Ferguson, Missouri: Why Race Still Matters
By Imam Zaid Shakir · September 6, 2014
In his Time Magazine essay discussing the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, Rand Paul focuses on the militarizing of our police. He also mentions the malicious role that race plays in our law enforcement and criminal justice systems, a courageous stance for a white American politician. Paul, however, misses a critical point. He says that as a youth if he were told by policeman to get out of the street, he would likely have “smarted off” without the expectation of being shot.
The point is that an average young white kid today can still smart off to the police, militarized or not, and not expect to be shot, or even arrested for that matter. For the average black kid, the chance of being shot during an encounter with law enforcement, while not high, is always present, and the chance of getting arrested is astronomical. Thus, race and not the militarizing of the police in America is a more reasonable starting point for tackling the issue of the abuses African Americans face when dealing with the law enforcement and criminal justice systems in this country.
To further develop this point, consider the following. When Oscar Grant was shot, lying face-down and handcuffed on a Bart platform in Oakland, California, the policeman who shot him was not in an armored personnel carrier. He was on foot. The gang of policemen who rolled up on Amadou Djiallo, and proceeded to pump 41 bullets into him, were not wearing flak jackets and night vision goggles, they were in plainclothes. The policemen who gathered outside of the elderly Kenneth Chamberlain’s apartment, hurling racial insults at him and demeaning his military service, before finally kicking in his door, tazing and then fatally shooting him, were not militarized in any particular way. The policemen who fatally shot two unarmed teenagers, Papo Post, an African American, and Miguel Arroyo, a Puerto Rican, in my hometown, New Britain, Connecticut, did so in the 1970s before militarized police forces were even being discussed.
While it is indeed true that militarized police forces are on the rise in this country, and the implications of this development for civil liberties are chilling, police shootings of unarmed white citizens are not rising correspondingly. Hence, if we want to examine the ongoing incidences of members of minority communities who are being gunned down by law enforcement officers in this country, we are going to have to tackle the unresolved race issue.
In conclusion, while it is certainly true that there have been incredible gains for African Americans in this country, issues such as the disproportionate searches, arrests and shootings of black youths, all of which are harsh realities in Ferguson, Missouri, point to the deceptive nature of those gains. The country certainly has passed a racial milestone when it elected a black President, however, the conversation around race and the ramifications of failed race relations, in law enforcement as well as in other areas of American life, must be ongoing and part of a wider search for solutions that will contribute to ending racial disparities in this country. To avoid the hard conversations related to these issues, and to continue to delay the harder search for the means to change the attitudes informing racist behavior is a disservice to all Americans, especially minority youth.
Comments (10)
waleed ahmed
September 11, 2014
well said Imam Zaid. Much of the focus this time around has been on militarization of police - so it's important to put things in perspective.
Molly Darden
September 12, 2014
Well-said. Moving the cause of race resolution forward, two changes would help: White people should speak out against racial injustice in a movement with black people, who would no longer shut out white involvement in the cause. Biracial people could acknowledge their reality as they recognize and actualize their uniquely pivotal opportunity to influence bringing the races together equally.
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