The Global Color Line strikes again...
Oh, dear.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6186808.stm
"We've got to understand that all of us were in that car." ~ Rev. Al Sharpton
The rally outside the hospital reminded me of Professor Brown's favorite scene from Malcolm X (well, one of her favorite scenes).
posted by Hyp. lecteur @ 6:38 AM
3 comments
3 Comments:
Sometimes I have such a good attitude about civil rights in the US (then the voice of professor brown comes floating back to me. ah, I jest. and digress. moving on). I think yes, we have problems, but look how far we've come, look at the rest of the world, etc. etc.
Then something like this happens.
I heard Mayor Bloomberg say on TV (flanked by two African-Americans, how very PC) that race isn't a factor for the NYPD, and that this crime/"accident" wasn't race-motivated. Actually, the NYPD has a long and specifically defined history of targeting minority groups, including both racial minorities and homosexuals. Is it justified? Well, that's another question altogether, but I think it's about time urban police departments step up and say, yes, we do engage in racial profiling. If they want to explain that it's necessary and they can still ensure the safety of the minority population with regards to search and seizure (which was obviously not true at least in this case), that's fine (or fine-er, anyway). But this outright denial it exists is just absurd.
Your comment about the malcolm X movie made me smile. I am proud to say that I remember that scene, seeing as that was one of the few movies at TASP I stayed awake for the entirety of. In fact, besides the documentaries, I believe the only others were Burnt By the Sun (still understood less than 5% of the plot) and Birth of a Nation (longest movie of all time). When I think about it too much, I actually become convinced that all I really did at TASP was fall asleep watching movies. But anyway, I tip my metaphorical hat to you for referencing a film I actually did see. Here's to you, Alison, here's to you.
I think there are rarely perfectly understandable mistakes when people end up dead. That doesn't mean I don't think it could have been a mistake, just that I don't consider mistakes understandable when we're talking about killing someone. Something clearly went wrong, way wrong in these cops' heads. And that something may have to do with alcohol (they were drinking before the incident occured, yes?) or the fact that they were in a dangerous neighborhood or anger over the way the men in the car tried to run into them or something else.
BUT I still don't discount the racial element because I know race is more than conscious. I don't even think necessarily that they saw the men and thought, "well, they're black, let's shoot them." I think it goes much deeper than that. African-Americans are simply far more likely to be mistreated and misjudged by police officers, even police officers you would never take for being racist if you knew them. Of course, we can't say how these police officers would have reacted if the men in the car had been white. However I suspect it would have been quite differently. THat's all I can really go on, my own suspicions, but there you go.
well, this is going a bit off-topic, but something interesting about people who are black but not African-American is that they often are the MOST distrustful of African-Americans. Why? They're bitter about being lumped in with a group so looked down upon in American society because they share skin color with that group.
word.
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