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THE ongoing American electoral cycle is punctuated by almost daily reports of yet another young black shot dead by the police.
And with equal regularity, the officers who pulled the trigger are let off. According to the Guardian, 2015 saw 1,134 young black men killed by the police; in fact, blacks are nine times more likely to suffer this end than whites. But despite optimistic talk about police reforms, nothing changes and the killing goes on.
So whatever happened to the post-racist era we thought Barack Obama’s election heralded? Many naïve observers — this columnist included — thought America had entered a period of inter-racial harmony with a black president now installed in the White House. Dream on.
Whatever happened to the much-heralded post-racist era?
Growing up watching Hollywood movies that depicted a prosperous America of large suburban homes with manicured lawns, two huge cars and barbecue parties next to swimming pools, I was struck by the sight of tramps sleeping rough in the streets of New York on my first visit nearly 30 years ago. So what had happened to the American Dream?
Ta-Nehisi Coates gives his take on the whole notion of American exceptionalism in his searing book Between The World And Me. Written in the form of a letter to his 15-year old son, this is a work of great urgency and power. Coates talks about lingering attitudes rooted in slavery, and the country’s addiction to violence. As he writes to his son:
“Here is what I would like you to know: In America it is traditional to destroy the black body — it is heritage. Enslavement was not merely the antiseptic borrowing of labour — it is not so easy to get a human being to commit their body against its own elemental interest. And so enslavement must be casual wrath and random manglings, the gashing of heads and brains blown out over the river as the body seeks to escape. It must be rape so regular as to be industrial. …
“It had to be blood. It had to be nails driven through tongues and ears pruned away … It could only be the employment of carriage whips, tongs, iron pokers, handsaws, stones, paperweights, or whatever might be handy to break the black body, the black family, the black nation.”
Coates argues that whites in America need the presence of a black underclass to assert their superiority. He quotes senator John C. Calhoun of Carolina: “The two great divisions of society are not the rich and poor, but white and black. And all the former, the poor as well as the rich, belong to the upper class, and are respected and treated as equals.”
The writer goes on to argue that the real reason the police can kill blacks with impunity is not because there are some brutal officers, or some violent police departments, but because racism is sanctioned by the American state and society. Thus, unarmed young blacks can be gunned down in broad daylight before witnesses, and the police officers responsible can get off without a blemish on their record. Coates writes:
“The truth is that the police reflect America in all of its will and fear, and whatever we might make of this country’s criminal justice policy, it cannot be said it was imposed by a repressive minority. The abuses that have followed from these policies — the sprawling carceral state, the random detention of black people, the torture of suspects — are products of democratic will … The problem with the police is not that they are fascist pigs, but that our country is ruled by majoritarian pigs.”
In most instances, if a case even comes to a trial, judges, juries and the prosecution close ranks to protect the police. Time after time, the police cite their fear that the victim might have been armed. And given the easy access Americans have to firearms, this defence is accepted. Every year, around 33,000 Americans are killed in gun-related incidents.
Police killings have been getting a lot of attention of late due to the widespread use of camera phones to record them. As a result, it has become harder for the police to concoct their own version of events. In many cases, these videos have gone viral.
But Coates points out that police brutality against blacks has been a fact of life ever since he can recall. Black boys are taught from an early age not to talk back to the police, but just follow orders, no matter how humiliating. Black parents fear for their children’s lives from the moment they step out.
A dark thread of violence runs through American history and society. America’s unending foreign wars are supported by the vast majority. Indeed, from the decimation of Native Americans to the deification of the country’s warriors, the country’s past and present form an uninterrupted, bloody narrative. And the easy availability of guns only adds fuel to the fire.
Published in Dawn, July 30th, 2016
