The reason I want to address this Facebook post is that so many white people seem to be drawn to this post and resharing this post by black police officer Jay Stalien. White friends and family are resharing it that do not normally share anything written by black people. However, these posts, in my opinion, are not for white people to share and discuss. His posts are directed towards his community, and white people seem to be using these posts as justification for adjudicating their responsibility to dismantle racism and white supremacy. They are seeking justification, once again, to sidestep their responsibility to look inward and see how they need to change.
If we want to review policing and incarceration in america, we need to go back to when the 13th amendment was ratified and the loophole that was placed within it. In reviewing
that loophole, we need to analyze what loophole has done to our country and to black americans in particular, though many statistics apply to all BIPOC (black, indigenous and people of color).
White people want to believe that the past is in the past and we do not need to revisit history, and slavery was a long time ago, and it wasn’t us that did these terrible things, it was our parents and grandparents. However, even if the most non-racist white person (if such a person exists) the products of their lives, their income, their jobs, their opportunities
are all the products of our ancestry.
If I have inherited a farm and the ability to buy a house anywhere I want, but someone else my own age, during that same time period couldn’t own land and couldn’t build property wherever they wanted, how will that generational wealth look today? Quite differently.
White people want to believe they pulled themselves up by their bootstraps without really looking into how much money, opportunities and jobs have been gifted from grandparents, parents, aunts
and uncles, money, wealth and opportunity not afforded black Americans. Even after emancipation, american policing and law has been set up to the advantage of white america and to the disadvantage of black america.
“We are the products of the history that our ancestors chose, if we’re white. If we are black, we are the products of the history that our ancestors most likely did not choose. Yet here we all are here together, the products of that set of choices and we have to understand that in order to escape from it.”
Kevin Gannon from 13th by Ava DuVernay
The 13th Ammendment to the constitution grants freedom to all americans, but there are certain
provisions for punishment for prisioners, or “There’s a clause, a loophole” as Khalil G. Muhammad explains.
Section 1.
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States,
or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
Section 2.
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Passed by Congress January 31, 1865. Ratified December 6, 1865.
Note: A portion of Article IV, section 2, of the Constitution was superseded by the 13th amendment.
Policing allows america to continue slavery, legally. And white america hates the term ‘Defund the police’ for a few different reasons, even though this may be the right step,
especially in light where the incarceration system was born from, the loophole in the 13th ammendment. White people, deep down, don’t want to reconcile with themselves that they are the
“bad guy.” The police, in white people’s minds, are the hero, the good guy, and if the police, similar to the armed forces, are the bad guy, then everything about themselves crumbles.
As it comes to race, however, we are most assuredly the villain in this story. If you review every photo of a sit-in, of a peaceful march, of children just trying to de-segregate a school,
there are white people, yelling and screaming, demanding segregation yelling racial slurs. You and I both know white people in those photos, just like you and I both know people online
that don’t want to be accountable for racism today. (https://www.crf-usa.org/black-history-month/social-protests)
Where racist practices have hit black america hard has been economically. White america has sought to keep black america week by red-lining, segregating, and similar financially
abusive tactics. Economically, black america has always trailed behind white america, and this has
been by design, driven first by the 13th Amendment. In 1968 the Kerner Commission Presented a report to President Johnson explaining the cause of civil unrest in black communities. The report plainly named “white racism” as the culprit. (https://www.epi.org/publication/50-years-after-the-kerner-commission/)
White racism was leading to “pervasive discrimination in employment, education and housing”—as the culprit, and the report’s authors called for a commitment to “the realization of common opportunities for all within a single [racially undivided] society.”1 (The Kerner Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders: Summary of Report (U.S. Government Printing Office), downloadable at http://www.hsdl.org.)
Black Americans are better educated today than in 1968, but black workers only make 82.5 cents to the 1.00 of a white worker. In 2017 the black unemployment rate was 7.5%, nearly double that of white Americans. The most troubling statistic, to quote directly “…the share of African Americans in prison or jail almost tripled between 1968 and 2016 and is currently more than six times the white incarceration rate.”
In reviewing the large amount of statistics, facts, figures, books and articles that clearly outline the
need for a new police system in america, white people will still put their head in the sand. They do not want to see themsleves as the enemy or the perpetrator of any wrong. To combat the ““pervasive discrimination in employment, education and housing” (Kerner Commission), we must
be firmly anti-racist and deliberate in all decisions, forceful in our speech, and aligned with all policy that advances black interests and curbs white subterfuge.
In White Fragility by Robin DeAngelo, (https://libjournal.uncg.edu/ijcp/article/viewFile/249/116), this quote summarizes why it is so hard to talk to white people about race:
“White people in North America live in a social environment that protects and insulates them from race-based stress. This insulated environment of racial protection builds white expectations for racial comfort while at the same time lowering the ability to tolerate racial stress, leading to what I refer to as White Fragility. White Fragility is a state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves. These moves include the outward display of emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and behaviors such as argumentation, silence, and leaving the stress-inducing situation.”
As Shannon Dingle (disability advocate and writer) states, “white people, we have to stop being more upset about being called racist than we are about racism” (https://twitter.com/ShannonDingle/status/1268571752927543301?s=20)
As we come back to the post by Officer Jay Stalien (see footnotes) (https://www.facebook.com/254693288202569/posts/1172131453125410/?d=n), all the forementioned is why his post thoughts are so appealing to white people. He, a black police officer, addresses some major sidesteps that are popular for white people to use, black on black violence, violence within the black community, etc. Again, this is a discussion for him within his own community, and isn’t for us white people to be commenting on, delighting in, or re-sharing over and over to somehow make anything else any more or less valid.
Black on Black violence is a term that cannot just be thrown out without reviewing the social, economic, and policing processes that are being used to justify its usage, and it
certainly cannot be used by white people as a means to justify police brutality. When is the last time you discussed white on white violence?
In an NIJ study from 2015, facts presented show how arrest records and information skew to demonstrate how black violence seems to be more prevalent. In addition to the Harvard study, there are many more from (https://www.naacp.org/criminal-justice-fact-sheet) NAACP and
(www.joincampaignzero.org/#research) Campaign Zero that support similar evidence.
Within that context, (https://www.facebook.com/1164600431/posts/4618207850929/?d=n) Michael Harriot explained it in a clear way so I want to give them the credit. In regards to “Black on Black” violence, such as it is, white people do not discuss white on white violence. White people, additionally, do not know what is happening in black communities. They do not see, or take the time to research, the volunteer work, philanthropy, or efforts of black communities to curb violence and improve their situations and families. If I may conjecture further,
white people do not know what is going on in black communities except what information they wish to retain for their own purposes.
There needs to be accountability and change. The current systems are not working because Americans continue to die in large numbers. (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2015/jun/01/the-counted-police-killings-us-database). The problem with reporting on police deaths is there hasn’t been a good central database to hold and track the data. To hold precincts accountable, we need to track mortality. The rhetoric ever since the civil war has been focused on black criminality to keep them incarcerated. It is incredible that the United States holds 5% of the world’s population and 25% of the world’s incarcerated, as Michelle Alexander explains, history developed an appetite that is gobbling up people and communities of
all colors, but this wouldn’t have happened if it hadn’t started first with a population that people didn’t care about at all. (13th by Ava DuVernay)
As white people, to only pass around Officer Jay Stalien’s post and say “Well, that solves that. There is one black officer that is unhappy with this situation. I just need to share this post and it disproves everything about Black Lives Matter, everything about the protests, everything about changing how policing is done in America” is a sentiment that is not only dangerous but is completely missing the point of everything that is being protested for and lobbied against. White people have created systems to keep black Americans from progressing, and then created an incarceration system that keeps them incarcerated in a far greater rate than others.
If all you are sharing are the black voices that you like because they make you comfortable, or because they make you feel like it’s not your fault, or because they make you feel safer, then you have failed to see where you are part of the problem. There is a huge change that needs to happen, and you can either join, or dig your heels in and put your head in the sand and
stubbornly refuse to see and hear what is, most clearly, in front of your eyes and ears.
As Common says, “Institution ain’t just a building…it’s America’s moment to ‘Come to Jesus.’ “
Footnotes and Sources
Officer Jay Stalien appears to be a Pseudonym. This name appears to be a pseudonym according to
(https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/19/nyregion/black-police-officers-feel-the-inner-tug-of-a-dual-role.html) this article from the New York Times in 2016,
as it is a blend of his middle name and a nickname, but he does appear to be a real person. His update on George Floyd is here (www.facebook.com/100003050784159/posts/2756574594454206/?d=n)
13th full feature is free on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krfcq5pF8u8
https://thenewpress.com/news/ava-duvernays-13th-features-new-press-authors
Common: Letter To The Free ft. Bilal https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KO7tVuPHOxA
https://www.showingupforracialjustice.org/
https://www.wnyc.org/story/87636-remembering-malcolm-x-rare-interviews-and-audio
https://fortune.com/2020/06/05/antiracist-books-donations-black-owned-businesses-resources/amp/
https://amp.usatoday.com/amp/3135829001
https://thenewpress.com/books/new-jim-crow
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/30/why-im-no-longer-talking-to-white-people-about-race
Uniquely American Ways to Die. Authentically Patriotic Ways to Live. 