Not even my Columbia University ID would save me from 6 bullets. With the recent non indictments of the police officers that killed Mike Brown and Eric Garner, it became shockingly apparent to me how meaningless black lives are becoming in America; however, I hesitate to use the word “becoming” because it implies that this is a new problem that our society is facing when in fact, the problem is much more deeply ingrained than we would like to acknowledge. As I took to the streets to protest in the name of what I felt was injustice, I had the scariest realization while shouting in the name of those that were killed. Even if I record a possible altercation with the police, it wouldn’t matter.
Now, the fact that someones life being taken away on camera isn’t probable cause for a grand jury to indict the person who killed him falls into two major problems that have yet to be addressed. On one hand there is the problem of white privilege, and on the other hand what can best be described as police power/privilege and the subsequent abuse of it. Both of these problems are social constructs that we have in place that benefit one portion of society at the expense of another and both contribute to the lack of empathy for black lives, but both do so in different ways.
“Eric Garner is just an isolated event.” “It’s not about race, it’s about brutish thugs.” “We don’t have all the facts” These are just a few of the comments made by people who have white privilege and they’re problematic in the way that they discredit the narratives of black people who are trying to speak to a larger problem in society. Yes, by their very nature Eric Garner/Mike Brown’s cases were isolated events, but they both speak to a larger dynamic about how race plays into the criminalization of minorities. Yes, it was about race and your refusal to acknowledge that as well as your racist tendency to profile someone as a thug are exactly what contribute to the subsequent prejudice that society has maintained. Lastly, we may not ever know exactly what happened in the case of Mike Brown, but can the same case be made for Tamir Rice or Eric Garner, both of whom had their deaths recorded for the world to see? When people say I don’t see race, this isn't some utopian novel. This isn't the giver. White privilege might allow people to ignore the fact that black men were killed in cold blood, but as a black male in today’s society, I can’t ignore the fact that one day I might be racially profiled and possibly shot for doing nothing more than walking through a convenience store.
In America, there is nothing more simple than getting an indictment. In fact, “New York State Chief Judge Sol Wachtler famously remarked that a prosecutor could persuade a grand jury to “indict a ham sandwich,” and the stats behind that hyperbole are even more ludicrous. “According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. attorneys prosecuted 162,000 federal cases in 2010, the most recent year for which we have data. Grand juries declined to return an indictment in 11 of them.”(Newsweek 1) However, within the last 10 years there have been 81 non-indictments, 80 of which have dealt with a police officer being accused. Now the first statistic by itself might be cause for alarm, but coupled with the second, it becomes apparent that there are deeper underlying advantages given to our officers in blue. The simple fact of the matter is things like police brutality are reinforced by the notion that cops have greater than a ninety five percent chance of getting off, while still being on paid leave. This in turn, allows those cops with ingrained racial bias to commit terrible crimes in the name of justice.
No, we don’t live in a post racial society. Yes, we have made racial progress in America, but that doesn’t stop certain talk show hosts and other prominent figures from using racial slurs against our half-black president. It also doesn’t stop our attorney general from being racially profiled, and almost arrested near his own home. It doesn’t stop a young twelve year old boy from being shot without thought, for having a toy gun (which would’ve been legal to carry had it been real).The sooner America acknowledges as a whole that there are systematic problems of privilege and oppression deeply ingrained in our justice system and society, then the sooner we can start to have a conversation to make some type of cohesive solution that benefits all people equally.
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