A heritage of racism and white supremacy

Tagwa Shammet, Views Editor

The calendar year is 1770. The Colonies are in the vicinity of their breaking position with Fantastic Britain. Intensive policing by British soldiers has demonstrated unbearable to colony citizens, primarily individuals in Boston. British troopers wander close to with chips on their shoulders, getting into any house they you should merely for the reason that they have on the British flag. They are guarded by their place of ability. They are the law enforcement. 

Then, when an altercation breaks out in between an American citizen and a British officer, the soldiers find no challenge in opening hearth on a crowd. 

The Boston Massacre — a tragedy we find out so much about in our university programs today. British troopers are painted as malicious, power-hungry monsters who abuse their positions to assault the general community. American civilians are explained as innocent victims who experience the abuse of their law enforcement. 

Later on, we are informed that the American colonies grew worn out of the disrespect and took arms towards their oppressors. The Innovative War — a prized time in American background. Our founding fathers did what is preached to be oh-so American: They fought the power.

So, when Americans just take the streets in protest of this very same abuse of ability against Black Us citizens, why is it rioting, alternatively of an American fight in opposition to oppression? 

The trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer who murdered George Floyd, has saved most of the country on edge. Anxious to find out no matter if justice will be served, the entire world is watching Minneapolis.

Nevertheless, just 10 miles outdoors of exactly where Chauvin’s demo was currently being held, a different Minneapolis police officer made the decision it was a good time to murder however another unarmed Black man, Daunte Wright. The 20-12 months-old was shot lifeless throughout a targeted traffic prevent.

A different day, yet another dead Black gentleman at the fingers of the American law enforcement.

I sat there — nauseous as at any time — as I pressured myself to look at one particular far more Black gentleman lose his lifetime proper in front of my eyes. When I take pleasure in entire body camera footage that will help get rid of gentle on these murders, watching them is just an additional sort of Black trauma on an by now messed-up community. 

I am 20 a long time previous. Wright and I are the very same age. His murder strikes so shut to dwelling for the reason that he was considerably way too young. As I gear up for finals, Wright’s son life on devoid of his father. It is sickening that, yet once again, I’m listed here producing about nevertheless yet another Black existence taken by people intended to protect and serve.

But, are the law enforcement actually intended to protect and provide? No. Not the Black local community, at minimum. The thought of policing in the United States stems from this nation’s timeless distaste for its Black citizens. The establishment of policing in this nation is just America’s ongoing try at fine-tuning white supremacy. 

Before there were being police officers, there had been slave patrols in the South. In 1704, the 1st official slave patrol was developed in the Carolina colonies. These patrols weren’t produced to secure the financial prosperity that arrived from slavery in the South. Slave patrols would seize any runaway slaves and assist stop any slave revolts that had been to ensue. 

Right after the Civil War, Southern states fell into an financial depression because of to the deficiency of free of charge slave labor. In this Reconstruction period, these states took the teachings of slave patrols and began implementing them into their law enforcement stations. They enforced lots of types of segregation and perpetuated the oppression of Black civilians.

It grew to become abundantly apparent that policing was a lot more racially billed than it was centered on justice. Law enforcement officers started arresting Black People in america and incarcerating them in an hard work to re-elevate the economic standing of the South. Considering the fact that the 13th Amendment legalized slavery in the scenario of incarceration, Black men and women have been shoved into prisons and efficiently taken back again to the days of slavery. 

You see, policing in this country has under no circumstances been about justice. Guaranteed, it enforces what is proper and punishes what is improper but, in this case, white is correct and Black is incorrect.

The background of policing in the United States has often held a adverse connotation to the Black group due to the fact it was founded in retaliation to the similar local community. 

Daunte Wright, Rayshard Brooks, Donovon Lynch, Daniel Prude and each individual other Black individual lifeless at the hands of the police are basically the right execution of what the police system is intended for.

American history prides this country on its acquired freedom from Fantastic Britain on July 4, 1776. They celebrate their unshackling from the British officers who endlessly harassed them. They praise their potential to defeat their oppressive regime. What they never realize is that they have become what they hated most.