“Self descriptions that put any race in front of being an American are now used to further divide our nation.” So sayeth Sarah Palin. She did so while noting that Black Lives Matter is a farce, in essence blaming the protest marches for the death of police officers. This isn’t the first time such dangerous rhetoric has polluted the media stream. It happened in Watts. It happened in the Harlem race riots in 1964. Now here we are again, on the verge of something horrible, dividing ourselves into two camps which, in reality, aren’t Yin and Yang, but aspects of a single argument.
Trevor Noah finally earned his mad props as host of the Daily Show last night when he said “You can be pro-cop and pro-black,” Noah said. “It’s what we should all be. It’s what we should be aiming for. You shouldn’t have to choose between the police and the citizens they are sworn to protect.” This came on the heels of another political power broker’s pandering (Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick) when he said, “All those protesters last night, they turned around and ran the other way expecting the men and women in blue to protect them. What hypocrites!” That there incapsulates the problem.
Theodore Roosevelt is quoted as saying, “To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.” I believe that quote applies to all forms of authority. Yet we are told repeatedly that criticism of the police is off limits. We are expected to blindly accept that what they are doing is right and moral and in our best interests when the reality is that police officers are not Robocop. They are human beings capable of mistakes, misjudgements, and racism. That last part is especially endemic of the police system. Websites like American Renaissance (where Trump often gets and tweets his statistics on race in America) argue that Black offenders commit crimes–especially violent ones–more that 440% more than whites. Misinformation like this along with a media system that disproportionately features people of color as criminals both in fictional and real life (news) scenarios leads to what has historically been known as ‘fear of the black man’
See for yourself. Visit The Counted, a website that tracks police reports of all officer involved killings, of which there have been 569 this year alone. I took the time to do so and discovered that the majority of black male deaths (which are the majority, by the way) were suspects fleeing the scene either on foot or in a vehicle. The majority of white deaths however came as the result of someone pointing a weapon at or charging at a cop with a weapon. Often the police statement indicates the white suspect was repeatedly asked to drop the weapon whereas the black deaths of fleeing suspects generally fail to indicate a weapon being brandished in any way. In other words, the officers chose to shoot the fleeing black suspect rather than risk that said suspect might have a weapon they will use on them or, at the very least, get away.
This is only going to get worse now that some idiot decided to rage out and murder a bunch of cops for reasons I struggle to grasp. Whenever I get pulled over I know to stick my empty hands out of the window until the officer tells me its okay to put them in my lap or whatever else they tell me to do. My white friends find this utterly ridiculous. My black friends think its smart. I’m not trying to leave my kids fatherless and I know that as a black male in this world I am by default viewed as a threat.
That there is the real problem. And its not going away. Not with Palin and her ilk making matters worse by voicing the deepest fears of a public raised on fear. When do I get to stop being the boogie man? Maybe when me and everyone who looks like me is dead. Then they’ll have to find someone else to fear.