation and the power to fight racist stereotypes. When engaging in this battle, it is important to understand how the image of the "criminal" in particular has worked its way into contemporary America. Black people are seen as automatically suspicious; therefore, suspicion in our country must be redefined.
Relationships between law enforcement and communities of color have never been very positive. Communities of people of color now have unwavering distrust of law enforcement. Some are reluctant to venture into certain areas where police are known to be aggressive, or will even move to areas that are deemed safer.
Research shows that despite being a minority of the population, Black people are at a disproportionately higher risk of being victim to police brutality. Black people in this country are 3 times as likely to be killed by a cop as white people. Not only are Black people seen as more of a threat, but humanity is acknowledged more in white suspects because they are not assumed to be a danger that must be neutralized.
The arrest and incarceration process also highly prioritizes Black people. Black males born in this decade have an estimated 32% chance of being incarcerated in their lifetime, as opposed to 17% for Latinx males and 6% for White males.
While many of these numbers we pull are from studies conducted during Obama's presidency, today's research supports the idea that Donald Trump's rhetoric has exacerbated the existing racial tension.
Last summer, our chief executive sent digital media into a frenzy after flagrantly condoning violent arrests by the police force. Of course, analyzing Trump's speeches are probably futile, seeing as they tend to lack any depth of meaning. But I must point out the severity of phrasing these statements as he did.
Let us not pretend that in his speech he was referring to all criminals, because his choice of words implies a racial bias. "Thug" is a term right-wing commentators use when referring to perceived criminals in urban cities, and more specifically, people of color in urban cities. We can debate on and on whether or not the term is being used with this connotation, but the word carries that meaning no matter the context.
White people are practically never stereotyped as thieves, drug addicts, or murderers, therefore the term "thug" incorporates all the negative images that are associated with low-income minorities.
Even more striking is that a white man is permitted to praise violence to millions of people, but had Obama said this, he would not have been allowed to finish his speech. If Trump's supporters laughed when he made these remarks, they surely would have projectile vomited if it were Obama.
Supporters seem to consider many of his statements good humor, and I suppose this is because of inner elation toward his unfiltered hatred. People who detest political correctness in today's society find joy in hearing Trump voicing the same opinions that they have been criticized for having. This reaction to his words allows them to listen in awe, without cognizance of their real-life consequences.
To be frank, Chump seems to care more about defending the feelings of white police officers than the feelings of people of color.
Because of the harmful criminal stereotype, all our identity politics and claiming of our rights is perceived as destructive. Throughout the past century, this has manifested in government-sanctioned killings of Black political leaders. Activists thought they had seen an end to this until very recently, when a Black activist known as Rakem Balogun had his home raided by FBI agents and was arrested for fitting the qualifications of a B.I.E. The FBI had been watching him for two years prior to making the arrest. His ownership of two weapons after having been prohibited for a 2007 misdemeanor charge was reason for the raid, along with a copy of Robert F. Williams's book Negroes With Guns.
The COINTELPRO initiative was prominent in the 1970s, but what is emerging in 2018 is a reincarnation of the tactics that were used to disband organizations challenging the social order. And minority activists will take the hit. We are seeing a new beginning for federally sanctioned racism unfold before our eyes.
I was lucky to be able to grow up in New Haven, where police execute their jobs diligently. Incidents of police brutality are very infrequent in the blue city, mostly as a result of liberal local politics. And yet, my trust of police officers is challenged by reports of police brutality in other parts of the country. My father works in the police department and I still am not comfortable dialing 911. It wasn't always this way—I thought all cops were doughnuts and sunshine growing up—but once I read about the young people killed in cold blood and the justice system's failure to prosecute the killers, I questioned if all the local police officers abide by the same moral code held by our district. That question shifted into an inability to be in their proximity.
Today's Black parents sometimes give their children a speech about how to interact with police, telling them to be polite to officers and always obey their commands. White parents, on the other hand, do not necessarily need to teach fear of police to their children. What surprised me at the time was how committed Black parents are to keeping family from being killed since we cannot seem to stop police from killing them. My little brothers received "the police talk" by my mother after police brutality started appearing more in the news. I was not given the sex talk as an adolescent, let alone the police talk, but hearing it second-hand haunted me just the same.
In most spaces I enter, receiving stares of bewilderment is something I no longer fear. My skin and natural hair is typically a red flag for adults to assume I cannot be trusted, but my slender physique paints me as not strong enough to be violent (which is completely inaccurate because my years of judo training make me just as strong as a 200-pound wrestler). I saw this manifest itself when a public safety officer asked me for my ID as I entered my residence hall, but let the white people walk past. This was either the first micro-aggression I had ever experienced or the first one I was able to recognize. And it was motivated by implicit racial bias and the speculation of my membership to a predominantly white college.
Suspicion must be redefined. Having darker skin is often the equivalent of being armed, and this causes police responses to escalate to extreme proportions. Let us commit to supporting positive media representation of Black people so that the notion that we are predisposed to crime can be erased. Let us commit to supporting the bailing out of Black people wrongly imprisoned, especially political prisoners. Lastly, let us commit to elect politicians and contacting those in office to vigorously advocate for an end to the cycle.
Once again, have a happy Black History Month, and may we appreciate our history without returning to it.
For those who do not own a calendar, February is Black History Month. In this time of the year, we all have the motivation and the power to fight racist stereotypes. When engaging in this battle, it is important to understand how the image of the "criminal" in particular has worked its way into contemporary America. Black people are seen as automatically suspicious; therefore, suspicion in our country must be redefined.
Relationships between law enforcement and communities of color have never been very positive. Communities of people of color now have unwavering distrust of law enforcement. Some are reluctant to venture into certain areas where police are known to be aggressive, or will even move to areas that are deemed safer.
Research shows that despite being a minority of the population, Black people are at a disproportionately higher risk of being victim to police brutality. Black people in this country are 3 times as likely to be killed by a cop as white people. Not only are Black people seen as more of a threat, but humanity is acknowledged more in white suspects because they are not assumed to be a danger that must be neutralized.
The arrest and incarceration process also highly prioritizes Black people. Black males born in this decade have an estimated 32% chance of being incarcerated in their lifetime, as opposed to 17% for Latinx males and 6% for White males.
While many of these numbers we pull are from studies conducted during Obama's presidency, today's research supports the idea that Donald Trump's rhetoric has exacerbated the existing racial tension.
Last summer, our chief executive sent digital media into a frenzy after flagrantly condoning violent arrests by the police force. Of course, analyzing Trump's speeches are probably futile, seeing as they tend to lack any depth of meaning. But I must point out the severity of phrasing these statements as he did.
Let us not pretend that in his speech he was referring to all criminals, because his choice of words implies a racial bias. "Thug" is a term right-wing commentators use when referring to perceived criminals in urban cities, and more specifically, people of color in urban cities. We can debate on and on whether or not the term is being used with this connotation, but the word carries that meaning no matter the context.
White people are practically never stereotyped as thieves, drug addicts, or murderers, therefore the term "thug" incorporates all the negative images that are associated with low-income minorities.
Even more striking is that a white man is permitted to praise violence to millions of people, but had Obama said this, he would not have been allowed to finish his speech. If Trump's supporters laughed when he made these remarks, they surely would have projectile vomited if it were Obama.
Supporters seem to consider many of his statements good humor, and I suppose this is because of inner elation toward his unfiltered hatred. People who detest political correctness in today's society find joy in hearing Trump voicing the same opinions that they have been criticized for having. This reaction to his words allows them to listen in awe, without cognizance of their real-life consequences.
To be frank, Chump seems to care more about defending the feelings of white police officers than the feelings of people of color.
Because of the harmful criminal stereotype, all our identity politics and claiming of our rights is perceived as destructive. Throughout the past century, this has manifested in government-sanctioned killings of Black political leaders. Activists thought they had seen an end to this until very recently, when a Black activist known as Rakem Balogun had his home raided by FBI agents and was arrested for fitting the qualifications of a B.I.E. The FBI had been watching him for two years prior to making the arrest. His ownership of two weapons after having been prohibited for a 2007 misdemeanor charge was reason for the raid, along with a copy of Robert F. Williams's book Negroes With Guns.
The COINTELPRO initiative was prominent in the 1970s, but what is emerging in 2018 is a reincarnation of the tactics that were used to disband organizations challenging the social order. And minority activists will take the hit. We are seeing a new beginning for federally sanctioned racism unfold before our eyes.
I was lucky to be able to grow up in New Haven, where police execute their jobs diligently. Incidents of police brutality are very infrequent in the blue city, mostly as a result of liberal local politics. And yet, my trust of police officers is challenged by reports of police brutality in other parts of the country. My father works in the police department and I still am not comfortable dialing 911. It wasn't always this way—I thought all cops were doughnuts and sunshine growing up—but once I read about the young people killed in cold blood and the justice system's failure to prosecute the killers, I questioned if all the local police officers abide by the same moral code held by our district. That question shifted into an inability to be in their proximity.
Today's Black parents sometimes give their children a speech about how to interact with police, telling them to be polite to officers and always obey their commands. White parents, on the other hand, do not necessarily need to teach fear of police to their children. What surprised me at the time was how committed Black parents are to keeping family from being killed since we cannot seem to stop police from killing them. My little brothers received "the police talk" by my mother after police brutality started appearing more in the news. I was not given the sex talk as an adolescent, let alone the police talk, but hearing it second-hand haunted me just the same.
In most spaces I enter, receiving stares of bewilderment is something I no longer fear. My skin and natural hair is typically a red flag for adults to assume I cannot be trusted, but my slender physique paints me as not strong enough to be violent (which is completely inaccurate because my years of judo training make me just as strong as a 200-pound wrestler). I saw this manifest itself when a public safety officer asked me for my ID as I entered my residence hall, but let the white people walk past. This was either the first micro-aggression I had ever experienced or the first one I was able to recognize. And it was motivated by implicit racial bias and the speculation of my membership to a predominantly white college.
Suspicion must be redefined. Having darker skin is often the equivalent of being armed, and this causes police responses to escalate to extreme proportions. Let us commit to supporting positive media representation of Black people so that the notion that we are predisposed to crime can be erased. Let us commit to supporting the bailing out of Black people wrongly imprisoned, especially political prisoners. Lastly, let us commit to elect politicians and contacting those in office to vigorously advocate for an end to the cycle.
Once again, have a happy Black History Month, and may we appreciate our history without returning to it.
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