REPOST from my gur Claudia Chen: Yes, so its really easy to focus on the INDIVIDUAL police officer without looking at the SYSTEMIC POWER that they hold. So no, NOT ALL OFFICERS ABUSE THEIR POWER but guess what? The fact that they have all that unchecked power and no accountability whatsoever or outside parties governing them (police govern themselves) is deeply troubling. Also, dont know if you know this, but remember Stop and Frisk? That was a police ORDER that forced all NYPD police officers (the good and bad) to stop and frisk anyone who looked suspicious AKA people of color, and specifically Black folks. Like, I think its one thing to be negative all the time and another to be realistic about serious issues. I am not going to be frivolous about oppression. I mean, you can go blahblahblah all you want about, Claudia, but youre sooooo negative! Dont you eeeever look at the positives in life? Hell yeah! I mean, I definitely dont see it as much here, but I know so many amazing white allies who are doing really great work and talking to other white people about white privilege and their place in movements like the Black Lives Matter marches and actions. I know white allies who make sure they educate themselves and learn without taking up most of the space and talking too much and crying white tears. This is not going unnoticed, and I also do not particularly feel a need to be like, Wow!!!! I appreciate my white allies so much, I think everyone deserves a cookie for being so good to people of color!!! They are privileged, recognize it, and are working to make sure they dont have those systemic and individual benefits at the expense of people of color. Thats really awesome, but they dont need me to validate them. They know theyre doing the work. If Im friends with them and I truly believe them to be badass white allies, theyll know. Ive said this before, our privileges in life color our experiences (and much of that time that includes people thinking they dont see color)... I think its great that you respect my opinion and I want to urge you to think further: Is this really a theoretical debate we are disagreeing on? What sort of attitudes do these opinions engender? Are they ones that uphold justice? I hope you think some about what privileged identities you hold that allow you to think that way. Do you have good experiences with police? Can you imagine a scenario where you wouldnt? What kind of neighborhood do you reside in? What is the population there like? Who gets stopped by the police? Who doesnt? What identities do you hold that make it so police do not profile you as suspicious, or a criminal? Where are you in the grand scheme of things? Are you going to learn and grow or stay staunchly looking at one spot of the larger picture? What is the best way you take in information, if not via Facebook conversations? Is there room, time, and patience for you to educate yourself through the ways that you learn best? If so, will you do that?
Posted on: Wed, 24 Dec 2014 00:13:12 +0000
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