Post Racial America and Indirect Racism

  Since the end of the Civil Rights and Black Power movement, many white people have tried to distance themselves from being labeled a "racist". Although there are many other methods, the internet has long served as a safe medium for many people to voice their true feelings of other races in this current era called "Post-Racial America". With the beginning of George Zimmerman's murder trial, the judicial diarrhea of the US Supreme Court on the Voting Rights Act of 1964, and Paula Deen's (past) diarrhea of the mouth, the events of this week have removed multiple layers from the "Race Relations" onion of American society.

  There are 2 types of racism, both of which are common in the US, as defined by Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael) in his book Black Power : The Politics of Liberation(1967): Individual Racism and Institutional Racism.

  Individual racism is a small scale event between individuals or a small group of people in which one group acts against another based on an ideal that is intentionally or neglectfully racist. Paula Deen's "n-word" jokes are little more than examples of individual racism. Which, for those who didn't know, the law suit against Paula Deen was filed by a white employee, and it is about more than simple "n-word" jokes as described in this article from Black Legal Issues. Another example would be a group of Black guys beating up a white guy, just because he's white. As offensive as it may be, incidents involving individual racism do not have a lasting impact on the target group as a whole. But since it is on a person to person basis, the impact may last for the individuals involved. This factor is what allows racist ideals to be passed from generation to generation.

  Institutional racism is far reaching in the number of people it affects and is usually carried out by a group of people, although individuals can carry out this form of racism as well. This usually occurs when groups of people with racist ideals and states of mind get together - a majority of the time having positions of power. Where, as the picture above states, company policies, law enforcement practices, and legislative practices are created with the intention of harming, or infringing on the rights or progression of a designated group of people. These policies are designed and promoted as resolving a problem, but either intentionally or inherently create disparities through disenfranchisement, harassment, and other abuses of the negatively affected race. Some other race or group of races naturally benefits from it. The support for these forms of institutional racism comes from individual racists who would not want to openly express those views, or would otherwise be powerless to act on those views. Therefore they invest in or vote for, companies and politicians who will be able to deliver policies and business practices that have a similar ring to their racist ideals(although not explicitly stating so). The students of Prairie View A & M University's struggle for voting rights is a prime example of institutional racism, inspired by individual racists. Sporadic incidents of individual racism then begin to occur as a result of the policies and attitudes behind institutional racism.

  The Civil Rights and Black Power movements marked the end of the then commonplace overt racism. The passing of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts, overt racism was outlawed. At that point, racial slurs took a back seat in the public eye, and made way for neutral terms like "criminals" and "illegals"(immigrants) to refer to a broad spectrum of people who will be affected by these policies. So we can ultimately define "Post-Racial America" as the period where it's OK to be racist(individually or institutionally) as long as you don't actually say that that is what you are doing. A period of time where race shouldn't matter, but it does, and unless there is a large enough group of people affected by it, there is no sure fire way to identify it.

  With a better understanding of what racism is and the different forms it can take, we can better prepare ourselves to develop and act on solutions to these problems. The problems of racism cannot be eliminated, but, similar to computer security, the threats or affect of those threats of institutional and individual racism can be transferred, delayed, or prevented from reaching fruition. By having a healthy and practical understanding of how racism works and the forms that it can take will help us to educate ourselves and others outside of the race in our continuing struggle is to secure economic, political, and social freedom and self-determination.

Peace

Watching the Watchmen: Your Rights and the Police (Part 2)

This Is The Police: Put Down Your Camera

The link above is to an article describing an altercation in which a Black teenage girl recorded a police encounter while riding the bus (public transit). The officers took her phone, deleted the video, and detained her (kept her in the squad car, cuffed) for a while, then let her go.

I was in a similar situation this article a couple years ago ('09). My roommates had called me outside because one of our housemates (Jay) was being arrested suspected of drunk driving and evading the police. The police had said that they followed him from campus all the way back to our house. At the time he was going through some things, and was in a rut of depression and suffering from all the things that depression can bring.

I came outside with a pencil and paper, asking the officers for their information. The lady cop was cool, she just asked me to step back until they were done. I stepped from the edge of the carport, back to the front door (to give them distance). One of the other officers kept asking Jay direct questions like had he been drinking and why didn't he stop, etc. I kept yelling out to him that all he had to give them was his name and address, and to remain silent after that. Jay was wasted so he kept talking, but I kept yelling out the same thing. 

The officer that was asking the questions got mad and approached me telling me to go back in the house. He said I was interfering with his investigation. I told him that I was standing a safe distance away, that I had a right to be where I was, and a right to observe and record what they were doing. He said if I didn't go back in the house I'd be getting in the back of the squad car with my homeboy. I wouldn't move so he started counting, and one of my other housemates finally told me to just go inside. 

We all went back in the house(and locked the door). I opened the window to the front room, and kept writing everything down and saying the same stuff I had been yelling outside, LOL. Finally the officer told Jay that he "should listen to your homeboy because he's probably a criminal justice major", and then he looked at me and said "but we're trained professionals so we know more about what we're doing than you". I just said "OK" and wrote all that down. They arrested him, and I recorded everything that the housemates had taken out of his car before the officers had the car towed away. Afterwards, I went back outside to meet with the lady cop who came back and gave me the names and badge numbers of the other officers who were present. The one that had told me to go back in the house was quick to get back in his car.

First thing in the morning I called one of my mentors who is a law professor and asked him the procedure for filing a formal police complaint. I explained the situation to him, and he told me to type everything up and that he would make a few calls (he is well known around the school and town). "Jay" got out of jail the same day, didn't have to pay bail, got his car back, and all charges against him had been dropped. That part had more to do with the pull that the mentor had with officials around town, but if I hadn't reacted the way I did my homeboy would most likely be rotting in TDC (Texas Department of "Corrections") right now.

Expanding on the ideas covered in Part 1, these are examples of what can happen when you assert your rights, and how the police may react due to the fact that most of them don't really know how to react. Most of them are not used to their activities being observed or dealing with a citizen that knows his/her rights and asserts them properly. Whether your situation ends up like the sister's in the article, or like the one I just described, if we don't actively observe the police and assert our rights, we will continue to be victimized. Learn your rights, study the law, and prepare for whatever the response will be whenever you are tested.