I can’t imagine a worse job than jailor or prison guard. Day after day they exercise harsh authority over human failures and sociopaths, but also against unfortunate victims of an error prone legal system. What would give me second thoughts is knowing that some prisoners were wrongly convicted, but not knowing which ones. What is more common in the courts than a man of low birth and no means being advised by his appointed attorney to accept a plea bargain, even though he be innocent? It’s not that difficult to persuade an unwitting, penniless person to take the lesser punishment if he believes he will be found guilty regardless. Theoretically, the system works and the innocent go free. But there are prosecutors who put winning and career ahead of ethics and justice? How much does it take to harden the heart against criminal stereotypes, with or without evidence: not much I’m afraid. To that end, a self perpetuating prejudice is guaranteed.
Last summer was a time of discontent with the killing of unarmed black men by police. I hope the resulting shift in both public awareness and opinion reaches critical mass. It’s not just individual officers who respond with inappropriate, lethal force. It is a flawed system where law enforcement as a body identify as entitled warriors, where self righteous purpose justifies arbitrary intimidation and violence against people they are sworn to serve. Those individuals are instruments of a contagious culture. A 14 hour workshop will not change the culture. If you keep dong what you’ve been doing, you keep getting what you’ve got.
Like a kettle of boiling water, the bubbles trace back to the bottom of the pot, to the end of the Civil War. In both North and South, fear of unchecked movement and organized activity of freed slaves was viewed as untenable. Government (state and local) quickly adopted policy and practice that have prevailed ever since. Racial profiling, Jim Crow legislation and extreme punishment served one purpose, protecting affluent white people and their property. Housing codes were specific to protect white neighborhoods and minimize contact between races. Common sense would seem to dictate that crime and violence flourish wherever people of color intermingle with whites. What else might one expect from unrestrained, morally challenged, subhuman black men in particular and from their culture in general?
At the root of all white men’s fears has been the threat of a black man’s sexual appetite, the “Mandingo” factor. That fear was compounded by another presumption. Since the first slave ships arrived, white women have been viewed as inherently unable to resist the black man’s libido. That myth is so long lived, so completely integrated into the national fabric, it rages like undiagnosed cancer within the privileged white culture.
For me, all it took to to jar my conscience was the peaceful demonstration at the Edmund Pettus Bridge, Selma, Alabama in March of 1965. The retaliatory violence was then, will forever be unforgivable. On that day, MLK Jr was elevated in my judgment from a controversial preacher to a champion and a hero. Then, recently, a very long list of blatant killings has come to a boil with Eric Garner, Breonna Taylor & George Floyd. Like salt in the soup, absorbed within the White Privilege paradigm, I still didn’t really get it. I had never been called on to bleed.
For a long time, I have quoted some acquired wisdom that applies to culture: “. . . change comes slowly, one funeral at a time.” I don’t think racist bigots will ever experience a change of heart. More than we want to believe, there are many respectable white people who would embrace a return of slavery. But for now, clinging to the curse of white supremacy, a repugnant, mental illness, they keep on. The arc of history has been slow to move but it has been leaning in the direction of accommodation rather than subjugation. I’m thinking the funerals would be for old, narrow bigots, of natural causes, replaced by new generations who are not married to old, evil ways. Wishful thinking, maybe, but I keep wishing and I keep leaning. I don’t believe for a moment that my views will influence anyone’s thinking. What I’m saying here is just so I have it formalized, put down in words. I get it.
Last summer was a time of discontent with the killing of unarmed black men by police. I hope the resulting shift in both public awareness and opinion reaches critical mass. It’s not just individual officers who respond with inappropriate, lethal force. It is a flawed system where law enforcement as a body identify as entitled warriors, where self righteous purpose justifies arbitrary intimidation and violence against people they are sworn to serve. Those individuals are instruments of a contagious culture. A 14 hour workshop will not change the culture. If you keep dong what you’ve been doing, you keep getting what you’ve got.
Like a kettle of boiling water, the bubbles trace back to the bottom of the pot, to the end of the Civil War. In both North and South, fear of unchecked movement and organized activity of freed slaves was viewed as untenable. Government (state and local) quickly adopted policy and practice that have prevailed ever since. Racial profiling, Jim Crow legislation and extreme punishment served one purpose, protecting affluent white people and their property. Housing codes were specific to protect white neighborhoods and minimize contact between races. Common sense would seem to dictate that crime and violence flourish wherever people of color intermingle with whites. What else might one expect from unrestrained, morally challenged, subhuman black men in particular and from their culture in general?
At the root of all white men’s fears has been the threat of a black man’s sexual appetite, the “Mandingo” factor. That fear was compounded by another presumption. Since the first slave ships arrived, white women have been viewed as inherently unable to resist the black man’s libido. That myth is so long lived, so completely integrated into the national fabric, it rages like undiagnosed cancer within the privileged white culture.
For me, all it took to to jar my conscience was the peaceful demonstration at the Edmund Pettus Bridge, Selma, Alabama in March of 1965. The retaliatory violence was then, will forever be unforgivable. On that day, MLK Jr was elevated in my judgment from a controversial preacher to a champion and a hero. Then, recently, a very long list of blatant killings has come to a boil with Eric Garner, Breonna Taylor & George Floyd. Like salt in the soup, absorbed within the White Privilege paradigm, I still didn’t really get it. I had never been called on to bleed.
For a long time, I have quoted some acquired wisdom that applies to culture: “. . . change comes slowly, one funeral at a time.” I don’t think racist bigots will ever experience a change of heart. More than we want to believe, there are many respectable white people who would embrace a return of slavery. But for now, clinging to the curse of white supremacy, a repugnant, mental illness, they keep on. The arc of history has been slow to move but it has been leaning in the direction of accommodation rather than subjugation. I’m thinking the funerals would be for old, narrow bigots, of natural causes, replaced by new generations who are not married to old, evil ways. Wishful thinking, maybe, but I keep wishing and I keep leaning. I don’t believe for a moment that my views will influence anyone’s thinking. What I’m saying here is just so I have it formalized, put down in words. I get it.
No comments:
Post a Comment