A black person can in fact hate black people. Scholars have long provided the term, “internalized racism” to describe animosity toward people from one’s own group identity. Over the years, I’ve encountered anti-blackness in black students and adults. I had one black student confess that her grandmother advised her to avoid other black students on campus because they were “trouble”. This kind of racism against one’s own identity comes from being subjected to years of negative messaging coupled with a few incidents that reinforce those negative messages. So, the fact that five black officers beat an innocent young black male to death is not evidence that racism wasn’t a factor in this particular case. It likely was front and center along with their character flaws. However, racism is at the root of the problem with policing today.
At the historical root of modern policing is the brutality of slavery, overseeing slaves, and slave catching. Post-slavery, policing was used to feed the prison system, which was legalized slavery, providing cheap labor to industry. Black men have always been the most targeted group to feed the system. The era of Jim Crow added particularly egregious laws that targeted the behavior of black people and severely limited their civil liberties, making black life difficult and black incarceration easier. These oppressive laws were eventually replaced by “non-discriminatory” laws that were overly enforced in black communities as a way to justify the arrest, ticketing, and conviction of black citizens for offenses. Too often, these same offensives are ignored in white communities by police and judges. The many examples of unequal justice are backed by statistics that show over-policing, racial profiling, excessive ticketing, and harsher sentencing for black people. For many years media reporting highlighted the crimes of blacks while simultaneously ignoring the fact of over-policing and harsher sentences. These flawed reports fueled calls for tough on crime legislation that further targeted black communities and gave a tacit pass to police brutality. I’ve heard white people say that blacks get arrested so often because they are the ones who commit most of the crime. But that isn’t necessarily the whole truth.
Living in a white community, I’ve seen and experienced the disparity firsthand. When a white kid commits a crime, he is let off with a warning. His actions are written off as, “boys will be boys”. When I was working at the University, police wouldn’t bother to even come to campus to arrest a white kid for possession and even sale of marijuana. Twice, violence against my own son was written off that way. And on one occasion, I later found out that the police officer didn’t even file a report, breaking police policy. However, when a black child commits a crime, he is treated as a bonified criminal for the exact same indiscretion. National news reports show black children as young as five years old being led away by police in handcuffs, further pushing the narrative that even black children are dangerous. And in communities across the country, young black men are routinely stopped, and their cars searched for drugs in hopes of making an immediate arrest. Policing in this country has always been used as a weapon against black people. Something is terribly wrong when the police are called and then show up when a black person is simply minding their own business in a space where their presence is seen as a threat by a white person.
Calls for police reform have little chance of passing this current Congress because the object of the unfettered brutality is primarily young black males. Media and public sentiment toward black people have to change drastically for lawmakers to finally enact necessary police reform. I’m hopeful that change will come because our broken criminal justice system is finally being exposed. I’m thankful for the body cameras and the cell phone videos of private citizens. I’m thankful for the CCTV cameras that captured the beating of Tyre Nicols and exposed the bogus reason for the stop. They couldn’t find any reckless driving. I’m thankful for the brave people coming forward to tell their hidden stories. I’m thankful for the “peaceful” protesters who take to the streets to demand justice.
In recent years, each senseless death, has helped to expose the racism and underlying injustice built into our criminal justice system. It is right that the five black officers were immediately fired and charged with second degree murder in this case. But it would be foolish of me to ignore the fact that they, too, were black males and that justice was much swifter in their case than in all the cases involving white officers caught in the act of police brutality.
I’m not saying we don’t need police. We do and I appreciate individuals willing to put their life on the line every day to protect and serve the public. I just want this system to recognize that people with black skin also deserve to be protected and served. And that starts with hiring police officers with the right mindset. Too many of them have overly inflated or fragile egos and become bullies. Some are violent at their core and chose policing to feed that craving. I think initial and continuous psychological testing is needed to assess suitability for duty. I think mental health services must be provided and mental health awareness training should be required. It is estimated that about a third of incarcerated individuals have mental health issues. We need to end the practice of accidentally hiring police who were fired or pushed out of other departments due to misconduct.
There is work to be done and the only way to get Congress to pass the George Floyd Police Reform Act is to push them to do so. If it means writing letters, then we must write. If it means, protesting, then we must protest. If it means meeting with Congressmen, then we must meet. Until we are willing to demand better, black people will continue to be the target of over-policing and police brutality.