Is there systemic racism in US police?

[RockLock]

'I don't think there's systemic racism' in US police forces says Trump’s security adviser.

How blind can you be?

Another black man is dead, not the first one to die at the hands of police and the Trump squad still claim that you get good guys and bad guys in the police, that not all police are racist, that they have non-white policemen so that makes them not racist.

Bingo!

@Amusedtodeath1
I would start by ascertaining that the person saying offensive comments about black youngsters is actually black.
My son is black and I would never advocate harming other young black men because I don't like where I live.

[quote Temp123999]**@ursula
I'm black born with parents from St Lucia I strongly suspect you are white.[/quote]
Yep.

Temp123999 I wish there was a like button on this site!

I'm not white, love. Just sick of middle class, white mumsnetters sitting around moaning about the copsand issues they don't understand.

Of course you're not, love. I'm guessing you're mixed race and married to a black man 🙄🤔 That's what the racists on Mumsnet usually claim to be, so you're not clever or original.

Amusedtodeath, I start these threads, in the teeny hope that white people will educate themselves of the very real problems faced by the the BAME communities. A lot of the posts end up going full white supremacist but I do believe that there are genuine white women out there who want to learn and join the fight and make a difference. The trouble is, our reality is so different from yours. When we give examples of inequality, many white women get affronted. Please read around the subject, the history. engage in discussions, make a stand against racism, don’t minimise it, don’t deny it.

The trouble is, white people are at an advantage and to level the playing field, white people have to lose that advantage to make things fairer. This is something that white people generally do not want to do. There is a desire to maintain the status quo by white people. That is why Trump’s adviser doesn’t see systemic racism. There is a desire within the BAME community to put a stop to this dehumanisation by whites. This is why we see so many people out protesting despite being in the middle of a pandemic. We have been dying at the hands of white folk for centuries.

A previous poster on MN opened my eyes to the white woman problem.
White women are dangerous
twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1266974618218377216?s=09

If you're black your name must be Uncle Tom then.

I'm scrolling past the troll's post so no idea what it's saying. I'd advise everyone else does too.

I’m an American white woman living in the U.K., sickened by the events of recent weeks. There has never been a question that the police force in America is racist. Implicit bias means that, while not all actions by officers are as egregious as those taken against George Floyd, officers’ actions are constantly influenced by a culture of racism that has taught them that black people (and men in particular) are dangerous. We can say that police officers act out of fear for their lives, but that fear is likely motivated by a racist belief that a black man presents a greater threat than a white man. I don’t believe that the majority of police officers would identify themselves as having racist views but, like many of us, their behaviour is always going to be influenced by the culture that surrounds them.

If anyone doubts the systemic racism in the States, compare footage of the police response to people in Michigan protesting the coronavirus lockdown versus the response to people protesting about Floyd. In the former, heavily-armed white people went face to face with police, shouting in their faces, and police did not respond. In the latter, tear gas and rubber bullets have been fired into crowds. Even my dad, who loves to look for an excuse for racism wherever he can find it, couldn’t deny the blatant inconsistency in those examples.

Racist MN posts don't bother me any more. I now realise they are white supremacists. Scared of black people.

• Of course it is.

lawenforcementmuseum.org/2019/07/10/slave-patrols-an-early-form-of-american-policing/

The US has a long history of racism against minorities.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilmington_insurrection_of_1898

www.history.com/topics/early-20th-century-us/rosewood-massacre

www.history.com/news/black-wall-street-tulsa-race-massacre

Studies even show that minorities get harsher punishments than whites even when committing the same crime.

www.asanet.org/sites/default/files/savvy/images/press/docs/pdf/ASARaceCrime.pdf

But a PP said black people don't want white middle class people fighting their corner. So what can we do to help?

And a PP doesn’t speak for all black people.
Minorities need allies because unfortunately too many white people (including some police officers) don’t believe minorities unless another white person vouches for them.

Many of the black victims of police brutality are not armed, they are either handcuffed or restrained, or raise their hands as requested. They are clearly not a threat. I don't buy the fear BS. The cops know exactly what they are doing and why.

To the poster who asked what we want white people to do?

We don’t want you to speak for us. We want you to listen. And see us. But don’t speak for us, because you do not and never will know our lives.

Ursula2001

There are a significant number of men who post on here as 1950s throw back women. The same occurs with race.

Ursula2001

This is about black people, not other minority groups which may not have sustained such targeted treatment by the police. Black people.

OP - I understand where you're coming from, it's good to discuss this issue. From my point of view, I am aware of how unfair life is for many BAME people. I completely condemn any and all racism, but the last thing I want to do is offend or patronise anyone, I accept I can't fully understand because I'm white. I have no clue what I could do to make things any better.

The truth is I live in a rural place and I don't know many BAME people, I have anxiety and I'm always terrified I'll say the wrong thing and be labelled racist, so I tend to avoid discussions like this.

I start these threads, in the teeny hope that white people will educate themselves of the very real problems faced by the the BAME communities.

Good. I think many whole people don't believe it because they don't see it, haven't experienced it and want the world to be nice.

I grew up in South London and an idiot could notice that cars I was a passenger in were stopped more when the driver was male and of colour. And they tended in my friend group to be less likely to be high than white men.

Then working in homeless hostels you see and hear a LOT. Even the language in the police reports we'd see was interesting. 'Gang of black youths' or 'group of white boys'. I kid you not. These spanned back years and I'm old. Black men who had been sewing their pockets shut to stop planting and beaten up in the back of vans for pissing off police officers.

But if I'd grown up in the cotswolds and had a normal job... would I know, or believe? I hope so but probably not.