To Protect and Serve

To protect and serve is the motto of numerous police forces in our country. Whom or What are the police protecting and serving? The knee-jerk answer is us, the citizens of the United States. Upon deeper reflection, their role in our society is not concerned with it’s citizens but the maintenance of a system.

In 25 years of life I have had 4 distinct interactions with the police. I have been followed home up to my driveway. I have been removed from my job. I have been removed from my neighborhood. I have almost been arrested. 3 of these 4 scenarios happened in a 3 year span before I was 18. Formerly, I felt anger and bitterness when I recalled these memories. I am certainly justified in feeling this way. While my frustration is legitimate, the actions of the police clearly demonstrate the goals and purposes of law enforcement. The police exist to enforce the laws of our country. Laws which exist to sequester black and brown Americans into poverty, incarceration, and socio-economic stagnation. If the police force is supposed to uphold these laws, then a significant portion of our populace is in a dangerous position.

This reality is why drastic measures must be taken to restore the wrongs of our nation’s history. Unjust legislation is a perennial and enduring feature of our self-proclaimed democracy. The police is a domestic military formed to ensure the social order remains the same. Despite the gains from civil rights legislation, the overwhelming majority of statutes are discriminatory, either actively or passively. The police are a reflection of American values. When police officers kill unarmed black and brown men at alarming rates, it is because we live in a society which deems their existence as optional. When domestic violence is a multi-generational epidemic in our nation, it is because the laws do not value the safety and comfort of women. Our police officers remain as guardians of a longstanding order, which values the acquisition of wealth for white men.

The police enforce more than a racist social order. They enforce and perpetuate attitudes. The legislators who formed most of our legal documentation held racist and misogynistic beliefs. These beliefs transferred into their legislation. New legislation came, but an over-emphasis of legal precedent created a way for new laws to reflect many of the older sentiments, racist ones. The progress made through legislative reforms is dwarfed by centuries of lawful hate and denigration. Celebrating the alleged progress we have made is more of an exercise in hubris than a factual appraisal of our modern conditions.

The police are not our friends, at least not for those outside of the American ideal. Our treatment is commensurate with the goals of this country. I am not excusing police brutality.  I agree with the outrage. There is considerable work to be done for the police to protect and serve every American. However,the police force is not failing. It is doing what it was intended to do. We as people of color, are demanding to be integrated and perceived as valued members of the nation, instead of intruders and enemies of the American dream. The police will not treat us well, until the legal landscape shifts. We cannot settle for topical solutions, we must engage the roots of the issue.

An American Tradition

"The price of hating other human beings is loving oneself less."
-Eldridge Cleaver

White supremacy is not an indictment against a particular individual, rather it is a function of an unjust government. The American revolution spawned a race-based class system. White people*  occupied the highest class. The remaining other humans of America with darker skin were sequestered into the lower-classes. African slaves were treated as less than human, and the newly United States government waged war on Native peoples. The new Americans justified their insidious behavior and unjust legislation through dehumanizing the Africans and native Americans. The dehumanization process is particularly damaging to the oppressor because they exalt themselves while disregarding the intrinsic value of different cultures. This is how white supremacy functions, it is a belief which exalts the values, beliefs, and practices of white people as the appropriate, or right, way of life. This ideology is unable to legitimize different cultures, only villianize them. White supremacy can only be believed if one simultaneously believes every other race is deficient. 

The belief in white superiority was both sub-conscious and explicit throughout the course of white civilization. These values framed the perspective of most of the British defectors. When they created the Constitution of the United States, they neglected to consider including Native peoples and kidnapped Africans. It would have been ludicrous for them to do so, because they believed in the supremacy of the white race. Non-white peoples were too stupid to understand, or to uncivilized to participate. This is the narrative of white supremacy. The legal structure of the United States favors white people because the creators believed in the superiority of white people. Every created system in this country is imbued with the belief of a superior white race, and as a result our systems maintain ineqality and inequity. 

In the southern United States, white supremacy is associated with white hoods and swastikas, however all of us are white supremacists to a degree, even people of color. Since the founders of the United States deliberately created a race based legal and political system, giving and denying certain liberties based upon skin color, the non-white Americans often do not even think of themselves as true Americans. This belief is a product of white supremacy. We do not feel we are true Americans because we are not white. We are keenly aware that we are a tolerated minority rather than a desirable part of the population. As a response to our lifetime of social ostracization, we try to fit in. We try to adopt different speech patterns in hopes of being accepted. We attend White Universities because a historically black college or university is not as academically rigorous. The tide of white supremacy has eroded our self-confidence and love for ourselves and each other. I see black men shave their faces clean, even though it gives them terrible razor bumps as a way to adopt a white standard. Black women constantly battle their hair because coming into work with a headscarf is unprofessional. It is not unprofessional for us, just for white people. Minorities in this country seek to adopt white standards with the hope that we will be fully accepted. Regrettably, that day never comes, unless you can lighten your skin enough to no longer be recognized as a hyphenated American.*

White supermacy is in all of us. The system we live in, intended to perpetuate white supremacy. As a result we live in a society filled with hate. We hate each other and we hate ourselves. White supremacy is limiting to white people as well. Any action, belief, or idea that departs from the longstanding tradition of white culture is viewed as foreign and ought to be removed. I hear white men tell me all the time how they cannot dance or jump, and use the phrase, "because I'm white" as an epithet to justify their lack of ability. I feel a surge of anger because dancing or jumping is a human activitiy! But since jumping and dancing is relegated to ethnic peoples in their conscious, they cannot participate in those basic actions. White supremacy truncates the personality of white people, it is an act of violence. In the deification of white conduct, harm is done to millions of white children who are told how they can and cannot behave due to their exalted status.

While non-profit organizations, governments, and businesses are investing a plethora of resources to alleviate poverty, this will not bring about equity. Our systems function to preserve the dominance of the white race. As long as these institutions continue to exist, so will the disparities between the races. The only solution is a restructuring of the system. White supremacy will die when we kill it. Our belief in an unfounded hope of things getting better is worthless. We cannot continue to make excuses in justifying an unfair system. Our delayed action continues to send a clear message to all people of color that their lives do not matter as much as their white counterparts. This is one tradition that is long due for replacement.


*The white upper class initially was initially reserved for anglo-saxons.  As new waves of immigrants entered the country, whiteness expanded to include: Irish, Italians, Germans, French, Spanish, and other light skinned Europeans.

*African-American, Chinese-American, Indian-American, Native-American, etc.

The Revolution is White

Thank-you for your support. Seeing the majority of my white peers respond positively to the protests of NFL players, helps to restore my belief in a country which elected an immature, thoughtless, and unqualified leader. This is the beginning. It is easy to lend a voice when the opinion you hold is a popular one. Are you willing to exchange your privilege so others can benefit? This exchange in privilege must be done collectively by the white majority. Are you all willing to oppose your parents and grandparents? How willing are you to receive correction from a person of color when they tell you personally about tour attitutudes, statements, and actions which are offensive? Are you ready to invest in black businesses? Are you willing to believe that having while you have one black friend, you may be wholly ignorant of black culture, or ignorant of who your friend truly is. A facebookpost, tweet, even this blof is meaningless if it does not compel thoughtful reflection followed by timely action.

The abolitionist movement existed concurrently with slavery.  Americans retained and honored their heinous institution so much that it took until 1865 for thoughtful reflection to turn into timely action. White Americans, you cannot simply believe things will get better. I am willing to wager, when a host of Latin American countries achieved liberation from their imperial centers they believed things would improve for them. Some of them have achieved freedom and self-sufficiency but others are failed states struggling to create stability. Progress is not a given. Our belief in progress removes the responsibility from our fellow citizens to enact change. We leave change to chance, a mistake with grave implications for all of us.

This criticism and call to action is leveled at white people because you have made a country in your image. Your community has resisted expanding privilege to those outside of your preference, and maintained unjust legislation. You shaped this country, and you may adjust it accordingly. The change black and brown people yearn for hinges upon your consent. The revolution is white. True revolution does not happen until the upper class invloves themselves.The poor have revolted from time to time throughout the course of history. Usually their rebellions are short lived and the revolutionaries pay with their lives. Revolution is fully realized when the upper class chooses to take up the cause of the poor, or choose their own agenda due to their disenchantment with current conditions. White America, our revolution is your revolution. I am not saying that minority communities cannot create change. Surely they can and have done so. What I am arguing is, when it comes to a reorganization and restructuring of social and economic policy, minorities cannot simply will this type of change into power without the consent of the ruling class. In our country, the ruling class is white. White America, our freedom is contingent upon your agreement, as it has always unfortunately been.What will you all choose to do?

These broken systems will not be fixed with our beliefs, only with our actions. Search God, search your heart, search your friends and families. We will achieve justice through actions supported by a firm conviction in the equal value of every human being. We are not here yet. If we want to move forward, we must forge our progress out of our love for one another, instead of a weak belief.in imminent advancement.