Professor Rocque
Posted on 12/23/2014 5:07:59 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
In the United States, formal and informal institutions have been in place to control black bodies since before the nation’s founding. It began with slavery, followed with Jim Crow legal segregation, and has been replaced, some argue, with the criminal justice system. African Americans are disproportionately arrested and incarcerated for numerous crimes, even outnumbering whites in prisons (despite representing only 13 percent of the population). The problem with these statistics is that ostensibly, people have to break the law in order to be involved in the justice system.
This allows us to suggest, perhaps reasonably, that “it’s not about race.” Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Tamir Rice, three unarmed African Americans recently killed by police officers, were all arguably seen as threats and may have challenged police authority. This sentiment has been repeated over and over in social media and news outlets, all with the simple message: this is not racism; these are thugs getting what they deserved.
It is the vehemence with which the “it’s not about race” argument is made that I wish to address here. Simply because overt racial prejudice has declined does not mean that racism itself has also declined in our society. Yet any claim that race matters is met with defensiveness and strong denials. This is understandable (and a good thing, in a sense) because it means that being overtly racist is not acceptable any longer. But we are living in an age in which racism is “ color blind” in that disparities are said to be caused by anything but race. The racism we live with is systemic and institutional. And while this form of racism is not necessarily as overt as someone using racist or disparaging remarks, it is likely more harmful. This means that our structures are built in such a way that makes life easier for certain races and more difficult for others.
The use of the criminal justice system as an institution of racial oppression makes structural racism invisible. This is what legal scholar Michelle Alexander calls “ color blind racism.” The fact that arrest and incarceration statistics are based on ostensibly illegal behavior allows us, as a society, to maintain control over distinct groups while claiming race isn’t a factor. So we have “ racism without racists.”
The Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Tamir Rice deaths and subsequent race denial happen all too often in part because of these structures. There is a long history of race disparities in institutions such as housing, education and employment. Schools are still not equal; African American children get punished at disproportionate rates, even taking “bad” behavior into account. As a society, we devalue black individuals relative to white.
Again, I am speaking about structures and institutions here, which, while composed of individuals, are separate from them. Becoming defensive or claiming that most police are not, by and large, racist misses the larger structural point. It is essential, if we are to make racial equality a real and true goal of society, to recognize that these structures exist, and to move beyond debates about whether you or I are racist. Intention, in some sense, does not matter; only consequences. As Britt Bennett recently wrote, “what good are your good intentions if they kill us?” With respect to some arrest statistics, things have gotten so out of hand that even this race-neutral explanation doesn’t hold as much water anymore; for example, as Alexander tells us, there is very little if any difference between blacks and whites in drug use, yet blacks are much more likely to be arrested and incarcerated for drug crimes.
The reality is we are all participating in a racist system in consequences, if not overt intent. And that, at its heart, is what the protests stemming from events in Ferguson and New York and on my own campus at Bates are all about. They are not an attack on you or I, but our complicity in failing to challenge these structures. And, Allan Johnson states, the ability to deny racial inequity “is especially true of dominant groups in systems of privilege, who can indulge in the ‘luxury of obliviousness.’” It is time to dispense with this obliviousness.
Professor Rocque
LOL
That's all I need to know...
“Simply because overt racial prejudice has declined .....does not mean that racism itself has also declined in our society.”
logical impossibilities abound in the “thinking” of such people
they commit more crimes, and more violent crimes, that’s why they’re arrested and jailed.
People have to break the law in order to be involved in the justice system — Is in fact the bottom line, professor.
Now knock off your navel gazing and get a real job.
Uh, Perfesser? A punch to the back of your head because of the color of your skin has nothing to do with “The System” and everything to do with a punk thug. The System that needs reform is the one that’s glorifying him.
Says a guy who lives in the whitest state in the USA.
.
What is he? Twelve years old with a bad beard?
It was not that long ago that Bates had the highest tuition of any college in America. You cannot imagine a more out of touch ivy tower environment.
It’s stuck out in rural Maine.
It is deemed racist to suggest that an identifiable 13% of the population has evolved a culture in which crime is considered normal. Whether the abnormalities within this community, such as endemic crime, illegitimacy, illiteracy, etc. are correctable using the means now employed is the real question.
Half of the above quote is accurate:
Add the following:
That’s what I thought exactly. Quit Bates and move to Mississippi and teach in the public schools. Talk about a northern racist.
I just stalked his Twitter account. It's a mix of garden-variety leftwing politics, mild atheism, and sports.
I suppose he'll get some blip of publicity with this article, but he's minor league material.
Just a doofus.
You’d have to be dumb as a Rocque to not know that punching a cop in the head and grappling for his gun will very likely end with you being shot.
Bates College.
That’s the institution that teaches motel management.
” Talk about a northern racist.”
—
I live in MA and Vermont is more hypocritical than any state in the union.
Hard core libs,very white, postcard pretty state full of crunchy granola types.
They love racial minorities though,as long as they stay away.
.
Armed Forces Network had Tom Joyner’s radio show in the afternoon on AFN Europe. He had a segment where callers would report “hidden racism.”
One woman called in about the corner drug store keeping “black people’s” pantyhose behind the counter but white folks were in a display near the checkout.
I remember thinking the management wouldn’t waste the space behind the counter if not for a history of shoplifting.
He knows all about racism, being a white boy.
This race war crap was started for one reason and this was ;
As opposition to Obama’s abuse of his constitutional authority and talk of “impeachment” began to arise and his polling numbers fell.
What Obama needed, worked for, and got , by separating and isolating his solid group of supporters the blacks through creating out of whole cloth stories of “victimization”.
Using circumstances where lawless black youths wound up dead in felonious struggles over guns held by figures of authority. Obama used his “Bully Pulpit to reinforce that “victim” agenda in Florida and Missouri. In both cases he portrayed authority as the agressors and the perpetrators as the “victims”
In Florida’s case success was indicated by the number of incidents where members of other races were attacked severly injured or murdered by black youths committing these assults in the name of the so called “victim” All the while Obama neither commented on nor condemed such activity.
In Missouri he met with and issued a “stay the course” order to the Ferguson protesters. They in turn coordinated by the usual suspects organized nationwide protests. Their purpose and result was a successful demonstration of what would happen if congress ever moved on any constitutional efforts to restrain or even remove Obama including“Impeachment”..
Once the regime measured its unexpected success why not continue ?
Expand it to war on law enforcement. Get more cops refuse to respond or get killed if they do. or hesitate to defend themselves while attempting to confront “afro-americans” engaged in felonious assults while fleeing or are engaged in criminal activity resisting arrests.
Attack the Grand Jury system investigating police mal practice. It’s not after the facts. It’s after “payback”to those poor hypenated Americans known as “Afro” who because of their financial situation are forced to pillage, kill, and rape. And are entitled to do so.
Exploit innocent interchanges between “afros” and different races make them (the afros) believe it’s racist. Create uneeded tension between them and other groups so that those groups not only view them with aprehension but feral creatures unable to know right from wrong
All because the regime must be protected from being questioned in its exercize and abuse of power.
Then bring in another completely alien group which they believe are easier to manipulate which will furthur isolate the “afro” who will get thrown to the wolves once they’re politically no longer “usefull”.
All made possible by the agenda driven socialist products from academia running the alphabet soup venues controlling the visual and print media . Competing with each other protecting their beneficiairies financial interests. As well as the leadership of the political opposition. Who see the benefits of “working together” expanding government. As the happless voter having never to get their day of reckoning and their children’s children’s children pay the bills living in a culture their forebeaerers wouldn’t ever recognize..
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.