I was talking to an African American friend of mine last week while we were both scrolling through the popular app “TikTok”. He came across a video where a white man was walking around a couple of police officers and teasing them. He turned around to me and said, “Wow, that dude is lucky he is white, I doubt they would let that action slide if he was a black dude.” Little did he know I had also seen the video on my feed a couple hours earlier. I told him to check the comments because I knew what he would find, and he was greeted with many other people commenting almost the identical sentence he had just said. This was one of those moments where it was absolutely prevalent, and sad, how many African American men and women go every day fearing their own police force.
There is a known systemic injustice against African American citizens in the United States where the police force in certain areas have a racist bias. To me, the existence of this systemic injustice was never as clear as when you compare the Black Lives Matter protests to the recent storming of the capitol building in early January of this year. The police were brutal when it came to the BLM peaceful protests and marches. There was countless acts of police brutality and violence used against the African Americans protesting their rights after the killing of George Floyd by a police officer, another example of this systemic injustice. Then, not long after, a bunch of white supremacists, some consider terrorists, stormed the nation’s capital building. There was barely any force to try and stop them even though this was not even a form of peaceful protest, and more like an act of terrorism. Just witnessing how different these two events were handled, seemingly just because of the color of the people’s skin, is truly horrifying to see, and instills even more fear into those African Americans who are already fearful to even be near a police officer.
BLM Protest vs. Capitol Riot: Comparing Police Response
This is clearly a form of systemic injustice because of the number of times acts like this have been witnessed. I feel like this is such a difficult injustice to be righted since racism is so deep rooted, but a good start would be for police to have more consequence if it is found that they unjustly treated an African American citizen worse than the situation required. The usage of body cameras on officers is also a good step in the right direction. I think the best way to relate this topic to class is with Simone de Beauvoir’s concept of the the “One” vs the “Other”. In this case, the group of people clearly being treated as the “other” in our society, according to the situations being discussed, are people of African American decent. Although sad, like I said, it is not a new concept in the United States. It is unfair and cruel to single out a group of people like this and no one, especially an entire group of people, should have to deal with such a fear and issue in their society. Overall, this is just one of the many examples of deep-rooted systemic injustices in our country.
I thought this was a great showcase that was able to focus on a very prominent issue in our society. It is very clear that the police forces in our country are heavily biased and plagued by systemic injustices by the differences in these two stories. The Black Lives Matter movement was met with huge backlash from police despite being mostly peaceful. These peaceful protests sometimes did turn violent after police met them with unnecessary force. The difference in news coverage of these events also showed that this is a systemic injustice. Some news stations spoke down on the Black Lives Matter Protest but supported the Capitol Riot. These stations support the biased treatment of Black people from the police by trying to act like it does not exist. The first step in eliminating this systemic injustice is accepting that it most definitely is real and needs to change.
I really enjoyed your showcase and think it is really relevant to our world today. It is important to realize racism in every aspect of our country where it is present. The police force, being on of the most relevant and concerning places where racism is present, is completely wrong and goes against all of what police should be doing. I think that the difference in reaction between the violent Capitol Riot and the nonviolent Black Lives Matter Protests exemplifies a huge bias in the police force. While police are supposed to be protecting against violence, they are creating it and then receiving no punishment in return. Many of the police officers who have killed unarmed black men and women have received little to no punishment and it is not okay.
Hello,
I enjoyed reading your diary of systemic injustice showcase. I found it to be interesting and allows people to dive deeper on this subject after reading about it. Racism can be seen everywhere in today’s world. I think being a police officer is one of the toughest jobs. Yes, I agree there are bad cops and we need reform and better teaching throughout the police academies, but I know police officers that are good. A lot of people focus on the bad, which can be good because this leads to change. However, there is a stereotype today that people believe all cops are in the wrong. We need to build back the trust with the police forces.
This showcase is incredibly relevant and very clear. The storming of the capitol versus the Black Lives Matter protests last summer was truly shocking to me. I could not believe that a bunch of white people were allowed to infiltrate and vandalize one of our nation’s monuments and symbols of democracy while just last summer, peaceful (mostly black) protesters were teargassed, arrested, and met with violence by an overly aggressive police force in many cities throughout the same nation. The system of policing is incredibly broken in America, and I think it is dangerous to suggest anything otherwise when people are losing their lives from the same people paid to protect them.
Hey,
I felt that your showcase hit a lot of the prevalent issues regarding racism among the African American population today. Looking over all the systemic injustice diaries, I find many of them to be related to racism regarding the police. I myself wrote about one of the events you had mentioned in your showcase involving George Floyd. I feel that the fact that the police force can be associated with racism is a major issue in today’s society and is something that needs to be changed. Many of the organized protests that go on fighting against this prejudice are great to see and I believe that the peaceful protests are a sign of change and that their voice is being heard.