Individuals have been asking me how I make sense of the truth that all 5 of the Memphis law enforcement officials who beat Tyre Nichols to death in that heinous assault have been Black. Does that imply the assault was not racist? Does it negate race as an element within the crime altogether? Has the motion for Black lives been mistaken to essentialize race in police brutality? Or was this horrific incident merely an exception to the truth that racism stays endemic in policing and prison justice?
Tyre Nichols protests on the Ohio State Home in Columbus, Ohio (Becker1999 / CC BY 2.0).
Earlier than making an attempt to handle a few of these questions, I need to categorical my deep condolences for Tyre’s household. My coronary heart aches once I consider one other mindless homicide by the arms of the state.
After I discovered of the races of the law enforcement officials who killed Tyre, I used to be mildly shocked to see that they have been all Black. It’s true that the officer who initially pulled Tyre out of his automotive and tasered him as he ran for his life was white (and it additionally makes me marvel why the police division attempted to conceal the identity of the white officer, however that’s a subject for an additional time). However the cops who later captured and killed Tyre in these stunning movies have been all Black.
X
There have after all been many different incidents of police brutality involving Black officers up to now. As an illustration, three of the six officers charged in Freddie Grey’s loss of life in Baltimore have been Black. One of many 4 cops convicted within the homicide of George Floyd was Black. However in that case he was not the one who had his knee on George’s neck, inflicting him to suffocate. And actually, the household of that officer says one of the reasons he became a cop was because he felt diversity could fix the police department’s racism.
However within the case of Tyre Nichols, not solely have been all 5 of the officers Black, however every had actively participated in that vicious and relentless assault on their younger sufferer. They didn’t simply carelessly toss Tyre behind a police van like within the case of Freddie Grey. They took turns delivering blows with their batons, shouting insults, knocking him to the bottom, kicking him, and utilizing pepper spray and tasers.
Someway I doubt any of them joined the police drive to repair it.
It complicates a story that too many people have adopted: that the important thing to countering racism in our establishments (policing and elsewhere) is solely to diversify. This was, in truth, one of the central recommendations of the Kerner report issued greater than half a century in the past following the civil unrest over the summer time of 1967.
Lately, and significantly within the wake of George Floyd’s killing, we’ve seen main efforts by corporations, universities, and authorities companies to include rules of variety, fairness, and inclusion. In some methods, this opened the door for a notion to permeate that white equals unhealthy, and Black equals good. Two years in the past, former CIA Director John Brennan even mused on MSNBC that he was becoming increasingly embarrassed to be a white male. Anybody who has served as head of the CIA most likely has so much to be embarrassed about. However being a white male shouldn’t be a kind of issues.
I’m not saying that variety is a nasty factor. Range is essential. But it surely’s not illustration. It’s not accountability. And, by itself, it’s not the answer to structural racism in America. It’s just one ingredient within the work to create belonging and transfer to a spot to dismantle the racial caste system of othering.
The truth that all 5 of the officers who killed Tyre have been Black bears little relevance while you perceive what occurred as a structural, not interpersonal, drawback. We simply put out a brand new explainer video that distills this point. When you might have establishments just like the police which might be closely current in segregated Black neighborhoods, you might have the next chance of encounters with officers. If we deny the position of racism in Tyre’s killing, it’s as a result of we’re taking a look at it from the lens of interpersonal racism. I don’t consider the police focused him due to a racial animus on their elements. However law enforcement officials, no matter their coloration, belong to a system that discriminates by race whereas incentivizing the overpolicing and underprotecting of the Black group. If the police occur to be Black, it really helps conceal the racist workings of the establishment.
The Pulitzer Prize winner Isabel Wilkerson affords a succinct approach of understanding how folks from a marginalized group would possibly work to perpetuate a system of hierarchy that hurts “their” group. In Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, she writes: “The enforcers of caste are available each coloration, creed, and gender. One doesn’t need to be within the dominant caste (i.e., white) to do its bidding. In reality essentially the most potent instrument of the caste system is a sentinel at each rung, whose identification forswears any accusation of discrimination and helps preserve the caste system buzzing.”
So, if we can’t depend on the race of the police to identify racism, what are some indicators of it? I consider you are able to do so by specializing in the therapy and frequency of these stopped by the police. Blacks are usually not solely extra more likely to be stopped but in addition extra probably than their white counterparts to be brutalized and killed. After all, nobody must be subjected to such therapy no matter race. It’s mistaken. However it’s doubly mistaken to be subjected to this dehumanizing therapy due to your identification or social standing. It’s an expression of terror and institutional hate directed on the particular person and their group. Once you and people you determine with are thought of the opposite, you aren’t to be given the identical voice, therapy, or dignity of those that belong.
And as we shouldn’t be shocked to seek out that there are some Blacks in positions of authority actively working to keep up the dehumanization of Blacks, we should always equally not be shocked to know that there are whites in authority working to advertise belonging and finish the ideology and follow of white dominance. That is each a disturbing and beneficiant learn on our society. And with that actuality in thoughts, we should always flip our concentrate on the extra essential query: What are we doing in our cities, workplaces, and faculties to remodel these darkish areas of dehumanization and othering into areas the place everybody belongs? Diversity is a vital step, however it’s not sufficient.
This text was initially revealed on the Othering & Belonging Institute Blog at UC Berkeley. Learn the original article.
