#nojusticenopeace

Briefly, why race matters: 

1) The logic isn’t that race doesn’t matter, the logic is that individuals can be racist, and systems can be racist and all they require are complicit operators.

2) Unfortunately, the entirety of American history is a race issue. The concept of race in its modern form was born here. It began with the extermination and subjugation of the indigenous people (celebrated in Cowboy and Indian movies) and the violence against the African populations stolen in the Atlantic Slave Trade and plantation life.

Many slaves in the early colonies of the Caribbean were Irish or indigenous, as the demand for slaves grew so did the importation of African slaves. As the African slave population outnumbered the European, the idea of race, an exclusively Black slave population was born.  Resistance to this injustice catalyzed a reactionary intellectual movement that created the modern concept of racial difference in order to validate slavery. 

3) Policing did not begin with Civil Rights, slavery existed in the North, and racial discrimination was the law of much our country until 1964-65 when it was forcibly removed by the Federal Government. For example:

“In 1704, the colony of Carolina developed the nation’s first slave patrol. Slave patrols helped to maintain the economic order and to assist the wealthy landowners in recovering and punishing slaves who essentially were considered property.”

And so policing (especially on the local level) existed to maintain the status quo, that status quo was slavery, later that status quo became Jim Crow, and today that status quo is racist and class-based oppression.  

4) That being said, the systems that were in place don’t just go away. Nothing illustrates this point better than how quickly Angola Plantation became Angola Prison in Louisiana, to house Louisiana’s new “criminal” class of free-Black people shortly after emancipation. Criminalizing Blackness was of course a means to recapture a population and force them back into bondage and labor.

5) Think of the colonies throughout the world: are the colonized not themselves policing their own people in the interests of racist and exploitative regimes? In British India, the Imperial Police force was comprised largely of local Indians and Burmese, subordinate to European officers. Yet the colonial paradigm remained racist and exploitative.

In the contemporary American context, police officers can be of many ethnic or cultural backgrounds. The POC police officer need not be racist for their actions and the system to be racist, they need only be complicit with racist orders– and by being complicit they become part of the racist structure.

Twitter: @bodega_gyro_ao 

To those we have lost to police brutality: Eleanor Bumpurs, Tyisha Miller, LaTanya Haggerty, Tanesha Anderson, Aura Rosser, Amadou Diallo, Sean Bell, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin …
 
And those we have lost to the communal violence justified by the policing of our bodies: Sakia Gunn, Tiffany Edwards, Zoraida Reyes, Mia Henderson, Kandy Hall, Yaz'Min, Shancez, Terrell Anderson, Islan Nettles…
 
To the Falsely Accused, Detained and Abused: Venice Brown, Terrain Dandridge, Renata Hill and Patreese Johnson (The Jersey Four), Marichuy, CeCe McDonald and for all the names we do not know.
 
In the telling of our names, what is most apparent is that our lives are seen as disposable and undervalued.  
 
We are clear as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Two Spirit, Trans and Gender Non Conforming People of Color that our safety is contingent on the preservation of all Black and People of Color bodies.  We have been righteous in fighting against anti-Black racism & anti-immigrant oppression, that allows for state controlled white supremacy to exist and justify the murder of our people.  The murders of Mike Brown, Tamir Rice, Akai Gurley and Eric Garner prove that Black lives are seen as dangerous and expendable.  For those of us that are Queer, Trans, Black and People of Color, our bodies, our gender expression and who we love puts us further away from the “norms” and has falsely perceived us as the most threatening, less than human, and even more dangerous of all bodies.  
 
In New York City, where our organizations live and organize, we have seen the impact of racist, classist and capitalist policing on our communities for decades.  In the early 1990’s, former Mayor Guiliani promoted the now infamous “Quality of life” policing practices based on broken windows policing. There are camps on both sides arguing for and against the effectiveness of such policing practices. As organizations that work with Queer and Trans people of color communities, we know these policies disproportionately impact our communities through racist/gender policing.  Our communities are the most targeted by discriminatory practices of policing and Stop & Frisk that lead to Black and Latino men being incarcerated and Black women being the fastest growing prison population. The United States is a country built on white supremacy, colonialism, slavery and genocide, it has attained wealth, power and privilege from the massive removal and displacement of our communities through deportation, criminalization, and policing.
 
The fact that Eric Garner was killed due to suspicion that he was selling “loosies” (single cigarettes) is an atrocity in itself.  Based on broken windows policing theory and practice, Eric became a target due to the irrational fear that communities of color, that Black people will only continue to break the law, to escalate, and be out of control.   Whether or not he was selling “loosies” is irrelevant when we compare these quality of life crimes to more heinous crimes that are constantly overlooked or justified.  This includes: when banks are allowed to engage in predatory practices that target communities of color and force groups to remain in poverty; when Detroit can declare bankruptcy on a city of mostly black communities and then take away basic rights such as water; when corporations are allowed to abuse other countries and depress US economies; when the US Military continues to back and support Israel’s oppression of Palestinian people and land.
 
While our work is important and has made critical change, it’s not enough. We need to wake up, we need to rise up.  In the words of Audre Lorde - “We were never meant to survive.” We need to be prepared for this hyper level of policing; we need to develop safety strategies for ourselves and our communities that uplift’s our survival and existence. We’ve been resilient in our movement strategies & in our organizing traditions. We’ve been at the center of this work for decades.  It’s the legacy of our ancestors, the legacy of the civil rights movement, the legacy of the uprising of Stonewall, the legacy of the migrant farmworkers movement and many others. We have been here and we will continue to be here.  In this moment, what are we willing to do to be free?

~Written by Cara Page, Executive Director of The Audre Lorde Project  
& Krystal Portalatin, Co-Director of FIERCE
 
In Solidarity,
The Memberships, Staff and Board of The Audre Lorde Project and FIERCE   
 
FIERCE will mobilize tomorrow (Thursday, 12/4) at Foley Square at 5:30PM to demand justice for Eric Garner. If you want to Join FIERCE contact Fred [email protected].  
 
We will be demanding:

• An end to discriminatory Broken Windows policing abuses
• A DOJ Investigation into the use of force policies and practices of the NYPD
• Full accountability for all officers responsible for Eric’s death, and all officers who brutalize and abuse their power in our communities

Nearest trains to Foley Square: Foley Square (J/Z to Chambers, 4/5/6 to Brooklyn Bridge City Hall)
 

All people matter!