Once again, we will wait and see

Nearly 30 years ago, video coverage of the violent beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles police officers was the first such incident to go viral, clearly showing those who took an oath to protect and serve abusing that oath in plain view for the entire world to see. The video highlighted how black men are often treated by white police officers, bringing national attention, once again, to race relations in this country.

Back then, many in government, the legal profession, and throughout other areas of American society, pledged to look at police reform and the racial disparities that exist between blacks and whites in America.

Since that time, we have seen similar videos and countless stories of police brutality: Samuel DuBose, Tamir Rice, Walter Scott, Breonna Taylor, Keith Scott, Aiyana Jones, Philando Castile, Botham Jean, Michael Brown, Oscar Grant, George Floyd, to name only a few. These deaths have spurred memorials, rallies and other community actions, yet have only captured the public’s attention for as long as the media cover them.

Prior to most of these deaths being captured on video, there were too many pictures to count showing black people (mostly black men) being lynched by whites, often with crowds of whites as onlookers. In 1963, Bull Connor, a Birmingham, Ala., public safety commissioner, ordered police dogs released on 2,000 black high school children peacefully marching for civil and equal rights, and then jailed them. In 1921 in Tulsa, Okla., an entire black community was destroyed by white mobs, simply because this was an independent and thriving black community.

In 1619, the first blacks were held captive and shipped from Africa to the Jamestown colony in Virginia, commencing the North American slave trade. Traveling in the bottom of slave ships, these human beings were forced to live for months crammed together, shackled, without adequate food. Many became sick, died, and were thrown overboard to be fed to sharks. Once in America, those who survived the voyage and their descendants endured four centuries of slavery and oppression, being treated as anything but human, often beaten in public, separated from and not allowed to have families, forced into unpaid, and now, underpaid labor.

This barbaric and unequal treatment of blacks was allowed to flourish, protected and promoted by law and policy.

Institutionalized racism is not caught on video, but it has persisted and is evident in the daily actions of individuals, institutions, businesses and, most importantly, by our government. These laws and policies pertain to every area of our existence, and have and continued to oppress black people and other people of color (as well as women).

Federal, state and local laws institutionalize racism, especially in housing, education, employment and access to capital. These laws and policies not only allow government to structurally sanction white dominance; these laws support the private sector in its established way of operating, which leads to and supports structural racism in government. The bylaws, practices and principles of the private sector give cover to its lack of hiring blacks, gives discretion to job mobility and covers up unequal firing of blacks.

Historical data and statistics prove these points when you overlay race with structural, institutionalized racism in the laws of this country and the bylaws upon which the private sector operates. Data from the past 50 years show the small number of black elected officials, lawyers, educators, union executives, private business owners and executives, CEO’s of organizations, decision makers of every segment within our society. Conversely, data from the past 50 years show disparate health care, incarceration rates, home and property ownership, access to capital/ loan ratios, dropout rates in schools and admission rates to institutions of higher education for black Americans. All this information is regularly updated, and yet the numbers do not improve year over year.

While all this information is not captured by way of photo or video daily, it is documented. We all know it, we witness it, we participate in protecting it, and continue the institutionalization of structural racism in this country.

Black people are waiting to see how the killing of George Floyd by a white police officer in Minnesota is really going to make a difference this time with respect to relations in this country between whites and blacks. We must prove this is not just another shortlived news story.

All have heard the phrase “if you see something, say something.” Now is the time to shine a light on the everyday instances of racism. In this moment, as people, we must reach out to each other across race and spend time listening, hearing and learning the stories of people who don’t look like us; the history of how blacks came to be here, how we live now; and use this time to reflect on how, personally, we must change the way we live together in this country when the cameras are not rolling.

Black America continues to wait and see if things will be different this time.

Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson represents the Fifth District, which includes Albany, Berkeley, Emeryville, Piedmont and parts of Oakland (North Oakland, Rockridge, Grand Lake, Fruitvale and Dimond District neighborhoods). He currently serves as vice president of the Board of Supervisors.

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