The Chaotic Scene for The Black Community
Who They Are?
For a person in the black community, there is a lurking dark presence of negative confrontation. A black person goes outside doing chores, going to a destination, or hanging out with friends. Said black person is now confronted with the harsh reality of being confronted by the police. It could go smoothly, or it could end violently resulting in the loss of a human life. Sounds familiar? Cases like these have been happening for years to people in the black community. Tyre Nichols, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Daunte Wright, and many more have suffered from simple interactions with police that have escalated into life-threatening or life-ending altercations. Police brutality against black people are tragic and unnecessary killings brought about by the racism and power dynamic between corrupt police officers and black people. Because of this, families are losing their children, husbands, wives, and parents, abruptly and for little reason. According to Harvard Gazette, police killings and brutality have a major effect on the black community. This includes relatives, friends, and other members of different communities related to the victim experience anger, sadness, and denial, amongst other powerful emotions. “It is really painful to watch. Some people are not learning or don’t care. If people really cared about blacks in America and treat them like people and not like animals.” stated by the black experience and psy professor, Tamara Smallings. 20-30% of police brutality victims are black people, and the number continues to increase every year. One never knows when it could be a friend or a family member next. Why is it so hard to change the system?
Why Are We Stuck?
Changing the system is going to take more than just protesting. “It’s not gonna take one protest or one situation. It is an ongoing thing. We’re gonna need a systematic change.” as stated by professor Smallings. For years, the black community has protested against police brutality. One of the first instances was recorded on September 14th, 1941. A protest began, consisting of four marches from four different points in the city of Washington D.C. Each march was dedicated to one of the four recent African American victims of police brutality.
The protestors carried signs saying, “Old Jim Crow has to go” “Protect our Civil Rights “and “Police Brutality is a Disgrace to the Nation’s Capital.” A hearse and an automobile were present at the protest carrying signs to honor the memory of the victims of the recent police brutality. Later, the protestors converged at 10th and U streets NW for a rally where about 500 remained to hear others speak, most notably, Alphaeus Hunton, a professor at Harvard University. All of this was planned and orchestrated by Phillip Randolph to shake up the U.S. administration to end discrimination of armed forces towards black citizens.
Although this protest leds to the results of President Roosevelt establishing the Fair Employment Practices Commission in 1941 along with a non-discrimination clause to said commission in 1943, discrimination of armed forces towards citizens remained.
Since 1941, the black community has been fighting and fighting for better outcomes for black citizens. Equality, fairness, and peace is what we fought for. Since then, things have gotten better, multiple non-discrimination clauses and acts have been put in place, segregation has been abolished along with Jim Crow laws and more people in society now are supporting the Black Lives Matter movement. Despite this, black citizens are still being terrorized and brutally harmed by the police. The most recent example is Tyre Nichols. He was a 29-year-old black man pulled over for reckless driving in Memphis Tennesse on the evening of January 7th, 2023. The officers apprehend Tyre and give him a list of undoable commands since he was being held down by several officers. He was then pepper sprayed and attempted to escape. 7 minutes later, he was re-apprehended not too far from his mother’s house and began to yell out his mother’s name. 2 minutes later, he was then beaten by 5 officers to the point of Tyre needing medical attention. He was later revealed to be hospitalized in critical condition and eventually succumbed to his injuries. Tyre is not the only victim of police brutality in recent years.
In 2020, The infamous case of George Floyd involved an officer kneeing his neck to the point where Floyd yelled out, he cannot breathe repeatedly for 9 ½ minutes on May 25th, 2020. On April 11th, 2021, 20-year-old Daunte Wright was pulled over for a traffic stop and was later shot by an officer for mistakenly pulling out her gun instead of a stun gun.
This shows us that after years of protesting, advocating for better fair rights for black citizens, we are still being treated like we are not human beings. Black people are dying by the police hands and the officers who commit these crimes get off easy. We are stuck in a systematic bubble where black citizens are not treated as they should be due to previous stigmas and how black people were portrayed for several years. According to healthdata.org, over a 40-year study period from 1980-2019, African Americans were 3.5 times more likely to die from police violence than White Americans. Although research cannot give a clear answer on why African Americans are more targeted than other races, they can provide several reasons as to why this happens. Each branch, department and officer may have different approaches and ideologies towards African Americans. Some departments are trained to target minorities or specifically blacks due to specific criminal history or statistics. Some officers have racial bias or prejudice towards African Americans. I asked professor Smallings her opinion on why we do not see a change despite our efforts of protesting, and she responded with “I do believe we are targets. Let’s say a black person is driving a BMW or any nice car. The cops will see the black person in that car and ask them if they stole the car. This has happened to me personally and I am a very hard-working person so now you’re going to pull me over and ask me where I get my car from?!”
What’s Next for Us?
Unfortunately, the black community will always be targeted no matter what we do but, there are ways we can prevent more victims and ensure police officers are properly taken care of. Protesting is a method that has been used for years and still works now. Because of protesting, laws have been abolished, people were rightfully arrested and prosecuted, and voices were heard. George Floyd’s protest brought back the campaign “Black Lives Matter” back to the masses. This allowed the officers involved in the death of George Floyd to be properly prosecuted and sentenced. To protest, it must be peaceful. Violent protests can turn into Riots and that reaps no benefits and gives the opposing party an outlet to fight back against the party protesting. Electing better officials into office is another way to get police officers in the government and better laws for the black community. Many police officers that commit crimes have had several offenses in the past and are still in the department without worry. Not only black people, but others as well should educate themselves on who to vote for and who they are voting for. This is to bring people into the office that want to improve the black community and keep the officers in check. There is currently a bill being made in Tennessee to make sure police officers are adequate for the job and to make sure the offenses the police officers have are taken care of. The last thing we can do is educate black people to be polite and obey the officer. Disobeying or not listening to the officer commands not only gives them reason to charge you but escalates the situation to the point where your life might be at risk. People in the black community should be taught how to respond to officers properly and know their basic rights. Getting rid of police brutality and how we are treated by officers is something that cannot be stopped since power abuse and racism will continue to exist. The best we can do is to continue protesting and fighting for better officials in the government. Professor Smallings mentioned that thanks to the use of social media, our voices can be heard more freely and due to how times are changing again, we can see a big improvement in how we are treated. Professor Smallings said it best, “It’s worth it to get out there and get our voices heard. At some point, someone will listen to us, and change will be made.”
References:
Cassandra Chaney, Ray V. Robertson (2013, December) “Racism and Police Brutality in America”, http://ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/login?url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43525523
This article is written by Cassandra Chaney and Ray V. Robertson. This article goes over racism and police brutality over the years in America. It also goes over how it affected black citizens and goes over several theories and studies.
Carl Bialik (2016, July 21) “Why Are So Many Black Americans Killed By Police?”, https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-are-so-many-black-americans-killed-by-police/
This article written by Carl Bialik, goes over the reasons why African Americans are targeted by the police but reiterates that proper research is hard to be done due to the many factors that are involved in these situations.
“Sept. 14, 1941: Rally Against Police Brutality”, https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/rally-against-police-brutality/#:~:text=On%20Sept.,American%20victims%20of%20police%20brutality.
This article briefly goes over the events of the September 14th rally in Washington D.C. in the year of 1941 for the four recent victims of police brutality.
(2021, September 30) “The Lancet: More than half of police killings in USA are unreported and Black Americans are most likely to experience fatal police violence”, https://www.healthdata.org/news-release/lancet-more-half-police-killings-usa-are-unreported-and-black-americans-are-most-likely
This article gives the stats to back up the claim that African Americans are most likely to experience police violence than White Americans from the study period of 1980-2019.
