Ever since the events in Ferguson, MO, police have been under scrutiny over their clearly statistical discrimination approach. Groups such as the Black Lives Matter movement have been leading the charge to bring awareness to the institutional racism i modern society today. Even though there has been some progress on this front, the problem of police having statistical discrimination in police forces still exists. The most recent affair happened in Chicago, where a police officer shot Laquan McDonald 16 times. On November 24th, a video of the incident emerged showing that while McDonald was armed with a knife, he walking at an angle away from the uniformed police officers and many would not consider him a threat. In an article published by the NY Times Monica Davey wrote, "It showed Mr. McDonald seeming to try to jog or walk past officers, then veering at an angle away from them before being shot, again and again, even as he lay on the pavement." If McDonald was 'veering' away from the cops, then why would they consider him a threat? Of the course the answer is, institutional racism.
This type of incident is exactly what Charles Mills was talking about when he wrote, The Racial Contract. His whole argument is based on the fact that modern society is built upon white people and doesn't take people of other races and backgrounds into account, and this leads to the institutional racism we have today. Wells would argue that the police officers in this instance are not racist its just that the training they received had institutional racism and had them act the way cops do in these situations. Institutional racism is the problem and it needs to be addressed.
I think that it is a good point that the police officers themselves are not racist, but perhaps their training is. it is important to look back at past history to see why people react to things and do the jobs the way that they do them. mills might be right about their training being the problem, but it is also not an issue that will be solved over night, and is also very hard for people who are not directly involved in these incidents to grasp fully.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it might be the training system as well as the unnamed political system (white supremacy) that caused this sad story. It is undeniable that in some cases black lives are not valued as highly as white lives. Since as what Mills argues that: the problem is institutional and society itself is structured on racism, we cannot expect the problem to be solved immediately. And I agree with you that the institutionalized racist problem needs to be addressed.
ReplyDeleteI do not believe that the education received by cops have any institutional racism. The killing of Mr. McDonald was very upsetting and he was wrongly killed. If their is racism in the police force it didn't come from the education they received if it did. Why would African Americans become cops if they are taught to be racist. I think it comes from more of the society and what police officers have seen and gone through that puts them on high alert in every situation
ReplyDeleteI agree with Clem, while there may be some racist individual police officers out there, their training programs are not breeding racist officers as you suggest.
ReplyDeleteI do not think that the blame of this tragic incident can be placed on the training police officers receive. Mr. McDonald's killing was wrong and something that should not be taken lightly. There are two sides to every story and although Mr. McDonald was killed unlawfully, I agree with Clem's point that police officers are on high alert because of other incidents that have recently occurred. I am not saying that what happened was justified, I just believe that it is difficult to place the blame on the training and education police officers receive.
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