Routine

In the police station, especially working in administrating cases or as a badged officer, one can become desensitized to the type of duties they perform, as they start to follow a routine without questioning it. Whether that is an investigation, arresting the criminal, or logging in the case into city records, every aspect becomes a pattern of the “same old crimes” or “this person again?” However, when there is a case that breaks that pattern, only then do people question the routine.

My mother works in the police department in San Francisco as a citizen, meaning she works in administration and not as a badged officer. She works with a lot of policemen and hears the stories of cases they’ve worked on. A story that my mom told me a few years ago (that has already been publicized and used in bias training) has stuck with me until now. A middle school boy was taken into the police station when he got into trouble for stealing food from a 711 after school. This child was Caucasian from an upper-middle-class family who paid off his bail in an instant, immediately sending him to a counselor. My mother told me that the officer described how lucky this child was, coming from a supportive and stable household who was immediately ready to help and support him, whilst other children of less privileged backgrounds would’ve had a much different experience, most likely going through the incarceration system, only to become repeat offenders or move onto other, more serious crimes. Due to the status of the child and his family, the school he attended (a private academy) set up a whole assembly where they had speakers come into the school to speak about the consequences of stealing and provided resources for the children to learn more about the crime, whilst a crime committed by a child who went to a public school from a low-income family might have not triggered the domino effect to make a change, instead, just recording the crime into their permanent records.

This story paralleled Michelle Alexander’s article “The Injustice of This Moment Is Not an ‘Aberration’” that speaks about the deep-rooted racially discriminatory system we have in place that attempts to “reform” the country that criminalizes minority groups with low crime offenses as an excuse for mass incarceration and deportation. In her article, Alexander states, “These systems grew … because people of all colors were willing to tolerate the disposal of millions of individuals once they had been labeled criminals in the media and political discourse,” in which I interpreted as a routine that no one questioned (pg. 12). Our society has become so desensitized to the concept of incarceration as a form of punishment instead of reform that keeps individuals away from society, as well as deportation with Trump in Office constantly labeling illegal immigrants as “rapists” or “criminals” in order to frame mass deportation as the right choice. Low violence drug crimes that can put a stamp of “felon” on your permanent record or even minor infractions such as traffic violations were enough to make you disposable to the nation.

However, there’s a new movement of criminal reformation that politicians bipartisan seem to agree on, particularly within drug policy. This was first led by formerly incarcerated citizens and convicted felons in an attempt to eliminate the stigma on those with criminal records for getting jobs. However, just as the story went with the upper-middle-class child who stole food, change was realized when issues, such as drug abuse and cannabis, started to affect the only population the government was really concerned about, namely the dominant groups of the US. Alexander states, “And yet, it must be acknowledged that much of the progress occurred not because of newfound concern for people of color who have been the primary targets of the drug war, but because drug addiction, due to the opioid crisis, became perceived as a white problem, and wealthy white investors became interested in profiting from the emerging legal cannabis industry,” which is a testament to the deep-set racist system that hasn’t changed drastically since the days of slavery (pg. 10). I am not attempting to undermine the blood, sweat, and tears that are going into campaigns for criminal reformation and the justice system, but what is upsetting is that these campaigns were only realized when it was realized that the dominant groups were affected as well.

Speaking on the issue of class and racial hierarchy, Patricia Collins, the author of Another Kind of Public Education, speaks about the domains of power. In the case of the middle school child who stole as well as Michelle Alexander’s discussion on systemic racism, they both represent a structural domain of power. Collins describes a structural domain as a power “that shows how racial practices are organized through social institutions, such as banks, insurance companies, police departments…” where racism is set up and organized by those in society with the most wealth and power, creating a class system that is not only determined by income and status but also race, in which we cannot change, therefore we live and die in this structure (pg. 53). Mass incarceration is put in place to ultimately undermine minorities, which we know based on how the system routinely runs minorities through it, and any chance they have of getting out, they’re sent right back to prison on charges that might be significantly lower for someone in a racially dominant group. Those who aren’t born into higher income, caucasian families find themselves in a structural domain, trapped into the situation they’re born in, where it may be extremely hard to go up in the hierarchy based on the way our society has been set up. Collins also addresses the deep embedded racism by referencing the 1967 Loving v. Virginia Supreme Court decision that ruled in favor of removing all legal barriers to interracial marriage. This was a great step forward in the right direction, however, despite the laws being removed, interracial couples were still ostracized for a very long time from society, often not in the minority side’s favor. Collins states,” Unfortunately, just as highway drivers may know that the speed limit is 55 miles per hour yet continue to drive at 80 (unless they see a police officer), passing laws does not mean that people follow them,” using this analogy to parallel how no law is going to fix the stigmas against minorities and those who get criminal records from mass incarceration unless we change our color-blind attitude that this society has fostered and our centuries-old routine of ignoring the cries and needs of the population who are consistently targeted for disposal(pg. 59).

At NGS, we serve and tutor underrepresented populations of Marin County. I’m so lucky to be a part of a community space that truly wants to make a difference for these children and teenagers through education and free their minds to do better and bigger things for the world. Michelle Alexander and Patricia Collins speak an important message, that ignoring the racism that plagues our policies and structure of society, hidden by “progressives” who seemingly want to help create a more equal society, is ultimately going to continue the same problems we’ve had since the times of slavery. I hope to be a guidance and someone who fosters meaningful connections with the people at NGS and the children I tutor to correct this wrong in society.