Resource Links Tagged with "Racial Terrorism"

How the Myth of a Liberal North Erases a Long History of White Violence

by Christy Clark-Pujara and Anna-Lisa Cox| August 2020
Anti-black racism has terrorized African Americans throughout the nation’s history, regardless of where in the country they lived. There is a toxic myth that encourages white people in the North to see themselves as free from racism and erases African Americans from the pre-Civil War North, where they are still being told that they don’t belong. What Langston experienced was not the massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1921 or Rosewood, Florida, in 1923—this was Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1841, 20 years before the Civil War broke out. This was the third such racist attack against African Americans in Cincinnati in 12 years. This article was originally published as the first of a five-part series titled “Black Life in Two Pandemics: Histories of Violence” and provides link to view all parts.
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [2020’s] [History] [Myths] [Systemic Racism] [White Supremacy] [White Culture] [White Blindness] [Slavery] [White Privilege] [Silencing POC] [Denial]

Why I’m Absolutely an Angry Black Woman

by Dominique Matti | October 2017
*Because when I was five, my kindergarten classmate told me I couldn’t be the princess in the game we were playing because black girls couldn’t be princesses. Because I was in third grade the first time a teacher seemed shocked at how “well-spoken” I was. Because in fourth grade I was told my crush didn’t like black girls. Because in sixth grade a different crush told me I was pretty — for a black girl. Because in 7th grade my predominantly black suburban neighborhood was nicknamed “Spring Ghettos” instead of calling it its name (Spring Meadows). Because I was in 8th grade the first time I was called an Oreo and told that I “wasn’t really black” like it was a compliment. Because in 9th grade when I switched schools a boy told me he knew I had to be mixed with something to be so pretty. Because in 10th grade my group of friends and I were called into an office and asked if we were a gang, or if we had father figures. Because in 11th grade my AP English teacher told me that I didn’t write like a college-bound student (though I later scored perfectly on the exam). Because when I volunteered in Costa Rica that summer, I was whistled at and called Negrita.
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [2010’s] [White Supremacy] [White Blindness] [White Culture] [White Privilege] [Systemic Racism] [Assumptions] [Accountability] [White Blindness]

Walking While Black

by Garnette Cadogan | July 2016
*On my first day in the city, I went walking for a few hours to get a feel for the place and to buy supplies to transform my dormitory room from a prison bunker into a welcoming space. When some university staff members found out what I’d been up to, they warned me to restrict my walking to the places recommended as safe to tourists and the parents of freshmen. They trotted out statistics about New Orleans’s crime rate. What no one had told me was that I was the one who would be considered a threat. On one occasion, less than a month after my arrival, I tried to help a man whose wheelchair was stuck in the middle of a crosswalk; he threatened to shoot me in the face, then asked a white pedestrian for help…
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [2010’s] [-ing While Black] [Systemic Racism] [White Supremacy] [Policing] [Black Lives Matter] [White Culture] [White Privilege] [White Blindness]

Why I’m Not a Shaman, and Neither Are You

If you’re white, learn more about anti-racist work and white privilege and do your best to be an ally to marginalized peoples. Do some research into what indigenous tribes are (or were) in your area, and figure out how to connect with living representatives of them, and how to appropriately honor both the lives and the spirits of Native elders in your area. Do some research into your own ancestry and figure out how to begin connecting with those traditions.

We Still #SayHerName: Remembering Sandra Bland 5 Years Later

by Micha Green | July 2020
Sandra Bland. Sandra Bland. Sandra Bland. Sandra Bland. Sandra Bland. Say her name for every year since her justice fighting light was dimmed. It’s been five years since Bland was arrested, detained and found hanging three days later in a Waller County, Texas jail cell. Her death was ruled a suicide, however, with the unlawful nature of her arrest in a routine traffic stop- for failure to signal a lane change- Bland’s passing still raises concerns as her family and activists continue to beg for a reopening of her case.
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [2020’s] [Policing] [Black Lives Matter]

Black Codes, Slave Patrols and Policing Today

fearing the rise of the abolition movement in the North, slaveholders throughout the South strengthened laws governing slaves and free people of color, known as “black codes.” The black codes governed enslaved people as well as four categories of free people. By putting both into one legal category, whites divided the population along racial lines, not along categories of free and unfree.

In the morning, you won’t find me here: A meditation in Blackness

I am a black man.
I was planted in deep, loamy, black soil by my black father.
Cradled, cultured and coaxed out like a tuber of yam by my black mother.
Though I came from one womb, I am birthed by many mothers – some of skin like bark and timber, some of eyes of yellow like cassava.
I have a scandalous affinity with shadows in this here regime of light.

Surveillance Footage Shows Rhode Island Officers Fabricated Assault That Nearly Ruined Man’s Life

by Ricky Riley | July 2016
A Providence, Rhode Island man was charged with assaulting police officers at a night club last year but surveillance footage released this week shows that officers started the raucous. Tuesday, the Rhode Island Attorney General’s office announced that 29-year-old Esmelin Fajardo will be allowed to enter a not guilty plea regarding the charges related to a melee in a club during closing hours.
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [2010’s] [Accountability] [Policing] [White Supremacy] [-ing While Black] [White Privilege]

Things I Didn’t Know

by James Mulholland | May 2019
Nine years ago, I began to slowly awaken to my racial prejudices and white privilege. It was a rude awakening. During the past three years, I’ve blogged about that journey from racial ignorance. Recently, someone asked me what have been the biggest surprises along the way. What do I know now that I didn’t know before? What follows is a short list of some of my bigger epiphanies and the posts where I shared these revelations.

I didn’t know scholars and sociologists believe nearly 100% of enslaved women were sexually assaulted. I didn’t know how much the free access of white men to black bodies was part of white culture. Some sociologists estimate 50% of all children of slaves had a white father. This kind of sexual aggression continued throughout Jim Crow. I didn’t know the conviction of a white man for raping a black woman was extremely rare before 1960. When Rape Was Legal.
I didn’t know that – in some ways – the years after the end of slavery were worse than during slavery. I didn’t know vagrancy laws allowed white people to “arrest and convict” nearly any black person and enslave them. Thousands of black families were torn apart as fathers were sent off to “serve their time” in factories and on farms. The death rate at these prison camps was as high as 50%, meaning that the penalty for “vagrancy” in the south was often death. Worse Than Slavery.

TAGS: [Slavery] [Racial Terrorism] [White Privilege] [History] [White Blindness] [2010’s]

Fighting Hitler and Jim Crow: The forgotten Black soldiers of D-Day

by Rebecca Santana | June 2019
Roughly 2,000 African-American troops are believed to have hit the shores of Normandy in various capacities on June 6, 1944. Serving in a U.S. military still segregated by race, they encountered discrimination both in the service and when they came home. But on Normandy, they faced the same danger as everyone else.
During World War II, it was unheard of for African-American officers to lead white soldiers, and they faced discrimination even while in the service. Black troops were often put in support units responsible for transporting supplies. But during the Normandy invasion, that didn’t mean they were immune from danger….
After fighting fascism in Europe, many African-American troops were met with discrimination yet again at home. Jones remembers coming back the U.S. after the war’s end and having to move to the back of a bus as it crossed the Mason-Dixon line separating North from South. He recalls being harassed by police officers after returning to Louisiana.
“I couldn’t sit with the soldiers I had been on the battlefield with. I had to go to the back of the bus,” said Jones, who went on to become a lawyer and civil rights activist in Baton Rouge. “Those are the things that come back and haunt you.”
tags: [Racial Terrorism] [History] [Systemic Racism] [2010’s]

Violent Arrest of Teacher Caught on Video; Officers Face Investigation

by Tony Plohetski | September 2018
Officials are investigating an Austin police officer’s violent arrest of an African-American elementary school teacher who was twice thrown to the ground during a traffic stop for speeding and comments by a second officer who told her police are sometimes wary of blacks because of their “violent tendencies.” Video from the previously unreported June 2015 incident was obtained by the American-Statesman and KVUE-TV this week. The video shows the traffic stop escalating rapidly in the seven seconds from when officer Bryan Richter, who is white, first gives a command to 26-year-old Breaion King to close her car door to when he forcibly removes her from the driver’s seat, pulls her across a vacant parking space and hurls her to the asphalt.
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [2010’s] [Policing] [White Supremacy] [-ing While Black] [Systemic Racism] [White Privilege]

#AltonSterling: 37-Year-Old Man Killed By Baton Rouge PD

by Kirsten West Savali | July 2016
Another black body on hot asphalt, heartbeat colliding with bullets in his chest, breathing becoming labored as an executioner in a uniform steals his life from him. This time, his name was Alton Sterling. This time, he was 37 years old.This time, he was a father of five. This time, he was selling CDs in front of a store. This time, the Baton Rouge, La., Police Department is responsible for his death.There are no new words. There are no new thoughts. There are no songs to sing nor chants to scream that will make this soul-crushing feeling of inevitability go away.
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [2010’s] [Police Shootings] [Policing] [Black Lives Matter] [-ing While Black] [History] [Systemic Racism] [White Supremacy] [White Privilege]

Lifesaving Advice From a Black Woman Held at Gunpoint by Police

by Tonya Jameson | July 2017
As I stared at the officer nervously pointing his gun at me, I realized immediately what he saw: a black person who had no business being in his neighbor’s driveway. Former Charlotte Observer writer Tonya Jameson shows how she was screwing her new license plate into her new Isuzu SUV … before having a gun pulled on her by a Knoxville Police Department Officer.
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [-ing While Black] [2010’s] [Policing] [Tips Dos/Don’ts] [Systemic Racism]

Attacks like Portland’s Will Keep Happening Unless We All Fight White Supremacy

by Arjun Singh Sethi | May 2017
Two men were stabbed to death in Portland, Ore., on Friday when they tried to stop their attacker from harassing two women because they appeared to be Muslim. Communities of color experience hate in every aspect of our lives. It braids through our daily existence, just like friendship, work and family. We encounter it in schools, workplaces and public life. And what we fear most is hate violence, the kind that was on full display in Portland this weekend.
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [2010’s] [Systemic Racism] [White Supremacy] [Collective Action]

Ohio Cop Who Fatally Shot Walmart Shopper John Crawford III Won’t be Charged

by Sebastian Murdock | July 2017
The Justice Department said it can’t prove the officer violated the slain man’s civil rights. Crawford, 22 picked up a pellet gun while shopping in the Walmart toy section, prompting a 911 call from a customer who wrongly reported he was loading a rifle and pointing it at children.
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [White Privilege] [-ing While Black] [Police Shootings] [2010’s] [Systemic Racism]

White People Are Broken

by Katherine Fugate | August 2018
“…But [my friend] was telling me that, no matter how ‘woke’ or evolved I may think I am, I walk this world as a white woman, which means I’ll never truly understand what it is to walk this world as a black woman…. Very few describe themselves as racist, but all white people benefit from racism. White people benefit every time they rent an apartment, buy a car, apply for a job, apply for a loan, apply to college.”
TAGS:[White Privilege] [Bystander Intervention] [Racial Terrorism] [Individual Change] [Assumptions] [Tips-Dos/Don’ts] [Accountability] [2010’s] [White Culture]

A Lynching on the University of Maryland Campus

by Dave Zirin | May 2017
Richard Collins III was about to graduate from Bowie State University Tuesday. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the US Army, airborne certified. He was a son, a friend, and active in his church. Richard Collins III was killed Saturday night because of the color of his skin. Make no mistake about it- this was a lynching; a lynching committed by a UMD student.
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [White Supremacy] [2010’s] [Systemic Racism] [-ing While Black]

Woman Accuses Officer of Going too Far During Traffic Stop

by KTRK TV | August 2015
A Spring woman says she was sexually assaulted by a deputy during a traffic stop earlier this summer It happened around 10:30 pm on June 21 near Ella Blvd and Barren Springs Drive, according to Charnesia Corley. The 21-year-old says she was just going to the store to get something for her sick mother when she was pulled over by a Harris County Sheriff’s deputy. “I feel like they sexually assaulted me! I really do. I feel disgusted, downgraded, humiliated,” Corley said.
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [2010’s] [Policing]

America’s Forgotten Mass Lynching: When 237 People Were Murdered in Arkansas

*Paywall Alert

by David Krugler| Feb 2015
In 1919, after the end of World War I, Black sharecroppers in Arkansas began to unionize. This attempt to form unions, triggered white vigilantism and mass killings, that left 237 Blacks dead.
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [2010’s] [White Defensiveness] [White Supremacy] [History]

Revealed: FBI Investigated Civil Rights Group as ‘Terrorism’ Threat and Viewed KKK as Victims

by Sam T. Levin | February 2019
The FBI opened a “domestic terrorism” investigation into a civil rights group in California, labeling the activists “extremists” after they protested against neo-Nazis in 2016, new documents reveal.
Federal authorities ran a surveillance operation on By Any Means Necessary (Bamn), spying on the leftist group’s movements in an inquiry that came after one of Bamn’s members was stabbed at the white supremacist rally, according to documents obtained by the Guardian. “The FBI considered the KKK as victims and the leftist protesters as potential terror threats…”
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [2010’s] [History] [Systemic Racism] [Policing]

Should I Give Up on White People?

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]

A Century Later, a Little-Known Mass Hanging of Black Soldiers Still Haunts Us

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]

Racial Disparities Opportunity Atlas

Racial disparities in income and other outcomes are among the most visible and persistent features of American society. This map allows you to search by a wide variety of demographics: Household Income, Incarceration Rate, Individual Income, Employment Rate, High School/College Graduation Rate, Hours Worked Per Week, Hourly Wage …

Minority NYPD Officers Admit Their Fellow Cops Go ‘Hunting’ For Vulnerable Citizens Of Color

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]

‘Now is a Time for Theology to Thrive’

*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]

A Brief History of Slavery and the Origins of American Policing

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]

The Death of Natasha McKenna in the Fairfax Jail: The Rest of the Story

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]

Minneapolis Police Leader Defending George Floyd’s Killers Tried to ‘White Power’- Linked Biker Gang

by Sarah Lazare | June 2016
– Lt. Bob Kroll stands accused of wearing “white power” badge and brutally beating people of color. The head of the Minneapolis Police Officer’s Federation has claimed that activists from the city’s Black Lives Matter movement comprises a “terrorist organization.” But a closer look at Lieutenant Bob Kroll’s record indicates that he is the one who poses a danger to the public, with a past marred in accusations of racist violence and attitudes, including charges from fellow police officers that he once wore a “white power” badge on his motorcycle jacket.
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [2010’s] [Black Lives Matter] [Policing] [White Supremacy] [Systemic Racism] [Accountability] [White Privilege]

Body-Cam Footage Shows Georgia Cops Tased the Wrong Man within 38 Seconds of Meeting Him

by Bonnie Kristian | July 2016
When several Savannah, Georgia, cops approached 24-year-old Patrick Mumford, they were looking for another African-American man named Michael Clay. And though Mumford identified himself as “Patrick” when asked for his name, body camera footage from the officers involved shows just 38 seconds elapsed from the beginning of the encounter to when one officer says to another, “All right, tase him!”
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [2010’s] [Policing] [Systemic Racism] [White Supremacy] [White Privilege]

Racist Police in Alabama Planted Drugs and Guns on Over 1,000 Innocent Black Men

by A.R. Shaw | December 2015
Black men in Alabama were racially profiled and made criminals by a group of racist police. According to the Henry County Report, the incidents occurred in Dothan, Alabama where at least 12 White police officers involved. The officers were a part of a narcotics team and were supervised by Lt. Steve Parrish, who is now Dothan’s Police Chief, and Andy Hughes, Asst. Director of Homeland Security for Alabama. The officers would target innocent Black men and plant drugs and weapons on them. Black men would be arrested and charged by District Attorney Doug Valeska. Valeska knew that the drugs were being planted and continued to prosecute while protecting the officers. Nearly 1,000 innocent Black men were arrested and falsely prosecuted and many of the Black men who were falsely arrested are still in jail serving time.
TAGS: [Racial Terrorism] [2010’s] [White Supremacy] [Systemic Racism] [Policing] [History] [Prison System] [Black Lives Matter] [White Privilege]