Brutality and Racism during Covid-19
Ahmaud Arberry and Breonnna Taylor are two of the most recent examples of anti-Black violence that’s existed in the U.S. for generations now.
Arberry was jogging in his community in Georgia when two white men chased him down and shot and murdered him. Taylor was murdered while in her own apartment, shot by the local police in Kentucky who later admitted that barging into Taylor’s home was a mistake and they were at the wrong apartment.
Arberry and Taylor’s deaths represent how little Black life is valued by those in power in the U.S., from White Americans to institutions of power, including law enforcement.
Therefore, it is necessary to examine this reality and to openly stand against it, especially those with the power to continue exploiting and oppressing Black Americans, across class, gender, sexuality and community.
FIRST AS TRAGEDY
The U.S. was founded on the dehumanization of Black people, from enslavement through formal Jim Crow apartheid.
To justify white rule over the country’s major institutions, white America portrayed Black Americans as undeserving of basic human rights, and as criminals and less than human.
What this portrayal meant materially was that while white Americans could accumulate wealth, could partake in rights such as voting, and could avoid the most brutal types of oppression, Black Americans, on the other hand, were exploited while being denied basic political and human rights. Most importantly, it was justified that white Americans could also depend on Black labor since Black people were viewed, over time, as non-human and needed to be controlled and monitored.
This level of dehumanization has lasted into the modern day. Despite the ending of formal Jim Crow and other explicit forms of racism, the living and working conditions for many Black Americans has remained precarious. Although there is a middle class that’s emerged and many who have succeeded in becoming professors, writers, engineers, doctors, politicians and business leaders, a majority are still mired in poverty or are forced to work in low-wage occupations to make ends meet. Many remain vulnerable to extreme forms of brutality at the hands of the police and other institutions, including banking. Overall, most Black American are still deemed by politicians in both parties, by business elite, by the prison industrial complex, and by the media and by forces benefiting from the status quo as undeserving and as criminals that need to be controlled.
This is made evident in the manner in which Arberry was immediately perceived as having to do with a burglary and was subsequently, chased down by two white men in a truck. Similarly, Taylor’s murder was a result of a law enforcement, like all others, that didn’t take enough time to review their tactics that day. Most likely, to them, all Black lives are simply subject to their unbridled power and authority.
Finally, this need to control Black people has taken shape in how police forces have been reacting during the lockdown. A few weekends ago, images were shared comparing how the police responded to mostly white residents without masks in the north New Jersey-NYC area to how they treated Black and Brown residents. While the police handed out masks to White people sunbathing, they were seen assaulting Black and Brown residents for being outside.
In Jersey City, police officers were documented using nightsticks in beating up young Black men on the sidewalk, hitting them even as they fell to the ground.
DEMANDING AN END AND A BEGINNING
The only way to resolve this is to do what many Black and Brown Leftists and radicals have been doing for generations, which is by directly challenging the power of those who benefit from the status quo, from the police to policymakers to the prison industrial complex. This includes fighting for policies that empower Black and Brown people, which in the U.S., would require shifting economic power from the elite to poor and working-class Black and Brown communities.
As noted by prominent Black socialists and communists, such as Angela Davis and Manning Marable, true liberation for Black and colonized people would require a redistribution of resources from those with power (predominantly white) to those without (predominantly Black and Brown), and the extension of rights to also include a right to healthcare, housing, food, education, and a job that pays a living wage. It also includes abolishing the police as we conceptualize them now and the prison system.
Basically, to address Black and Brown dehumanization, we must address the historical legacy of formal and informal apartheid as well as shifting power from those standing in the way of progress, which again, includes the police and the capitalist class. So long as capitalism remains the dominant economic and political system, we cannot expect to enact policies that actually uplift Black and Brown people, those who’s intellectual and physical labor has produced the wealth that this country’s leaders boast of.
In the meantime, we must also echo the demands of those speaking up for critical reforms, such as those putting together the following demands in response to what took occurred in Jersey City:
Body Cam Footage for full transparency of the event.
The Immediate firing of all police officers who used excessive force in the incident.
A public apology from the department addressing victims and greater community.
Financial compensation for those who were injured.
Mandatory “race-sensitivity” training for the Jersey City Police Department focused on how to positively engage with Black inner city communities. The training will open to the public for viewing and critique.
Release officer names involved in the incidence.
Private investigation out of the jurisdiction of internal affairs.
This is a fight for dignity and rights but is also, about survival and we must stand with all those who are challenging the police, the prison industry, and all those forces responsible in dehumanizing and exploiting Black and Brown people.
