A Letter From Black America

[DKW 86 6,345]

A Letter From Black America

...

We had seen witnesses treated like suspects, and knew how quickly black people calling the police for help could wind up cuffed in the back of a squad car. Some of us knew of black professionals who’d had guns drawn on them for no reason.

This was before Michael Brown. Before police killed John Crawford III for carrying a BB gun in a Wal-Mart or shot down 12-year-old Tamir Rice in a Cleveland park. Before Akai Gurley was killed by an officer while walking in a dark staircase and before Eric Garner was choked to death upon suspicion of selling “loosies.” Without yet knowing those names, we all could go down a list of unarmed black people killed by law enforcement.

We feared what could happen if police came rushing into a group of people who, by virtue of our skin color, might be mistaken for suspects.

For those of you reading this who may not be black, or perhaps Latino, this is my chance to tell you that a substantial portion of your fellow citizens in the United States of America have little expectation of being treated fairly by the law or receiving justice. It’s possible this will come as a surprise to you. But to a very real extent, you have grown up in a different country than I have.

As Khalil Gibran Muhammad, author of The Condemnation of Blackness, puts it, “White people, by and large, do not know what it is like to be occupied by a police force. They don’t understand it because it is not the type of policing they experience. Because they are treated like individuals, they believe that if ‘I am not breaking the law, I will never be abused.’”

We are not criminals because we are black. Nor are we somehow the only people in America who don’t want to live in safe neighborhoods. Yet many of us cannot fundamentally trust the people who are charged with keeping us and our communities safe.

***

As protest and revolt swept across the Missouri suburb of Ferguson and demonstrators staged die-ins and blocked highways and boulevards from Oakland to New York with chants of “Black lives matter,” many white Americans seemed shocked by the gaping divide between law enforcement and the black communities they are supposed to serve. It was no surprise to us. For black Americans, policing is “the most enduring aspect of the struggle for civil rights,” says Muhammad, a historian and director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York. “It has always been the mechanism for racial surveillance and control.”

As Khalil Gibran Muhammad, author of The Condemnation of Blackness, puts it, “White people, by and large, do not know what it is like to be occupied by a police force. They don’t understand it because it is not the type of policing they experience. Because they are treated like individuals, they believe that if ‘I am not breaking the law, I will never be abused.’”

We are not criminals because we are black. Nor are we somehow the only people in America who don’t want to live in safe neighborhoods. Yet many of us cannot fundamentally trust the people who are charged with keeping us and our communities safe.

***

As protest and revolt swept across the Missouri suburb of Ferguson and demonstrators staged die-ins and blocked highways and boulevards from Oakland to New York with chants of “Black lives matter,” many white Americans seemed shocked by the gaping divide between law enforcement and the black communities they are supposed to serve. It was no surprise to us. For black Americans, policing is “the most enduring aspect of the struggle for civil rights,” says Muhammad, a historian and director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York. “It has always been the mechanism for racial surveillance and control.”

In the South, police once did the dirty work of enforcing the racial caste system. The Ku Klux Klan and law enforcement were often indistinguishable. Black-and-white photographs of the era memorialize the way Southern police sicced German shepherds on civil rights protesters and peeled the skin off black children with the force of water hoses. Lawmen were also involved or implicated in untold numbers of beatings, killings and disappearances of black Southerners who forgot their place.

In the North, police worked to protect white spaces by containing and controlling the rising black population that had been propelled into the industrial belt during the Great Migration. It was not unusual for Northern police to join white mobs as they attacked black homeowners attempting to move into white neighborhoods, or black workers trying to take jobs reserved for white laborers. And yet they strictly enforced vagrancy laws, catch-alls that gave them wide discretion to stop, question and arrest black citizens at will.

Much has changed since then. Much has not.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/03/letter-from-black-america-police-115545.html#ixzz3U2qhXJFO

MORE....

[AUUSN 823]

A fantastic letter. This paragraph sums up my thoughts perfectly:

Carla said she constantly saw police, often white, stopping and harassing passersby, almost always black. “You see the cops all the time, but they do not speak to you. You see them talking to each other, but the only time you ever see them interact with someone is if they are jacking them up,” she said. “They are making a choice, and it says they don’t care about you, it tells you they are not here for your people or people who look like you.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/03/letter-from-black-america-police-115545.html#ixzz3U2tprsAZ

[AURaptor 1,113]

before Eric Garner was choked to death upon suspicion of selling “loosies.” Without yet knowing those names, we all could go down a list of unarmed black people killed by law enforcement

Eric Garner wasn't shot.

The over use of the term ' unarmed ' is really a non sequitur. . Had the individuals been armed, what then? What are we to take from the implication that, had they been armed, they'd have a " fair fight " with the cops ? Or maybe that only THEN would the cops have been justified in shooting them ?

Well, if the person has a gun legally, and is permitted to carry, and isn't brandishing the gun, yeah, there'd be an issue.

It really is disingenuous to spin events in this manner, and expect there to be any real progress.

[autigeremt 5,665]

The longer I live, the more I hate being a non-racist white....because I'll never get that benefit of the doubt. That is what pisses me off about this subject as much as anything. No, I don't know what it's like to be anything but white. That's not my fault. I didn't get a choice on that one (none of us do). I hate to see this stuff continue and the story above is an example of where I can't relate. But I'm not going to stand by and accept someone else's automated characterization of myself or others like me.

It's just something I can't take lightly.

[AURaptor 1,113]

As Captain Mal said... " We're all just folk ". Meaning, we're all pretty much the same.

I generally hold to that as a rule, until given a reason to think otherwise.

[cooltigger21 0]

before Eric Garner was choked to death upon suspicion of selling “loosies.” Without yet knowing those names, we all could go down a list of unarmed black people killed by law enforcement

Eric Garner wasn't shot.

The over use of the term ' unarmed ' is really a non sequitur. . Had the individuals been armed, what then? What are we to take from the implication that, had they been armed, they'd have a " fair fight " with the cops ? Or maybe that only THEN would the cops have been justified in shooting them ?

Well, if the person has a gun legally, and is permitted to carry, and isn't brandishing the gun, yeah, there'd be an issue.

It really is disingenuous to spin events in this manner, and expect there to be any real progress.

Fists can be a deadly weapon. Many a person has been beaten severely and disabled by someone using their fists. Some have been killed. It took several officers to get him down on the ground.

[AUUSN 823]

Simpletons still arguing the micro issue I see. A well thought out letter and we get in response.....fist can be used as a weapon. Good gosh.

[TitanTiger 17,158]

before Eric Garner was choked to death upon suspicion of selling “loosies.” Without yet knowing those names, we all could go down a list of unarmed black people killed by law enforcement

<_</>

Eric Garner wasn't shot.

The over use of the term ' unarmed ' is really a non sequitur. . Had the individuals been armed, what then? What are we to take from the implication that, had they been armed, they'd have a " fair fight " with the cops ? Or maybe that only THEN would the cops have been justified in shooting them ?

Well, if the person has a gun legally, and is permitted to carry, and isn't brandishing the gun, yeah, there'd be an issue.

It really is disingenuous to spin events in this manner, and expect there to be any real progress.

Fists can be a deadly weapon. Many a person has been beaten severely and disabled by someone using their fists. Some have been killed. It took several officers to get him down on the ground.

First, who said Garner was shot? The part you quoted didn't say that. Who are you arguing with, Raptor?

Second, it did not take several officers to bring Garner to the ground. I just rewatched the video. One guy took him down with the chokehold. Other officers were there, but they didn't bring him down.

However, I agree that "unarmed" is not a catch all that means an officer somehow is barred from using deadly force. It appears after the DOJ investigation that the version of events Ofc. Wilson gave is the one that is accurate..."hands up don't shoot" did not happen and Brown, who outweighed Wilson by about 100 lbs., not only assaulted Wilson while he was still in the car trying to wrestle his gun away from him, but he charged the officer. Regardless of whether Brown was armed, there's no way Wilson could let Brown get to him and have a chance to either beat him senseless or beat him and take his gun from him.

[cooltigger21 0]

before Eric Garner was choked to death upon suspicion of selling “loosies.” Without yet knowing those names, we all could go down a list of unarmed black people killed by law enforcement

<_</>

Eric Garner wasn't shot.

The over use of the term ' unarmed ' is really a non sequitur. . Had the individuals been armed, what then? What are we to take from the implication that, had they been armed, they'd have a " fair fight " with the cops ? Or maybe that only THEN would the cops have been justified in shooting them ?

Well, if the person has a gun legally, and is permitted to carry, and isn't brandishing the gun, yeah, there'd be an issue.

It really is disingenuous to spin events in this manner, and expect there to be any real progress.

Fists can be a deadly weapon. Many a person has been beaten severely and disabled by someone using their fists. Some have been killed. It took several officers to get him down on the ground.

First, who said Garner was shot? The part you quoted didn't say that. Who are you arguing with, Raptor?

Second, it did not take several officers to bring Garner to the ground. I just rewatched the video. One guy took him down with the chokehold. Other officers were there, but they didn't bring him down.

However, I agree that "unarmed" is not a catch all that means an officer somehow is barred from using deadly force. It appears after the DOJ investigation that the version of events Ofc. Wilson gave is the one that is accurate..."hands up don't shoot" did not happen and Brown, who outweighed Wilson by about 100 lbs., not only assaulted Wilson while he was still in the car trying to wrestle his gun away from him, but he charged the officer. Regardless of whether Brown was armed, there's no way Wilson could let Brown get to him and have a chance to either beat him senseless or beat him and take his gun from him.

I wasn't referring to Garner. I realize he wasn't shot nor was he trying to assault the police. I really wasn't referencing any particular case. We keep hearing the narrative about people being unarmed when they don't have a gun. My only point is that a fist can be a very deadly weapon all by itself. Edited March 11, 2015 by cooltigger21

[AURaptor 1,113]

Titan - I'm not arguing with myself. The overall issue being pushed in the media is that cops ( or neighborhood watchmen ) are gunning down " unarmed " black men & boys , in cold blood, for no reason other than being black.

Also, a armed cop who is assaulted can quickly become unarmed & then dead. The media gloss over that point , intentionally IMO , to help promote a false narrative .

[AUUSN 823]

Titan - I'm not arguing with myself. The overall issue being pushed in the media is that cops ( or neighborhood watchmen ) are gunning down " unarmed " black men & boys , in cold blood, for no reason other than being black.

Also, a armed cop who is assaulted can quickly become unarmed & then dead. The media gloss over that point , intentionally IMO , to help promote a false narrative .

This thread has nothing to do with that. You have again missed the point.

[AUUSN 823]

If One Generation of Black Men Could Grow Up Not Experiencing Cops as the Enemy:

Towns like Ferguson need to be fixed if we're ever to fix America

Previously in Time, I noted that the main question from the Ferguson debacle is: What is the situation that makes two young black men comfortable dismissing a police officer’s request to step aside? The Department of Justice’s report on the chilling degree of racism on the part of Ferguson’s police force answers that question. The Department of Justice report has shown us that black people in Ferguson have long experienced the police as a contemptuous occupying army. For someone of Brown’s age, a sense of the police as the enemy is ingrained as nothing less than a cultural heritage.

Sure, we can quibble with the idea that disparate outcomes always indicate discrimination. But this kind of reasoning only nibbles at the very plain indications of the Ferguson report. Anyone who reads the endless procession of stories of white cops being just plain evil to innocent black people for no real reason — and sees it as their just desserts — has no place in any reasonable conversation about race in America.

The Department of Justice report is an invaluable portrait of the black experience of the police in countless locations across the United States. Typically illustrated by scattered anecdotes, and usually making headlines only when a person gets killed, this experience with the police is susceptible to being dismissed as a distortion. Whites can say that they, too, have had less than positive encounters with cops. They can also say that as far as white cops occasionally killing black boys, black people are usually murdered by other black people, and that’s what ought to bother them. And you know what? Neither of those points are without value, nor do they make their utterer racist.

But the reason black America feels so besieged by the police goes beyond the occasional Mike Browns and Eric Garners or running into the occasional cop who is a little too happy to issue tickets. To be black in Ferguson has meant regular encounters with snarling authority figures with the power to detain, injure, and even kill if “necessary,” often for trumped up reasons, and not treating whites the same way nearly as often.

Who thinks humble, ordinary little Ferguson is for some reason unique? There isn’t Racist Juice in the water along with the fluoride there. The only question is why we would think this kind of abuse is not common in a great many other places. Anyone who claims Ferguson is an isolated case has the burden of proof here. No, not every black person in Ferguson has been getting hurled about by the cops every week. Such things may never have happened to you at all; likely you only run up against it once. But it has also happened to your brother, your son, your cousin, that guy you know, that lady. It’s a community-wide experience. The cops, to you, mean something different than they do to somebody in Scarsdale. To read this DOJ report and still have no response but a harrumphing disapproval of Mike Brown’s distrust of authority is blinkered. Not racist, perhaps, but simplistic.

And while we’re at it, the report also helps make sense of Brown at the convenience store. Does it excuse it? No—that convenience store video is lowly indeed; there’s no hero there. But again, how shocked are we that, in a neighborhood where the main representatives of authority are so often monsters, some kids would feel less compunction about nabbing some cigars than ones in Brookline, Massachusetts would?

It is this treatment by the police that makes so many black people feel like racism is a key component of being black in America. Yes, some people exaggerate the issue. Black Americans do not live “under siege” and there is no “war on black men.” Plus, the resentment black men feel toward the cops can lead to a vicious cycle, where their disrespect conditions the same response in cops, and so on.

But I can guarantee that if just one generation of black men grew up with no reason to think of the cops as the enemy rather than as public helpers, then black America would be much better prepared to approach racism the way so many other groups have, and do — as an inconvenience rather than as an obstacle.

No self-regarding group of humans can be expected to brush off constant treatment like this as just “bad days” in an imperfect world. Towns like Ferguson need to be fixed — and, if they were, America would be fixed too. http://time.com/3739005/ferguson-michael-brown-shooting-police-racism/

[Proud Tiger 4,261]

[homersapien 9,717]

before Eric Garner was choked to death upon suspicion of selling “loosies.” Without yet knowing those names, we all could go down a list of unarmed black people killed by law enforcement

Eric Garner wasn't shot.

The over use of the term ' unarmed ' is really a non sequitur. . Had the individuals been armed, what then? What are we to take from the implication that, had they been armed, they'd have a " fair fight " with the cops ? Or maybe that only THEN would the cops have been justified in shooting them ?

Well, if the person has a gun legally, and is permitted to carry, and isn't brandishing the gun, yeah, there'd be an issue.

It really is disingenuous to spin events in this manner, and expect there to be any real progress.

:icon_exclaim: WARNING EXTREME IRONY ALERT :icon_exclaim:

[homersapien 9,717]

The longer I live, the more I hate being a non-racist white....because I'll never get that benefit of the doubt. That is what pisses me off about this subject as much as anything. No, I don't know what it's like to be anything but white. That's not my fault. I didn't get a choice on that one (none of us do). I hate to see this stuff continue and the story above is an example of where I can't relate. But I'm not going to stand by and accept someone else's automated characterization of myself or others like me.

It's just something I can't take lightly.

You sure are getting upset about this.

Why are you taking it so personally?

Edited March 12, 2015 by homersapien

[homersapien 9,717]

Seriously. What's your reaction?

[AUUSN 823]

Seriously. What's your reaction?

He has no reaction.....until Laura Ingrahm tells him what his reaction should be. Until she send directions, youtube vidoes are all he has.

[homersapien 9,717]

Simpletons still arguing the micro issue I see. A well thought out letter and we get in response.....fist can be used as a weapon. Good gosh.

Maybe in a different mood I could laugh. I feel more like crying from shame.

[homersapien 9,717]

Seriously. What's your reaction?

He has no reaction.....until Laura Ingrahm tells him what his reaction should be. Until she send directions, youtube vidoes are all he has.

Let's give him benefit of doubt. I'd like to hear his reaction instead of some cute, cop-out, video clip.

Edited March 12, 2015 by homersapien

[homersapien 9,717]

Titan - I'm not arguing with myself. The overall issue being pushed in the media is that cops ( or neighborhood watchmen ) are gunning down " unarmed " black men & boys , in cold blood, for no reason other than being black.

Also, a armed cop who is assaulted can quickly become unarmed & then dead. The media gloss over that point , intentionally IMO , to help promote a false narrative .

Try limiting your reaction to the letter. Would that be possible?

[autigeremt 5,665]

The longer I live, the more I hate being a non-racist white....because I'll never get that benefit of the doubt. That is what pisses me off about this subject as much as anything. No, I don't know what it's like to be anything but white. That's not my fault. I didn't get a choice on that one (none of us do). I hate to see this stuff continue and the story above is an example of where I can't relate. But I'm not going to stand by and accept someone else's automated characterization of myself or others like me.

It's just something I can't take lightly.

You sure are getting upset about this.

Why are you taking it so personally? :dunno:/>

Because I've been directly involved with reverse racism and I don't appreciate the lack of an open mind about the topic. Being Southern born and white can come with a price in some circles.

[homersapien 9,717]

The longer I live, the more I hate being a non-racist white....because I'll never get that benefit of the doubt. That is what pisses me off about this subject as much as anything. No, I don't know what it's like to be anything but white. That's not my fault. I didn't get a choice on that one (none of us do). I hate to see this stuff continue and the story above is an example of where I can't relate. But I'm not going to stand by and accept someone else's automated characterization of myself or others like me.

It's just something I can't take lightly.

You sure are getting upset about this.

Why are you taking it so personally? :dunno:/>

Because I've been directly involved with reverse racism and I don't appreciate the lack of an open mind about the topic. Being Southern born and white can come with a price in some circles.

Well, I am sorry that whatever you experienced scarred you so much. I am a Southern-borne white as well, but I certainly don't feel I have paid a "price" for it.

Anyway, do you think the writer of the essay in the OP lacked an "open mind" about the topic?

[autigeremt 5,665]

The longer I live, the more I hate being a non-racist white....because I'll never get that benefit of the doubt. That is what pisses me off about this subject as much as anything. No, I don't know what it's like to be anything but white. That's not my fault. I didn't get a choice on that one (none of us do). I hate to see this stuff continue and the story above is an example of where I can't relate. But I'm not going to stand by and accept someone else's automated characterization of myself or others like me.

It's just something I can't take lightly.

You sure are getting upset about this.

Why are you taking it so personally? :dunno:/>

Because I've been directly involved with reverse racism and I don't appreciate the lack of an open mind about the topic. Being Southern born and white can come with a price in some circles.

Well, I am sorry that whatever you experienced scarred you so much. I am a Southern-borne white as well, but I certainly don't feel I have paid a "price" for it.

Anyway, do you think the writer of the essay in the OP lacked an "open mind" about the topic?

I think a lot of people lack an open mind about racism and race related issues. People take sides a lot of times regardless of the truth in many instances and race is no exception. Racism knows no boundary.....just pathetic opportunity.

[Weegle777 63]

This thread is filled with tons of meaningless diatribes and zero solutions. The American way: scream and whine about issues and then look dumbfounded when asked what the solution should be. People in this country don't want solutions to problems, they want a cause to support to post a self-serving selfie on Facebook and Twitter about. People just need to shut up and fix themselves before you start trying to fix others.

[alexava 6,766]

This thread is filled with tons of meaningless diatribes and zero solutions. The American way: scream and whine about issues and then look dumbfounded when asked what the solution should be. People in this country don't want solutions to problems, they want a cause to support to post a self-serving selfie on Facebook and Twitter about. People just need to shut up and fix themselves before you start trying to fix others.

what is your solution?