It seems to be an unsolveable problem -- that the American policing system is so strongly oriented towards controlling Black bodies and Black lives. Individual actions of protest don't seem to move the needle much, and when attention wanes the policing system reverts to its normal philosophies of control and dominance.
But I believe that the problem is solvable through group action. Through education and awareness. Through changes in voting. Through changes in policy. Through changes in corporate interactions with the policing system. Through changes in developing alternate systems that can exist alongside of, or even in place of, the current system of American policing.
I wish there was that magic token that could completely replace the American policing system, top to bottom, with a system that can deal with certain threats to public safety without focusing on Black Americans. That token doesn't exist, and merely wanting something isn't going to do anything to change what is a thoroughly embedded and enmeshed system.
So it takes education and teaching and preaching and conversations and group projects to build the consensus that we can do better than we are doing now, that we can establish a fair, just, and non-toxic system of keeping the peace that doesn't require dominance and violence and death as the only tools to respond to calls for assistance.
I wish it were easier, and I wish there were shortcuts. I just don't see an easier path that the one set before us--to continuously work for justice for the people.
Thanks for the reminder that we simply *must* do better by our siblings.
I've been learning a lot from folks who advocate for policing and criminal legal system reform for a living. My interview with Sam Heath of Equal Justice USA (on my YouTube page) is really helpful for both information and hope.
Thank you Jemar for continuing to bring to your audience things we need to know that were not / are not taught in our American history classes. I am sickened by what I read here as a white person. And working as a volunteer at Rikers Island in NYC, I can testify that the vestiges of this travesty continue on today. The more I learn about our own sordid history I see why the Nazi's thought they could learn from us. Lament upon lament.
And thank you Stephen for your edifying and hopeful comment.
It seems to be an unsolveable problem -- that the American policing system is so strongly oriented towards controlling Black bodies and Black lives. Individual actions of protest don't seem to move the needle much, and when attention wanes the policing system reverts to its normal philosophies of control and dominance.
But I believe that the problem is solvable through group action. Through education and awareness. Through changes in voting. Through changes in policy. Through changes in corporate interactions with the policing system. Through changes in developing alternate systems that can exist alongside of, or even in place of, the current system of American policing.
I wish there was that magic token that could completely replace the American policing system, top to bottom, with a system that can deal with certain threats to public safety without focusing on Black Americans. That token doesn't exist, and merely wanting something isn't going to do anything to change what is a thoroughly embedded and enmeshed system.
So it takes education and teaching and preaching and conversations and group projects to build the consensus that we can do better than we are doing now, that we can establish a fair, just, and non-toxic system of keeping the peace that doesn't require dominance and violence and death as the only tools to respond to calls for assistance.
I wish it were easier, and I wish there were shortcuts. I just don't see an easier path that the one set before us--to continuously work for justice for the people.
Thanks for the reminder that we simply *must* do better by our siblings.
I've been learning a lot from folks who advocate for policing and criminal legal system reform for a living. My interview with Sam Heath of Equal Justice USA (on my YouTube page) is really helpful for both information and hope.
Thank you Jemar for continuing to bring to your audience things we need to know that were not / are not taught in our American history classes. I am sickened by what I read here as a white person. And working as a volunteer at Rikers Island in NYC, I can testify that the vestiges of this travesty continue on today. The more I learn about our own sordid history I see why the Nazi's thought they could learn from us. Lament upon lament.
And thank you Stephen for your edifying and hopeful comment.
Read The New Jim Crow, by Michelle Alexander!!