by George Yancy | April 2018
Local morgue? Slammed shut permanently? These threatening words are taken from a letter sent to me by an anonymous white person. It was handwritten in black ink, covering both sides of a yellow sheet of paper torn from a legal pad. It is one of hundreds of letters, emails, postcards and voice messages I received — to say nothing of menacing discussions of me on white supremacist websites — after I wrote and published the essay “Dear White America” in December 2015 here at The Stone. What I had offered as a letter of love had unleashed the very opposite — a wave of white hatred and dehumanization.
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [White Supremacy] [2010’s] [Systemic Racism] [Silencing POC]
by James Jeffrey | December 2017
Sixty-three black soldiers were represented by one lawyer in the largest court martial in U.S. history, the first of three that followed the Houston riot of 1917. In total, 110 men out of 118 were found guilty, and nineteen were sentenced to death by hanging. Those sentenced to death were not given the right to appeal.
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [History] [2010’s] [Policing] [White Supremacy] [Systemic Racism]
by Rachall Davies | July 2016
The inhumane killings of Black men, women and children across America at the hands of police officers has many people wondering why the officers NOT involved in these shootings don’t speak out, and now a few brave cops are breaking their silence. The NYPD is one of many U.S. police forces who face constant criticism and are often at odds with the Black community over poor handling of incidents involving their officers and Black men, but a few minority NYPD officers say it’s no accident that people of color seem to be the targets. “You might not see anything, but you go hunting, like, bounty hunting for an arrest,” NYPD officer Derick Waller told NBC New York back in April of this year.
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [2010’s] [Police Shootings] [Policing] [Systemic Racism] [White Supremacy] [White Culture] [White Privilege]
*Paywall Alert
by Ryan Herring | October 2015
The Black Lives Matter movement offers a challenge to the church–and an opportunity. Another senseless killing of an unarmed black man Micheal Brown, who was killed in Ferguson, Missouri by police office Darren Wilson. “For many young people in the United States, especially those of us involved in the Black Lives Matter movement, this was our Sept. 11.”
TAGS: [Faith-Based/Spiritual] [Black Lives Matter] [Racial Terrorism] [2010’s] [Police Shootings]
by Victor E. Kappeler, Ph.D. | January 2014
The institution of slavery and the control of minorities, however, were two of the more formidable historic features of American society shaping early policing. Slave patrols and Night Watches, which later became modern police departments, were both designed to control the behaviors of minorities. For example, New England settlers appointed Indian Constables to police Native Americans (National Constable Association, 1995), the St. Louis police were founded to protect residents from Native Americans in that frontier city, and many southern police departments began as slave patrols. In 1704, the colony of Carolina developed the nation’s first slave patrol. Slave patrols helped to maintain the economic order and to assist the wealthy landowners in recovering and punishing slaves who essentially were considered property.
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [2010’s] [Slavery] [History] [Policing] [White Supremacy] [White Privilege] [Systemic Racism]
by Tom Jackman | April 2015
The Sheriff’s Emergency Response Team regularly records their operations, and the Fairfax County police have said there is video of the “extraction” of McKenna. This presumably would include her being hit with four Taser shocks after she was handcuffed behind her back, shackled around the legs, a hobble strap connected to both restraints, and a spit mask placed over her face. The police, who are investigating the case for any possible criminal violation, have declined to release the video while the case is still under investigation. When it does come out, it may well join the growing canon of video of fatal law enforcement actions which has shocked the country.
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [2010’s] [Policing] [Systemic Racism] [White Supremacy] [Accountability] [White Privilege]
