Privilege was defined in class as " An invisible package of unearned assets that I c count on cashing in each day , but about which I was "meant" to remain oblivious". Whiteness in lecture was described purporting to be both nothing and everything. In the 28 common attitudes the one that became the most relatable to me was Due process. Due process in the common 28 attitudes depicts the "Lady of Justice" as being colorblind, also it further explains the difference in interaction with the police force among African Americans and non African Americans.
Recently the news has been flooded with stories surrounded around the brutality and injustice that African Americans have to face from police officers. In my opinion police officers were designed to help not harm people no matter what the color of their skin may be. Mike Brown, Sandra Bland, Trayvon Martin are all very popular names that have been heard throughout the media, all of these deaths related to police brutality whose cases received in my sole option no justice, because we still live in an era of Whiteness. A study done by mappingpolicevionce.org shows that African Americans are three times more likely to be killed by police then any other race. Proving that the police officer's have changed from a being known as hero's to now being known as harmer's.
As an African American woman it terrifies me to think if I am ever stopped alone by a white police officer that I might not make it home. In the due process overview from 28 common attitudes it mentions how whites tell there kids to just be polite and everything will be just fine, while on the other end of the spectrum it would terrify my mom to even think of an officer stopping me, because of the things she has seen in the news. It amazes me to think how different the world really can be through the eyes of someone else. The feeling of being so privileged so care free, having the sole ability to be worry free.
Whiteness is truly a privilege but to be black is an accomplishment. No one person is better then the next and due process law balances the power of law and the land and protects the individual person from it. Meaning everyone is entitled to justices , so my question is when will WE ALL get that?
Hi Lauren,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your post! You brought up a very serious issue among our society, which is somehow someway at sometimes invisible to people. Because we all had different life experience from different racial groups, we cannot get a solid sense regarding others culture and customs without experience, which make us more tending to ignore the racial mistreatment.
You also mentioned the White Privilege which seems a solid subject for us to study, you basically said that being a white is a natural privilege over others, which totally made sense after thinking about it. On the other hand, being a black people, life could be tougher than others, since the racial profiling of people of color is so obvious and biased. There is no truly equal exist in this world, but our own authority to transgress it.
A note: I apologize, but the build up to the real content of this comment is probably going to seem like some sort of self-centered autobiography. Again, I apologize profusely.
ReplyDeleteIn relation to the "Due Process" entry in Leigh's "28 Attitudes and Behaviors," even before the relatively recent focus on police racist brutality, the extent of my opinion of the police was, "Hey, isn't that police dog cute?" Rhetoric about trusting officers never took hold in my mind for some reason; the cause could be anything from listening to parents discuss not being caught speeding during frequent long trips to a serious discussion about racism at a young age (making this one more plausible, I distinctly remember preschool-Forest having such a talk with his/my mother about the stigma around same-sex relationships when a teacher denounced them, contradicting a statement my mother had made earlier).
The police racism did not surprise me, only power my urges to pick up a poster, stick, and sharpie and go out to protest, which probably would seem like "white" privilege as I am probably "white" enough to not have to worry about being killed in this way, except that I have two siblings who aren't "white." Biologically, they are the children of a very close friend/informant of my mother from when she was in Kenya working for her dissertation. They were originally sent here to have better opportunities than were available to them in Kenya (see Coates), but I am honestly afraid for them. To conclude, due to a combination of mysterious early apathy toward police, moral outrage over police racism, and the direct consequences of that police racism for my immediate family despite probably fitting the category of "white," I was honestly not surprised by the "Due Process" entry in the "28 Attitudes and Behaviors."
--Forest Copeland, a disturbed African primate
Another note: I use quotation marks around a number of words related to "race" because the words do not mean what they are being used to mean. For example, "race," in everything not human, refers to distinct biological categories, something humans do not actually have. For "black" and "white," it is because humans do not actually come in those colors (containing pigment that absorbs the entire spectrum of visible light for the first, and being completely without pigment for the second).
In Leigh's "28 Attitudes and Behaviors”, I felt pretty ashamed noticing how, as I went through the list, could think of a time when I experienced, witnessed, or participated in microaggressive behaviors and it is something I am not proud of. Although I was unaware (white privilege strikes again) of my behavior for the ones I have admittedly done, I am now aware of these microageressions and just how big of an impact they can have on other people. Due process, specifically, is one of the twenty-eight attitudes and behaviors that I have witnessed numerous times. The idea of someone leaving their home only to feel scared of encountering the people who are supposed to protect the people of this country is frightening. Like Forest, as a child, I was told to obey the laws and everything would be fine but this is obviously not the case for everyone. The irony in which police choose to “enforce” the law with some and not others is unacceptable.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, police brutality is a touchy subject and since police are protected by the law in more than one way, this issue is tough to break. I hope in these next couple years’ people of color will get justice for these immoral actions. As Coates stated, “What matters is the system that makes your body breakable”. This system of protection and protectors should serve not only to keep us safe but also as something to have the peoples backs, something to rely on, and something to help people through overcoming hardships rather than creating them.
-Gabby Castriota
The link between White Privilege and Police Brutality should not be a point of argument. And yet many Americans choose to address these linked issues as a matter of individual responsibility. To think that a single individual must compensate for institutionalized racism is staggering. Ultimately, the impossibility of this task serves to further entrench the individual within an increasingly corrupt system. Institutionalized corruption requires the institutionalization of the individual as a scapegoat. Thank you for addressing the blatant inequality within our criminal justice system!
ReplyDeleteThe link between White Privilege and Police Brutality should not be a point of argument. And yet many Americans choose to address these linked issues as a matter of individual responsibility. To think that a single individual must compensate for institutionalized racism is staggering. Ultimately, the impossibility of this task serves to further entrench the individual within an increasingly corrupt system. Institutionalized corruption requires the institutionalization of the individual as a scapegoat. Thank you for addressing the blatant inequality within our criminal justice system!
ReplyDelete