| This is a long one, folks... [Note: Often in this post I will refer to White "people" and Black "people". I would like to make the distinction that when I say this, I am using the word "people" in the collective sense, meaning the community. This does not rule out the fact that individuals from different communities may act in ways that oppose my generalizations, but it must be remembered that I am speaking of the masses - the overall group.] Like the rest of Oakland, I have been attempting to make sense of the BART shooting on New Years Day and the ensuing riots last night downtown, and I think that there is still much to be said and thought about for all of us. This is my attempt to start the conversation. A lot of people are debating on the news and on the internet over whether or not the shooting was an accident. But to fully understand what is really going on, the possibility of it being an accident is immaterial. Because that's not the real problem. The real problem is POWER. And the angry citizens of Oakland know this very well. The media is doing everything it can to try and paint the rioters as simply being over-reactive, being troublemaking hooligans, or "professional" rioters who "have their own separate motives", and who "aren't from Oakland"...but this is a tactical portrait they are painting to try and rob the community of its agency and get you to think that they have no idea what they're doing. Quite the opposite, actually. These are intelligent young men and women who see through the issue, right to the heart of it. And what we're angry about is this: Gun or Taser, it doesn't matter. Resisting arrest or complying with orders, it doesn't matter. What matters is the fact that the police are an instrument of the White American power structure, used to ensure that minorities, the poor, and those who disagree w/ the system are kept POWERLESS. Johannes Mehserle didn't just have a gun, he had a badge, he had White skin, he spoke White English, he was surrounded by White officers, further supported by the White institution of a police force, which in turn is further legitimized and supported by a White government (again, this is not to say that there aren't Black individuals in the police and the gov't like Ron Dellums or certain BART officials, I'm saying that Black people - aka. the Black community - didn't invent and don't control these institutions). And this is what people are angry about, at the core of it. They're angry over the fact that the affluent, White COMMUNITY can murder individuals of other communities through the STRUCTURE OF THEIR INSTITUTIONS. The affluent White community creates these institutions and shapes them the way they want them, while poor, minority communities have little-to-no say. Then this institution is released to prey on and assault communities of color (especially the Black community), with the justification of laws written by White people - laws that specifically treat Black people as less than human. People are angry that they not only have no power but that power is stacked against them. But let's bring it back down to earth. First, in order to understand why Mehserle shot Grant, we have to understand what was going through each person's mind. And in order to do that, we have to examine what it means to be a White person versus a person of color in the US today. With officer Mehserle, there are a number of factors to consider: Firstly, as a White man, he grew up with power. Meaning that as a White man, he has never in his life questioned his own place in this country or his right to live and his right to freedom in this country. He grew up being taught that this country belonged to him and his people, and everything he saw in his life only proved that. So most White people are already at an advantage to Black people in that they are secure in themselves, their identity, and their place at the top of the food chain. They own the fucking place, and they know it. Subconsciously, it is the only truth they know. Secondly, we must consider what an imbalance of power will do to people, psychologically. When one person has more power than another, the one with power will always be paranoid of the 2nd person's resentment, and will never fully be able to trust the motives of the 2nd person. Basically, having more power than others automatically brings with it paranoia, especially if you GOT that power by committing unimaginable crimes against the other people in your society (slavery). So naturally White people have a lot of psychological hang-ups and fear concerning their power. Deep down, they can't shake the fear that Black people will one day exact revenge. So White people automatically assume that Black people want to kill White people. So they're paranoid of that. In addition, the White community has built up a view of Black people passed down through generations and generations that is based on xenophobia, fear, and ignorance about the world outside Europe. Meaning that the White view of Black people originated in the view that Black people were not human at all, but in fact animals. Now, of course the passage time and the progress of White reason has required White people to discard this belief from their conscious minds, but because White people have never had to share power with anyone else in the world for the past 500 years, they have never been FORCED to purge that belief from their subconscious minds. A simple analogy would be the term "Indian" as opposed to "Native American". Whites originally called them "Indians" because they thought they were in India. The passage of time proved this incorrect, so some White people say "Native American" now, but the word "Indian" so worked its way into White culture, they can't stop saying it. And since Native Americans don't have enough POWER to make White people feel stupid for saying it, they just keep on saying it. Lastly, we must not forget to consider the institution known as the police. As with a lot of White institutions (public schools, hospitals, the court system, the government, etc.), the police are designed to interact with people like robots, and to treat people not as people, but as numbered objects. Within these institutions, people disappear and are replaced by numbers, grades, reports...Within these institutions we are taught that human interactions like empathy, sympathy, understanding, respect, and agreement are all invalid, and the only way that anything can get done is through official procedures. Police officers are not taught to get to know the people they are protecting, they are taught to disregard their humanness in order to best assess which statute each particular situation would fall under so they know which official procedure to follow in handling it. ...So wrap all that together and what do you get? While Johannes Mehserle would never SAY that Black people are less than human (who would say that anyway?), he nonetheless approaches all Black people with the subconscious perception that they are FUNDAMENTALLY different from the type of people he understands. He sees Black people and he sees animals. And not just any animal, but an angry animal. He sees Black people much in the same way he sees angry dogs. Dangerous, hostile, volatile. So not only does he feel like he can't communicate with this person (like he can't communicate with dogs), he's afraid that this person has it out for him because of all the wrongful things that White people have done in the past. So he's scared. But instead of the kind of fear that makes you run and hide, Mehserle has the type of fear that makes you make stupid-ass decisions. Remember, he's got that confident sense of power being White...meaning he thinks that this is HIS country and that his people OWN everything. So that's why he and his fellow White officers had no problem being in this neighborhood in the first place. Then he's got the badge and the law that his people wrote, which makes him think that he is in the "right" to be enforcing his will on people, and that these people - by nature of who they are and the way White people wrote the law - are inherently "wrong", "bad", and "breaking the law" because they're "gangsters", and "thugs", so they deserve to be killed or arrested anyway (there's been a lot of that going around the internets too). THEN he's got all his institutional training, which has taught him to act like a robot anyway and that does not allow those human interactions like talking, listening, feeling empathy or a desire to help, heal, nurture, or make people feel good. So when Oscar Grant pleaded for Mehserle not to taser/shoot him b/c he had a 4 yr. old daughter, even though Mehserle was expecting a child of his own, he was trained by his institution not to listen, and trained by his culture not to care, understand, or empathize. This is why the term "Peace Officer" is an outright lie. These officers are militarized and - much like soldiers in Iraq - are taught to view everyone in their own community as a possible 'enemy combatant'. Even if the guy is a father of a 4-year-old daughter. On the other side of things you have the Black community. I couldn't even begin to describe the horrors and hardships they have endured and continue to endure, and the psychological neuroses that arise from that. Much has been written on it already, but the long and short of it is that powerlessness means much more than a simple lack of "political representation". In this country it means that the system was not created with them in mind, and still doesn't include them, despite changes in the wording of things. It means that they feel like this country doesn't yet belong to them truly. Like they are made to be trespassers in their own home. They are targeted and profiled, harassed and murdered,. They know how White people feel about them, and that gives them a massive inferiority complex. They are afraid too. Afraid of getting arrested or shot. They feel like they have no place in society and they vent this anger in ways that they know will not tempt the wrath of those in power. They vent this anger in their own community. At the Fruitvale protest yesterday I overheard a young Black man complain about this very subject. He said that young Black and Latino men today will die for the littlest thing between each other. They're willing to die and to kill others over shoes or insults or dirty looks. But when it comes down to it, they're not even willing to face the police because they're too afraid. So this is why when Black communities have rioted in the past, they end up mostly destroying their own property, or the property of other minority communities (like in the LA riots of '92). And last night was no different. The community was angry at the police, but instead of facing the police, they smashed random windows and set random cars on fire. And it has since come out that some of those cars were owned by supporters of the movement, and some of those windows were the storefronts of Black businesses. So there's real anger there. But it is a fearful anger. But that's good. You don't want a blood-thirsty anger because a blood-thirsty anger can't be stopped until someone is beaten or killed. But a fearful anger is good because a fearful anger can be redirected. If someone were to step forward and give the community the confidence it needs to stand up tall and strong, that fear would melt away, and that anger would turn into determination. If someone from the community came forward who was known and trusted and respected, we could turn this negative situation into a positive one that is good for everybody. The community wants desperately to be heard, but we're so disorganized that no one is there to be that voice for the community. And since we don't have one clear voice, the city can't hear what we're saying. Ron Dellums can't hear what we're saying. All he sees is young hoodlums. He doesn't understand that we need him to be more involved in the community. He doesn't understand that we need apologies and promises and understandings. He can't hear us. They can't hear our voice. We need to get organized and find that voice. And at the same time, the city government HAS to get its own act together. If they want to keep control of this city and not let it fall into chaos, they HAVE to get their act together. Our community leader has to be able to speak to a city leader. Both leaders must inspire confidence and exude positive leadership. Only then can citizens truly feel like things are getting done and things are progressing. The point I am getting at is that we have a very unique opportunity here to learn more about the real human condition, if we just take a moment to search deeper than our initial gut reactions. We have a perfect opportunity to see the interconnectedness of race, class, and power, and to figure out exactly why the system is failing us. And if we can realize all of this, it will ultimately make us stronger because we will have the truth and knowledge on our side. And nothing is stronger than the truth. |
