There is much being discussed today about the stop and frisk policies of police departments around the country and how those practices disportionately impact African (so-called Black or African-American) and Indigenous (so-called Latino) men and women. There's the Chris Dorner scenario and the LAPD, and the ongoing police killings which historically and disportionately victimize African and Indigenous people. Also, there is the added issue of citizens such as George Zimmerman in Florida who seem to believe it's open season on African people. And then when people like him act, the resulting inaction of the so-called law enforcement agencies perpetuates the belief that African life is worth less. This is the point that must be understood about racism because it also answers the question about African on African crime such as the current killing sprees happening in cities like Chicago. Whether people are aware of it or not, whether people want to admit it or not, African life is worth less than White life in this world today. Indigenous life is worth less than White life. Much of this problem results from the systems of colonialism and slavery which can be broken down as the period of European domination of Africa and the Americas. This period created the reality where African and Indigenous life began to be equated with property and this perception still remains today. Many people are unaware of any of this because the colonialism/slavery period has practically been written out of history at this point which is strange because it's legacy can be felt in every aspect of life in the world today - regardless of where you reside. Of course, we know the reason why it's written out. Those in power have to justify how they got on top. They do this by perpetuating the myth that the world exists the way it does today because they worked hard, believed in God more, and had the manifest destiny to be on top. On the other side of their fantasy, African and Indigenous people are on the bottom because of some unidentified cultural and biological flaws and a lack of civilization and a correct relationship with God. They promote this daily - 24/7 through every aspect of popular culture and their primary objective is to get everyday people to believe this and it would be dishonest to say their strategy hasn't had traction. That's why the idiots who post here do. It's also why Africans kill each other without showing the same level of concern they would definitely show before going into White communities to kill Whites wholesale. The message is clear. We hold no more value than property. And since accumulation of personal property is the zenth of accomplishment in a capitalist society, that means compared to the average person's personal property, an African, Indigenous person, woman, gay or transgender person, can have less value than a pair of shoes.
Where does this dysfunction come from? Some of the answers can be traced to the history of class struggle - going back to commualism, slavery, feudalism, capitalism, socialism, forward - but for a specific answer regarding racism and police and African/Indigenous life, the solution lies in analyzing the political and historical circumstances surrounding the period of colonialism and slavery. You see, there are those - who for their own political reasons - desperately want people to believe those periods were sanitized periods in history that were really just not that bad. The turth is those periods were some of the most horrific in the history of human civilization. That's why we are still dealing with such a strong legacy from those periods so many years later. For example, chattel slavery was an institution. An economic institution that was protected by those who benefitted from it with codes that were set up to insure Africans were continually available for exploitable labor. Once the institution of slavery was eradicated the social codes that maintained the power relations were kept in place. This was done through the creation of "Black Codes" that were nothing more than laws that perpetuated White supremacy by ensuring African labor continued to be available and exploitable. The continuance of armed militias, which patrolled the country to keep Africans confined to certain areas - for labor purposes - were further reinforced and better organized into legal formations that became police departments. Thus, the practice of stopping Africans and restricting our movement - which was a tool perfected during slavery to insure we were corralled back the plantation - was continued and improved to restrict and repress our movements as we continued to organize and struggle against racism, capitalism, and injustice. In fact, my argument is that the need to restrict our movemnet is more prevalent today than it was during slavery because capitalism is in such a state of decline. Africans and Indigenous people, because of our historic oppression, still remain the most likely segments to rebel, which makes restricting and repressing us that much more important for the power structure today.
The message here? That police were never created to "protect and serve" African and Indgeneous communities. Of course inner cities have a myriad of problems which we can certainly explain, but that's another article. The point here is to promote that the role of police is to perpetuate those problems and keep them going while restricting and repressing the community in the process. So you liberals can continue to believe the solution is holding police accountable if you want to. We certainly won't discourage you because we believe Sekou Ture when he said "bad organization is better than no organization", but we intend to continue to organize to create social consciousness where police are not welcome and/or needed. They have always served to create problems for us and are not capable of being problem solvers in our communities anymore than the U.S. military is a problem solver in other countries.
So, there will be the continued stream of dumbasses out there who respond to this post with yelling and cursing, but they won't be able to refute a single word here because it's illrefutable. Unfortunately, that last sentence is a logical one which eliminates the people in question from being able to interpret it, so just keep yelling. Actually, we invite you to continue hating. We know why you behave the way you do. Your time is running out. You know it. We know it. And you know we know it.