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August 20, 2014
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Struggling to Make Sense of Michael Brown’s Death
Structural racism perpetuates negative stereotypes
by
D avid
R agland
I flew into St.
Louis on Saturday,
Aug. 9, to celebrate
the birthdays of my
m o th er
and
nephew and immediately learned
about Mike Brown, a soon-to-be
college student who was fatally
shot by Ferguson, Mo. police.
As my community and I struggle
to make sense of this recent
murder, I cannot help but think
of the structures of racism and
violence in America and how
they perpetuate police brutality
against black Americans. Police
brutality is a national crisis, but
the underlying structural violence
- racism, economic injustice and
militarism - is a national epi­
demic.
Disproportionality in police use
of force against black Ameri­
cans persists and cannot be tol­
erated. An April 2013 report
prepared by the M alcolm X
Grassroots Movement found that
killings of black Americans by
“ law en fo rcem en t, secu rity
guards and stand-your-ground
vigilantes’’ have increased from
one every 36 hours, in the first
half of 2012, to one every 28
hours by the end of that year.
This appalling statistic is rooted
in structural racism that system­
atically excludes persons of color
from opportunities and perpetu­
ates negative stereotypes.
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In their2006book, The Color for Gawker, Jason Parham ar­
of Wealth: The Story Behind gues that police brutality should
the U.S. Racial Wealth Divide, finally be considered a national
Meizhu Lui and Barbara Rob­ crisis. While I agree, we should
les illustrate this continuing, go a step further and address our
race-oriented, systematic ex­ national epidemic of structural
clusion of Americans of color violence. With increasingly mili­
from opportunities that are sup­ ta riz e d p o lic e d e p a rtm e n ts
posed to build an individual’s throughout the US, supported
wealth - business loans, em ploy­ and influenced by a government
ment opportunities, mortgages that uses violence to police the
and G.I. benefits, for example. world, our city streets are battle­
BBC N ew s’ 2012 mini-docu­ grounds. With structural racism’s
mentary, “The Delmar Dividing harmful, dehumanizing images,
Line,’’ illuminates how the struc­ the enemy insurgents are black.
tural violence of impoverishment
How should we respond to
in St. Louis, Mo., continues to this national epidem ic and the
fall along racial lines with blacks m urder o f M ichael B row n? In
in the North with low incomes dealing with the im m ediate is­
and whites in the south with sue, protesters and the fam ily
significantly higher incomes - a o f M ichael Brown w ant his
separation rem iniscent o f the killer im m ediately arrested and
19th century.
tried in court. This may hap­
In a society where wealth pen, but w hile the m otto on
brings respect, these economic m ost police cars is protect and
injustices translate into social, serve, there is an overw helm ­
cultural and institutional views ing sense in com m unities of
of blacks as lazy and morally color that police often sim ply
inferior. In addition, the black protect their own.
community is often framed as
In the short-term, as a start,
violent and animalistic, as illus­ we should require police to wear
trated by a recent CNN video of cameras on their uniforms. A
a protest in Ferguson, where a 2013 C am bridge U niversity
David Ragland, writing fo r
police officer shouted, “Bring it, study found that body cameras PeaceVoice, is a visiting As­
all you fucking animals!’’ Per­ for police in Rialto, Calif, re­
sistant Professor o f education
spectives like these serve to per­ duced the use of force by 50
at Bucknell University, hoard
petuate structural racism and p ercen t. W e should pursu e
member fo r the Peace and
justify violence against the black greater community involvement
Justice Association and United
community as people who should in, and oversight of, policing.
Nations representative fo r the
be feared.
Further, we need to create poli­ International Peace Research
In his August 4, 2014 article cies that reward those who have Association.
to the
No law-abiding
people should
fear police
ADDITIONAL
SERVICES
taken mediation and nonviolence
training and who demonstrate
empathy and commitment to the
communities they serve.
Most importantly, in the long­
term , we need restorative ju s ­
tice program s and processes
enabled in com m unities across
the nation. R estorative justice
processes can open dialogues
betw een police and their com ­
m unities and lessen the friction
and false im ages that lead to
B row n’s m urder—or Eric G ar­
ner, or O scar G rant or K endra
Jam es or Jonathan Ferrell or
Jam es Perez or any other un­
arm ed young black person un­
justly killed by police who have
been prim ed and pum ped up to
use lethal force against per­
ceived but nonexistent threat.
As a national community, we
have to dem and ju stic e for
Michael Brown and all others
killed by or suffering from struc­
tural violence and its perpetua­
tio n o f p o lic e b ru ta lity in
America. We have to demand
justice that restores our com m u­
nities through listening, power
sharing and mutual respect and
moves us toward a cure for this
national epidemic.
My thoughts and prayers go
out to the family and friends of
Michael Brown, the young man
shot in F erg u so n , M o. My
thoughts and prayers go out to
th e e n tire co m m u n ity o f
Ferguson. And also to the Afri­
can-A m erican com m unity in
Portland, and throughout Oregon,
and throughout our nation.
No law-abiding people should
ever have reason to fear the
police. Yet we must honestly
admit that, too often, this is not
true for a wide swath of our
community: people of color.
T hat’s why I’ve made it a
priority to join with many o f my
fellow mayors to focus on the
lives of young black men in our
community. Mayors like Michael
Nutter in Philadelphia, and Mitch
Landrieu in New Orleans, and I
are focusing on this very topic
th ro u g h th e B lack M ale
Achievement Initiative.
In Portland, we are focusing
on ways to collaborate with
the com m unity and to inter­
cede on behalf o f young A fri­
can-A m ericans in the areas of
jobs, education and incarcera­
tion rates. This is vital work.
T hat is as true in Portland as it
is everyw here.
Also in Portland, we have put
a priority on new training for our
Police Bureau, with an em pha­
sis on the appropriate use of
force, on de-escalation and on
equity. Bureau members have
begun receiving training on sys­
temic inequities, implicit bias and
cultural diversity.
In July, as mayor and police
Advertise w ith diversity in 1 he Portland
Observer
Call 503-288-0033 ads@portlandobserver.com
commissioner, I joined in three
intensive days of training for my
staff and the top officials of the
police department, on these very
topics. The training, called White
Men as Full Diversity Partners,
was controversial to some but
understood by many. But this
w eek’s headlines provide just
one example of why such train­
ing is vital.
We, as a society, have consis­
tently failed multiple groups of
Americans. We cannot continue
to do so in the future.
Charlie Hales, Mayor of
Portland