Last week, police unlawfully shot and killed two black men: Alton Sterling and Philando Castile.
Police shootings that result in the deaths of innocent, young black men are symptomatic of greater social ills, not just isolated incidents. Racism didn’t end in 1865 with the abolition of legal slavery. Racism didn’t end during the ‘60s with the legislation of civil rights. Racism didn’t end in 2008 when a black president was elected.
Racism still exists. Black lives still don’t matter in this nation, and our society and leaders are not doing enough about it.
Police officers stop, question, frisk and arrest black individuals at alarmingly higher rates than white individuals; for example, in North Carolina, black people are three times as likely to be arrested after a seat belt violation stop compared to white people, according to a study from UNC-Chapel Hill.
Once in court, black individuals are at a significant disadvantage compared to white individuals. According to the Sentencing Project, nationally, two-thirds of the people with life sentences are non-white, and black drug defendants are 20 percent more likely to be sent to prison than white ones. Furthermore, despite making up only 16 percent of minors in the U.S., black youth constitute 28 percent of juvenile arrests, 37 percent of the juvenile jail population and 58 percent of the youth sent to adult prisons.
Social problems for white people, such as the recent heroin epidemic, are solved with solutions like education and rehabilitation, while the black community receives Tasers and orange jumpsuits. These racially discriminatory policies rip up black families and communities and sever their social connections, in turn amplifying inequality and the downward spiral of poverty.
We must demand more of our leaders, both political and on our campus.
With Gov. Pat McCrory signing HB 972 into law on July 11, we see police activity moving into the shadows rather than becoming more accountable and transparent. Under this new law, footage from body and dash cameras is kept from the public record. Individual police agencies now hold the primary discretion of releasing said footage, which could lead to further withholding valuable information at the expense of the public interest.
In the cases of Sterling, Castile and many others, video recordings were instrumental in understanding the events. A democracy can only thrive when citizens have access to as much information as possible, unimpeded by legal and bureaucratic barriers.
On July 12, Chancellor Randy Woodson issued a response regarding last week’s shootings in which he failed to provide moral leadership for our university. In a time of hurt and struggle, he gave us the same regurgitated platitudes. Simply touting the Counseling Center and vague values such as empathy, respect and diversity is an easy thing to do and only does so much.
We need to push further.
Woodson should have explicitly mentioned the killings, discussed race relations with more nuance and proposed an idea of more substance than “take positive steps forward toward solutions.”
Don’t let violence provoke more violence, as was the case in Dallas. Educate yourself and others by critically reading and dialoguing with peers about police brutality, the hypocrisy of the criminal justice system and the lack of transparency. Use this information to organize and work together in solidarity to bring about police reform.
Protest, petition, write to your legislator, be vocal on social media platforms and in the physical world. Demand community oversight and representation, rethinking of police philosophy and strategy, limiting the use of force, demilitarization, better training and access to body camera footage.
Demand a future where black lives matter.
“If you stick a knife in my back nine inches and pull it out six inches, there’s no progress. If you pull it all the way out that’s not progress. Progress is healing the wound that the blow made. And they haven’t even pulled the knife out much less heal the wound. They won’t even admit the knife is there.” -Malcolm X
