Racism is natural. Yes, you heard me correctly. But, does that make it okay?
We are biologically predisposed to trust people who look like us, and to not trust people who don't. This is essentially a large part of the problem our justice system is facing.
First of all, most cops are honest, law abiding, individuals that perform an extremely dangerous job. But the fact remains that there is still systemic racial prejudice in our justice system, and not just with policing. A young black man is far more likely to receive a prison sentence, and a longer one, than any other race, gender, or age group for similar crimes. Why? Mostly because the line of thought is that a young black man is more likely to be a repeat offender. There's no denying that this is true, but why is it true?
Its not the result of some inherent character trait of violence or criminality in young black men. Young black men have similar testosterone levels as young white men, actually less by numerous studies.
No, the tendency toward crime for black communities is the result of hundreds of years of oppression and slavery. After slavery was abolished, black people were by any standard 2nd class citizens. They did not have access to the same opportunities no matter how hard they worked for arguably 150 years after slavery ended. Further, they were segregated from white communities. Basically they were put in communities with little to no funding going towards their areas, were able to get very minimal paying jobs, and lived in poverty with essentially no way out. Then certain people capitalized these communities by introducing crack cocaine to desperate people, and because crack generally makes people insane and promotes crime, started selling guns to these same individuals. These communities festered into gang over run, poor, and depleted communities.
Racism certainly did not end in 1963; MLK was assassinated for god sake. It hasn't come to an end today either. But let conservatives say that black people had access to the same opportunities as white people beginning somewhere in the mid 90's. Racism was much less rampant at this time, and most people in the North at least realized it was wrong to discriminate based on race. That's approximately 20 years. So, these people suggesting black people have no excuse for being in poverty and having criminal communities, you are basically suggesting that the entirety of the black community should have rehabilitated itself in less than the legal drinking age.
That of course is ridiculous.
So on to the BLM movement and cops. Because of the real, but understandable, tendency for black people in poor communities to be involved in crime, many cops often come across more black people committing violent acts than white people, at least in poor areas.
This leads to a tendency, and I admit a natural one, to be more on guard with young black men. However, should we be punishing individuals for their skin color? Police have a higher duty to stem even natural racial discrimination, because it is simply not fair to judge someone based on the color of their skin. It's not fair to shoot first, ask questions later because the officer has encountered violent criminals of the same skin color.
What I find troubling, is that our police system nor justice system want to even admit that racial profiling exists. Of course it exists! That's not what people are angry about. If you do not admit it exists, how are you supposed to mitigate it?
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