Is America Great Again, Yet?
“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction”
– Thirteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution
DISCLAIMER: I cannot and do not speak for black people and their pain. I am privileged to learn about these issues with my face in a book and not on the pavement with a knee on my neck. I recognize that racism is an embedded fear and hate of blacks in American society as well a systemic problem built into the very history and laws in this country.
Here are some of the ways our country has systemically oppressed and murdered blacks:
for the Republican Party. They have written the “Stand Your Ground Law’, SB 1070 which allows police to stop anyone they perceive to be an immigrant, and most our immigration laws. (link)
6) Plea deals - our penal system implemented a law that allows people to accept plea deals for admitting guilt to crimes they may not have committed. 97% of individuals are not offered a trial in our country. Black Americans are pulled off the streets in unprecedented numbers by cops that have unrestrained power and are incentivized into admitting guilt to crimes they did not commit, and then deprived of their rights to participate fully in our society due to their criminal status. Life-long oppression. (link)
7) Militarization of local police forces. This has led to many tragedies that white people are aware of…Kent State Massacre, Waco, etc. We know of those because they were crimes against white people. What we haven’t been paying attention to is that police violence is one the leading causes of death for black males. (link)
1) Aggressive propaganda after the civil war depicting blacks as violent, animal-like, and evil. This was responsible for the rebirth of the KKK (link)
2) Nixon’s ‘Southern Strategy’ and ‘War on Drugs’ (link)
3) Reagan’s war on drugs and support of white supremacists groups that were responsible for assassinating an entire generation of black leaders. (link)
4) Bill Clinton’s Federal Crime Bill massive expansion of the industrial prison complex. In 1970 prison population was 357,292 but by 2014 it was 2,306,200. 1 in 17 white males will do prison time, compared to 1 in 3 African American Males (link)
5) Political corporations that use their money to elect politicians that will put the bills they write into law - American Legislative Exchange Council writes laws -
America was never great. Only quieter, as the voices of the oppressed were murdered and imprisoned. These are only a small number of the ways that our country has deeply embedded racism into our laws and country - and lined their pockets with the proceeds. Racism is systemic - it isn’t just about persistent hate and fear of blacks. It is about white people having more access to voting, electing white leaders, who have consistently put laws in place that lead to SYSTEMIC oppression and death of blacks.
If you are white in this country, you have benefited from that. Your life does matter, but it always has.
All lives can’t matter when Black lives don’t.
It doesn’t make you evil, but it means that you have to be a part of the change.
Or you are part of the problem.
DO SOMETHING.
Watch - 13th Documentary
March - in your city’s local protests
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