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.
His brain must look like one of those mirrored fun rooms at the carnival.
Haven’t these people ever heard of Occam’s razor?
Their explanation is magical-paradoxical structural racism that exists without existing and that gets worse as things get better. Ours is to point out that life is harder for those who behave badly and make bad decisions.
Guess who’s probably right?
Professor Rocque, please allow me to explain it to you.
Anyone who didn’t see this one coming just wasn’t looking, as one look at world history will show you that no country with a diverse population of different races, languages, and religion has long survived.
Countries don’t naturally form with diverse populations, and when in the past they’ve occurred it’s usually been as a result of armed conquest. These unnaturally formed countries have either melded together into a single population made up of one mixed race with one language and one religion or they’ve come apart, and they’ve usually come apart with extreme violence. The longer these diverse populations are forced to coexist with one another without mixing and becoming one, the more the hatred grows among them and the more violently they break apart, but break apart they will, or genocide will settle the issue once and for all.
Why is this and why can’t we all just get along? The truth of the matter is that we (the human race) just aren’t as civilized as we would like to think we are. Our species, Homo-sapiens-sapiens, isn’t that long “out of the trees” and the veneer of civilization is very thin, to non-existent, upon us all. We’re all carrying the genes that got us here and some of those genes carry a very basic survival instinct that has allowed us to survive thus far.
This most basic of all survival instincts is self-preservation and it’s the one that warns us to be very wary of those who are different than us, our family, and our tribe. Those who possessed this survival instinct survived and reproduced, and those who had no fear/distrust of strangers didn’t survive. Over the years, this survival instinct has been referred to as tribalism, nationalism, ethnocentrism, racism, and various other isms, but it’s an inborn instinct carried in our genes whether we like it or not.
Black lives matter – except for the 93% of black murder victims who are killed by other blacks!
Ha! I read in the title: Professor Bates College and stopped reading.
Are negative feelings about blacks based solely on the color of their skin?
But occasionally you might want to see if they have a new twist to their thinking. Sometimes it is worth a laugh.
I have to laugh!!! I live 1 hour from this moonbat , guess what the demographics are here in the GREAT State of Maine? Over 98 % caucasion. The crime rate is virtually nil’ ...I have never had to lock my door since I moved up here from the socialist Massachusetts . You really have to be an idiot to end up dealing with a police officer here...it’s pretty simple do the speed limit, keep your vehicle up to the standards and you can pretty much do what you want. For all of you fellow freepers not familiar with the Bangor Daily News, try to keep in mind that it is a leftist moonbat rag...nothing in it is worth the .50 cents they charge for it. my mother in law saves them for me so my pappilion / Pomeranian can pee and poop on them when we are away for to long...that’s about all this rag is good for. I digress, seems funny such an opinion comes from a guy who lives in one of the whitest states in our republic.
African Americans are disproportionately arrested and incarcerated for numerous crimes... because they commit a disproportionate number of crimes.
Math ain’t hard, Professor Rocque.
Rocque needs to have a conversation with this liberal lawyer
http://www.amren.com/features/2014/05/confessions-of-a-public-defender/
Liberals believe ours is a racist society and blacks are the victims - not the true racists as they actually are in life.
They believe what needs to be done is to coddle and appease our domestic terrorists and punish the police for going after them.
America is at fault when its community organizers seek to burn it down and kill cops. We do have a race problem and we do have a civilizational crisis on our hands.
Unfortunately, they have nothing at all do with liberals’ blinkered, politically correct view of them.
Black’s commit murder at a rate more than seven times greater, than whites, according to published statistics by Holder’s Justice Dept.
Mostly they kill other blacks.
So you tell me professor: Is the “violent black man” a myth or a truth?
Not one tattered shred of data or other objective evidence to support his position. Only the “self-evident” nature of his claims. This whole movement is based on anecdotes in spite of any evidence.
Next door to the Bates Motel.
Hey Travis - do you have that homicide graphic? This post is screaming for it..
Yes....a “member” of the Surreal-American-Community
The elephant in the room no one is talking about, especially dweebs like this author:
The black on black murder and murder victimization rates tell most of what you need to know. If you won't discuss that, first and foremost, you aren't getting at the root of the problem. That isn't caused by whites.
Sociology professors, welfare recipients, trust fund brats...usually liberal.
Auto mechanics, plumbers, electricians, restaurant owners, doctors...usually conservative.
Guess which group I find more useful? And it ain’t a close call.
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.