In her last post, “What Will You Do?" featured on Threads on June 19, Rachel Latta asked, “Will you join me in this conversation?” This post is a response to that call.
In the wake of the terrorist attack on the Emanuel church in Charleston, I find myself feeling overwhelmed with sadness, anger, and mostly, hopelessness about how to move forward. Perhaps my deepest concern is that nothing will change--that we will feel sadness, and then, we will move on with no societal response, and no movement toward change. As we did with Newtown. As we did with Columbine. Of course, we will not all move forward in the same way. For people of color, the reminder that even a religious building is not a safe sanctuary will have lasting and potentially devastating effects.
Trayvon Martin. Michael Brown. Eric Garner. These black men’s deaths have sparked national outrage about the differential treatment of men of color by personnel in the criminal justice system.
Racism is embedded in our institutions. Well-intentioned people carry out racist policies and become part of institutionalized racism, just by being a part of these systems. We need to start with a hard look at our policies and systems to understand how institutionalized racism has been codified. If we want to change the criminal justice systems, our efforts cannot just be targeted there. We need to start earlier in the process. We need to think about how other systems teach our future lawyers, police officers, and judges that discrimination against people of color, and specifically Black people, is acceptable and expected.
I am reeling from the decision that a New York police officer will not be indicted for killing Eric Garner.
