We’re Not Dying Fast Enough
For the black community, the police represent physical symptoms of a frightful structure, scaring and scarring citizens into forgoing any sense of peace and agency. In truth, bullets alone did not kill Philando Castile, Nicolas Chavez, or Alton Sterling. Yes, their department-issued pistols poured in hot rounds, piercing black and brown skin and liquefying their insides — in Castile’s case, in front of his significant other and her young daughter. However, the callous and racist slayings of these bodies and others commemorated onto t-shirts, murals, and posters, come from much more. As unusual as it may sound, the killings of these two men at the hands of the police, within 48 hours, are one deep, phlegm-congested cough.
Not long after, toward the end of a peaceful 2016 protest concerned the deaths of the men, five police officers were assassinated, in a definitively terrorist act — the scenario appearing not wholly dissimilar to John F. Kennedy’s 1963 assassination, which occurred just a couple blocks down. All of the killings, I believe, derive from similar points.
However, the outrage for each event will be different — and have already shown as much. When the souls are continuously, disrespectfully, and unceremoniously jerked from black and brown bodies, we become outraged at every event, each mounting additional grief and augmenting onto already-ingrained fears and white-hot anger. There’s a lot of “I’m not sure how much more I can take,” (legitimate and necessary) calls for instant protest and boycotts, memes of relatable anguish on social media, and the like.
The death of the five officers, however, have relayed a somewhat different message, which if you listen to the whistles, unique tones and seemingly innocuous verbiage used by leaders following the attack can be heard. Use of the phrase “the law enforcement community” pervades, as if a silo exists, holding this particular community away from the world at large. The false notion exists mainly because this is, in fact, the case publically, as cover. This should be cleared up.
(Here, I’m going to refrain from going too deep the issues of police, their racial bias, and the acts of unnecessarily violent policing, because (a) it’s been well-covered, (b) I don’t have the time, and © it’s attached to larger complex matrices, as I’ll explain here.)
First, it must be pointed out that the anger and resentment toward the nation’s police and sheriff departments are somewhat misplaced, or should also be dispersed at higher levels. To preface, knowledge of what city-funded police do, and do not do, must be established. Police are present to enforce laws, and to protect property and the interests of the city. However, contrary to popular belief — to include representations in TV and movies — police have no duty to protect any individual. Since the ruling on South v. the State of Maryland in 1855 to 1981’s Warren v. District of Columbia, and the more recent 2005’s Town of Castle Rock v. Gonzales, the Supreme Court has ruled consistently as such. (This is critical because this feeds directly into courts usually leaning toward officers’ recall of events and safety in indictment proceedings. For example, if an officer expresses fear of threat, they can kill. However, that same officer can wait to watch you be stabbed before committing to any action.)
The police do not direct themselves. Police departments do not set their agendas, and are extensions of city and county objectives. Even the behaviors within departments can be traced, in a straight line, back to mayor’s offices, city councils, judges, district attorneys, and other leadership, because they are the stewards of the tax dollars that fund these departments, and are directly responsible for their actions and inaction — and all of whom are voted into their positions.
For example, when cities are readied for gentrification, one of the first publicly visual actions is increased police presence. They are charged by the city suits to “clean up the area.” There is a known relationship between gentrification and homelessness “resolution,” incarceration, and residential segregation — all of which contain a public safety component and eventually put people of color into tenuous life cycles.
In the broader scale, and further than public safety actions, as it relates to people of color, cities or counties largely dictates the general quality of life each demographic segment enjoys or lack of it. This includes who gets fire/emergency services, as well as parks and road services. It’s well known that, across the country, Blacks — along with Latinx people and the most impoverished whites — are most likely to reside in the worst housing available, have the worst health care provisions, and attend schools that will leave them unable to compete. There isn’t any current government apparatus geared toward equality.
This fact became even more apparent with the COVID-19 pandemic, wherein the virus has magnified racial and economic disparities, exacerbating the inequalities/iniquities of our society. Just like every other crisis, Covid-19 has taken a disproportionate toll on anyone already marginalized before the crisis.
The Associated Press reports that as of mid-April, based on available data, roughly a third of Covid-19 fatalities in the United States are of African Americans. The data covered an area where just 14 percent of the population is African American. Another report, with state-by-state data compiled by Mother Jones, shows wide disparities for Black folk in both infections and fatalities. African Americans, as of mid-April, represented 6 percent of the population in Wisconsin, but nearly 40 percent of Covid-19 deaths. Similarly, in Michigan, Black people are 14 percent of the state’s population; however, they account for 33 percent of its cases and 40 percent of its deaths.
A recent Vox piece noted that part of the reasoning in how black folk are being affected at wider rates than white people come from underlying health issues directly associated with disparity. Hypertension and diabetes, especially in black men, are shown to worsen the effects of the coronavirus — which mutated into a much more contagious strain while still in Europe. The irony is cruel: a privileged set of white people who could purchase plane tickets to and from Europe, brought back a virus that adversely affects people who likely cannot.
The other part of the insidiousness of this event is the fact that it has disproportionately hit black and brown people at work. Many of them cannot afford to shelter-in-place. “Essential” workers in front-line industries, such as grocery store employees, nursing home attendance, or industrial cleaning, are also disproportionately female, per a report by the Center for Economic and Policy Research. Many other occupations, including transit driving and warehousing, people of color are overrepresented. Approximately 25% of front-line workers nationwide come from low-income families to start.
Where the concerned public has made grave mistakes is in parsing out each apparatus, taking each function wholesale as if they weren’t branches off the same tree. This skewing toward the demise of blacks, especially black men, obviously derives from systemic racism — but also blacks’ continuous resolve in the face of the seemingly immovable force. Even throughout America’s foundations — which rests solely on wresting of land from original peoples and set upon the scarred backs of slaves — blacks maintained, survived, thrived, and built their institutions. That wasn’t a part of the plan. We were supposed to die off or remain subservient even without chains.
Since the end of slavery, wealthy and racist white men (and their henchmen) continue maiming, stupefying, demonizing, sickening, and generally abusing black bodies and minds at every institutional level. Still, the low wave terror isn’t working to its desired effect. It’s not enough that poverty will likely mainline them directly into the prison industrial complex. It’s not enough that they’ve ensured blacks receive the lowest quality health care and education. These measures, hellbent on black extinction, don’t destroy black bodies fast enough.
In resisting dehumanization by the police and its support structures, blacks (and many Latinos) are rightfully outraged they are being consistently treated and portrayed as unredeemable mongrels, or needing of any assistance if left alone. However, these powerful racists are offended at the very presence of black existence and its resolute self-agency. Not only is there conscious and subconscious resentment of blacks’ forever-present resilience, but they are also summarily outraged we’re still breathing.
‘Those niggers keep finding a goddamn way.’
Yes, we do. These last few days will be but a tearful reminder of a road past, and one still in front of all of us, as black Americans. We must protect ourselves, physically, and culturally. We must vote out the people who support the actions of racist police at every level. We must defend ourselves to whatever extent possible, and use our economic strength to fortify our communities first. We must stand tall and fully accept our blackness, even if others refuse us because of it.
Everyone can see that the world — especially the United States — is darkening, by every demographic metric available. The black community will continue to learn, evolve, and thrive, come hell, or high water. You have to figure a betting man would have to like our chances of survival and continued advancement. We’ve been born into the bad hands racist institutions have created, with one hand tied behind our backs. Yet, it seems that we can only be killed through the most flagrant of circumstances.
