Within the African American community, there has always been an uneasy relationship with authority figures. During the Jim Crow era, police officers were not the enforcers of equal justice or the equal application of the rule of law that they purport to be. Police officers represented a force that terrorized African American communities, maintained systems of oppression, and enforced institutionalized racism for a white supremacist society that refused to acknowledge the humanity of people of color. Today much has changed and yet much has remained the same. Communities of color still face much of the same institutional roadblocks, lack of opportunities, and discrimination in the United States that they have faced for centuries. African Americans may be free in the literal sense: African Americans may have the right to vote and segregation may no longer be legally enforced, but the African American community and other communities of color still face the specters of classism, racism, and police brutality.
Young African American males in the United States are more likely to be victims of a violent encounter with a police officer than their white male counterparts; they are also more likely to be suspected of committing a crime (i.e., profiled), more likely to be incarcerated for committing a crime, and often face harsher sentences than white males for the same crime. Some of this over policing of black males is a result of implicit bias and some of it is a result of a tendency for police officers to focus on high crime areas which are often urban areas where African Americans, especially impoverished African Americans, are more likely to live. Studies have shown that areas with higher population density and higher poverty rates tend to have a greater volume of crime – these things have a positive correlation (i.e., as one goes up so too does the other), as a consequence of this greater volume of crime police officers are often inclined to patrol these areas more than, say, white suburbia or affluent neighborhoods which results in higher incarceration rates of the residents of these areas. Some might then make the incorrect assumption that there is something inherently wrong with the residents of urban areas. This is patently false. If we look at the crime rates of white middle class suburban neighborhoods and compare them to the crime rates of black middle class suburban neighborhoods, we find similar rates. Furthermore, when we look at white impoverished rural areas (e.g., Appalachian Mountains), we find a higher crime rate than both the white middle class and black middle class suburban areas, yet all white Americans are not painted with broad strokes as unruly hillbillies. The problem is not race. The problems are racism, classism, and lack of opportunity. The problems are institutionalized racism, implicit bias, the overconcentration of wealth in the hands of the few (i.e., income inequality), and centuries of devaluing lives of color.
While America was creating the white middle class, she was using every tool at her disposal to prevent the rise of the black middle class or to destroy it anywhere it took root. In many cities across the nation areas with higher concentrations of African Americans were designated as lower value by local municipalities. White bankers, real estate agents, and landlords responded to the incentives created and were reluctant to give loans to African Americans, sell homes to African Americans, or rent out property to African Americans for fear of devaluing the monetary worth of their own communities. So while we ended de jure segregation we propped up a system of de facto segregation across the country that negatively impacted African Americans. When black communities did manage to accrue enough capital to create middle class communities of their own a combined force of local law enforcement, local Ku Klux Klan members, or disgruntled white Americans would conspire to construct circumstances (e.g., the false rape of white women) that would allow them to destroy affluent communities of color (e.g., the destruction of black Wall Street or the Atlanta riots of 1906). The intentional deprivation of opportunity within African American communities by white Americans holding both economic and political power laid the groundwork for the seeds of generational poverty to be planted in the African American psyche. Centuries of institutionalized racism of that manner still manifest itself in the form of implicit bias – this interaction between white America and black America has persisted through the years despite achievements like the Civil Rights Acts and Voting Rights Act. To this day African Americans are still less likely to receive loans from banks, less likely to be sold a home for fear that it would devalue the property of all homes in the community, and less likely to be made tenants in certain neighborhoods.It is no wonder African Americans in Baltimore are in a state of civil unrest. America has created powder kegs across the nation fueled by racism and income equality – powder kegs supported by centuries of institutionalized racism, implicit bias, and police brutality.
For some Americans, police brutality is a recent development. In communities of color, police brutality is a constant reality and has always been so. Crime rates are dropping across the board, across all races, and yet police brutality has gone up. Militarization of the police has gone up. The taking of black lives by police has gone up. The incarceration of black lives by the justice system has gone up. Communities of color still maintain higher poverty rates than white communities. I wish we could honestly say all lives matter but the unfortunate reality is that all lives are not given equal consideration. Not in the United States. In the United States, the justice system, law enforcement, and many non-black Americans either implicitly or consciously place less value on black lives than they do on white lives, and this has always been the case. It is for that reason activists say “black lives matter” – because black lives should matter as much as all lives. What Baltimore and its coverage have shown us is that black lives are undervalued, black lives are seen as dangerous, and black lives are considered disposable. Until America is willing to have an honest and open discussion about racism, the equal application of the rule of law, income inequality, real equality of opportunity, and healing the wounds of the past we will continue to have more incidents like Baltimore and Ferguson. We will see more Trayvon Martins, Tamir Rices, Michael Browns, Walter Scotts, and Freddie Grays. I will leave y’all with a quote by El Hajj El Shabazz (Malcolm X):
“If you stick a knife nine inches into my back and pull it out three inches that is not progress. Even if you pull it all the way out that is not progress. Progress is healing the wound and America hasn’t even begun to pull out the knife.”
State Senate District 5 Gwinnett
Black Lives Should Matter
June 3, 2015 — 5th District Blog Posts and CommentsWithin the African American community, there has always been an uneasy relationship with authority figures. During the Jim Crow era, police officers were not the enforcers of equal justice or the equal application of the rule of law that they purport to be. Police officers represented a force that terrorized African American communities, maintained systems of oppression, and enforced institutionalized racism for a white supremacist society that refused to acknowledge the humanity of people of color. Today much has changed and yet much has remained the same. Communities of color still face much of the same institutional roadblocks, lack of opportunities, and discrimination in the United States that they have faced for centuries. African Americans may be free in the literal sense: African Americans may have the right to vote and segregation may no longer be legally enforced, but the African American community and other communities of color still face the specters of classism, racism, and police brutality.
Young African American males in the United States are more likely to be victims of a violent encounter with a police officer than their white male counterparts; they are also more likely to be suspected of committing a crime (i.e., profiled), more likely to be incarcerated for committing a crime, and often face harsher sentences than white males for the same crime. Some of this over policing of black males is a result of implicit bias and some of it is a result of a tendency for police officers to focus on high crime areas which are often urban areas where African Americans, especially impoverished African Americans, are more likely to live. Studies have shown that areas with higher population density and higher poverty rates tend to have a greater volume of crime – these things have a positive correlation (i.e., as one goes up so too does the other), as a consequence of this greater volume of crime police officers are often inclined to patrol these areas more than, say, white suburbia or affluent neighborhoods which results in higher incarceration rates of the residents of these areas. Some might then make the incorrect assumption that there is something inherently wrong with the residents of urban areas. This is patently false. If we look at the crime rates of white middle class suburban neighborhoods and compare them to the crime rates of black middle class suburban neighborhoods, we find similar rates. Furthermore, when we look at white impoverished rural areas (e.g., Appalachian Mountains), we find a higher crime rate than both the white middle class and black middle class suburban areas, yet all white Americans are not painted with broad strokes as unruly hillbillies. The problem is not race. The problems are racism, classism, and lack of opportunity. The problems are institutionalized racism, implicit bias, the overconcentration of wealth in the hands of the few (i.e., income inequality), and centuries of devaluing lives of color.
While America was creating the white middle class, she was using every tool at her disposal to prevent the rise of the black middle class or to destroy it anywhere it took root. In many cities across the nation areas with higher concentrations of African Americans were designated as lower value by local municipalities. White bankers, real estate agents, and landlords responded to the incentives created and were reluctant to give loans to African Americans, sell homes to African Americans, or rent out property to African Americans for fear of devaluing the monetary worth of their own communities. So while we ended de jure segregation we propped up a system of de facto segregation across the country that negatively impacted African Americans. When black communities did manage to accrue enough capital to create middle class communities of their own a combined force of local law enforcement, local Ku Klux Klan members, or disgruntled white Americans would conspire to construct circumstances (e.g., the false rape of white women) that would allow them to destroy affluent communities of color (e.g., the destruction of black Wall Street or the Atlanta riots of 1906). The intentional deprivation of opportunity within African American communities by white Americans holding both economic and political power laid the groundwork for the seeds of generational poverty to be planted in the African American psyche. Centuries of institutionalized racism of that manner still manifest itself in the form of implicit bias – this interaction between white America and black America has persisted through the years despite achievements like the Civil Rights Acts and Voting Rights Act. To this day African Americans are still less likely to receive loans from banks, less likely to be sold a home for fear that it would devalue the property of all homes in the community, and less likely to be made tenants in certain neighborhoods.It is no wonder African Americans in Baltimore are in a state of civil unrest. America has created powder kegs across the nation fueled by racism and income equality – powder kegs supported by centuries of institutionalized racism, implicit bias, and police brutality.
For some Americans, police brutality is a recent development. In communities of color, police brutality is a constant reality and has always been so. Crime rates are dropping across the board, across all races, and yet police brutality has gone up. Militarization of the police has gone up. The taking of black lives by police has gone up. The incarceration of black lives by the justice system has gone up. Communities of color still maintain higher poverty rates than white communities. I wish we could honestly say all lives matter but the unfortunate reality is that all lives are not given equal consideration. Not in the United States. In the United States, the justice system, law enforcement, and many non-black Americans either implicitly or consciously place less value on black lives than they do on white lives, and this has always been the case. It is for that reason activists say “black lives matter” – because black lives should matter as much as all lives. What Baltimore and its coverage have shown us is that black lives are undervalued, black lives are seen as dangerous, and black lives are considered disposable. Until America is willing to have an honest and open discussion about racism, the equal application of the rule of law, income inequality, real equality of opportunity, and healing the wounds of the past we will continue to have more incidents like Baltimore and Ferguson. We will see more Trayvon Martins, Tamir Rices, Michael Browns, Walter Scotts, and Freddie Grays. I will leave y’all with a quote by El Hajj El Shabazz (Malcolm X):
“If you stick a knife nine inches into my back and pull it out three inches that is not progress. Even if you pull it all the way out that is not progress. Progress is healing the wound and America hasn’t even begun to pull out the knife.”