... Whether the Police are Black or White or Any Other Color, it's still anti-Black, White Supremacy/Racism at play.
A few years ago I watched the movie Panther. I really enjoyed it. After watching it, I went to an entertainment site to look up the cast and other movie info. I scrolled down the list of credits and then I saw a message board thread about the police and the Black community. The thread was entitled "Panthers are reason White Police dont care today". I thought, well I know that's bull%#&@$! but let me check this out and see how this person is making this argument. I read the starter post and the first reply to it. The argument was basically saying, if it were not for the militancy of the Black Panther Party of the 1960s, White police would be more caring and Black police would be less abusive. That's an historically inaccurate (and insane) perspective, I know. Of course if you know anything about race and America, then you know law enforcement has a history of mistreating and neglecting the Black community and the history of such behavior predates the formation of the Black Panther Party. So I pointed this out (including a time line and links to credible sites that document the abuse and neglect). The poster's response was to point out his concern that the Panther Party's militancy may have discouraged 'caring' Whites from involving themselves with helping the black community and, again, he emphasized the abusive behavior of black police and the neglect of the white police. I was still a little new to message board/blog discussions. I didn't realize that I was probably getting the run-around from someone who really knew better and probably just had an agenda to cause confusion and mischief. At the time, I wanted to give him the benefit of my doubt and believe that he may be really concerned and making an effort to understand racism. So I replied again. He never answered my last reply to his response. I don't know why. I'd like to think that it was because he could no longer come up with a way to make his arguement look feasible. But maybe it was because I told him that this reply would be my last reply to him and I didn't believe in going back and forth like a game of tag. Who knows...
Anyway... here's the last reply I wrote to that person: (I'm pasting it here as my perspective and feelings on the Sean Bell case and the use of the "Black police" argument as a tool to erase the notion that institutional White racism was at play):
[my reply post]
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...The argument you make is illogical, no matter how much you mean well by it. And I believe you do mean well.
About those "caring whites" who were willing to help out ... The ones who cared enough did help out.
The whites who were caring and helping were not the whites found in the police department.
Many of those courageous, compassionate whites who defended blacks were labelled "nig*ger lovers", isolated from their families and community and beaten by white police (and ordinary white citizens) in the 1920s, '30s, '40s, '50s and '60s.
The opposition they came up against from other whites was what "turned them around". They had to endure harassment and violence from white police and white citizenry before, during and after the emergence of the Black Panther Party. And, unlike black people, these whites could choose to remove themselves as a target of the anti-black racists by simply remaining quiet and looking the other way.
I see you remain convinced that a 1960's "militant" group in the black community is the reason for all this police inactivity and abuse of blacks.
If a 1960's armed militia group is the reason behind white (and some black) police having a negative attitude toward the general black community, then why don't the police have the same pattern of negative behavior toward the general white community?
The white community has been the historic (and present) breeding ground for the majority of extreme, armed militias in the U.S. of A.
It's the white American community whom gave birth to and house such groups as the KKK, neo-nazis, and various other hostile, violent militias.
These militant groups within the white American community have a history of not only threatening innocent people but of carrying out their threats of murder and physical violence against men, women and children!
If you're honest, you will admit that the difference in treatment of members of the black community and members of the white community by both white and black police officers has little, if anything, to do with the militancy of some 1960's black political group, let alone the cause of it.
The fact that the white community has produced numerous more militant groups whom are opposed to the government and law enforcement, and who carry out their hate by hurting, maiming and murdering thousands of people and yet their community does not suffer from a pattern of racial profiling, benign neglect and police abuse proves wrong your theory [that the root of the problem is an issue of 'militancy'].
Because of this reality, anonymous12, the whole argument comes right back around to the points I made in my first post. It's about a long-standing, anti-black white racism which still negatively impacts the black community in the U.S. and makes the members of the black community vulnerable to anyone with an anti-black agenda (incl. white, latino and self-hating black perpetrators who can be easily manipulated into self-destructive behavior).
Since you know about American race history, you should know there has always been the sambo figure in black American history: the self-hating black who identifies with an anti-black white world outlook, believing that he is different or better than the average black person. This type of black personality has always been favored by conservative whites, as well as picked first to be the HNIC in white-controlled institutions.
Those abusive black police officers you speak of are this type. They suffer from 'the delusion of inclusion'. I'm not telling you anything new because this is nothing new. And you know, very well, that this sambo behavior existed long before the formation of the Black Panther Party.
There were black overseers during the time of our enslavement who were just as brutal toward black slaves as white overseers. These blacks were allowed to brutalize black people (and black people only) within the system of American slavery that whites created. As long as the system of enslavement continued to be anti-black at its core, provide undeserved privileges, wealth and protection to whites, blacks were allowed to give whites a "helping hand". Even in these situations, sometimes there were whites who would play the 'ambivalent' role as they handed the Black overseer the most violent, dirty work to do for white America's' benefit.
Black overseers may have been allowed to participate, but they did not control the system just as black police officers do not control the law enforcement infrastructure they operate within. Whether these self-hating blacks were used by white institutions in the 1800s or in 2000, the BPP is not the cause of racism or [white and black] police misconduct. That's an erroneous statement. It's a silly theoretical conclusion to an American experience that has been going on since the white arrival on these shores.
What you're two posts do, anonymous12, is point out the symptoms of [e.g. abusive police, etc.] and reactions [e.g. Black Panther Party, Deacons for Self Defense, David Walker's Appeal, etc.] to the problem. They do not point out the cause of it.
Put the blame where it should be. Put it on the institutionalized racism in America [yet to be dismantled] which allows for an historically mistreated community to continue to be vulnerable to anybody (incl. black sambos) with an anti-black agenda. That's getting to the root of the race problem in the U.S. And it will move you closer to a solution.
This will be my last post in this thread. I don't believe in going back and forth like a game of tag.
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God Bless the Bell family and every Black person who has to live with the awareness that we are members of the most vulnerable racial group in the USA, in spite of what many would like you to believe about the 'vulnerability' of others arriving in this country or those protected by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. I really do believe there needs to be a Bureau of Black Affairs. There's only two groups who had a holocaust committed against them in this country (Native Americans and Black Africans). Only one [Native Americans] has a government agency specifically designed to protect them from further acts of genocide and exploitation (including protection from 'competition' for limited resources with incoming immigrant groups). Yes, they have some continuing fights with their oppressors but at least their on-going oppression and need for on-going federal protection from acts of genocide is recognized and kept in America's conscious, unlike what is done for the other victim of United States of America's dual holocaust [Black Americans].
(reposting from my myspace blog)
