Connecting the Dots from Confederate Statues to Police Brutality
An Op-Ed by Halford H. Fairchild, Ph.D.
The horrific killing of George Floyd has sparked international outrage and protests for police reform and dismantling the symbols of racism. From statues of confederate generals to those of slave traders in the United Kingdom, the symbols of our racist history are finally coming under attack. And rightfully so.
Racism is the belief that the so-called “races” – Whites, Blacks, Browns, Reds, and Yellows – may be ranked on a hierarchy from superior to inferior. That hierarchy ranges from light to dark (with Whites deeming themselves superior to all others). The hundreds of years of trading in human flesh – by most of Europe and the U.S. – required an ideological (if not theological) justification. To kidnap and enslave another human being requires the dehumanization of the victim and the deification of oneself.
The history of race relations since 1492 involves the genocide of indigenous peoples in the Americas, South America, the Caribbean and Pacific; the stealing of land and resources; and the enslavement of millions of Africans. Racism justified the colonization of India, China, Africa and the South Pacific. Hawaii was once a sovereign nation.
The abolition of slavery led to Jim Crow laws that segregated emancipated Blacks into ghettos; and once geographically corralled, African Americans endured every manner of institutional racism: in schools, housing, jobs and criminal injustice. As Martin Luther King, Jr. observed, “…segregation is not only politically, economically, and sociologically unsound, it is morally wrong and sinful.”
Apartheid schools – overcrowded and underfunded – produced legions of young adults ill-equipped to compete in a technologically advancing society. Those who were failed by their schools were forced into informal economies of petty crimes, gang activity and drug dealing which brought them frequent contacts with law enforcement. Too often, these contacts have lethal consequences. Think Erin Garner, Freddie Gray and Michael Brown. Think Trayvon Martin and George Floyd. Imagine the thousands of unnamed others.
But less lethal outcomes are in the millions: African American, Latinx and Native American youth are hounded by police to produce incarceration statistics that sicken. One third or more of minority men can expect to fall under the jurisdiction of the criminal justice system at some point in their lives, which only worsens the economic conditions of their families and communities.
The calls for police reform are obvious and necessary. Less obvious are the solutions to the other consequences of systemic racism: broken families (not in Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s sense of a ‘tangle of pathology,’ but as the result of centuries of segregation and discrimination), failing schools, gangs, crimes, and criminal victimization.
By tearing down the symbols of racism, the Black Lives Matter Movement challenges racism itself.
More than police reform, the global protests following the murder of George Floyd are calling for revolutionary changes in attitudes and institutional practices.
Instead of funding police, priorities should be directed to child development and family services. Healthy families obviate the need for policing.
Inner city and predominantly minority schools have been under-funded, over-crowded and under-performing for decades. The solution is the provision of whatever resources are necessary to produce equal or better scholastic outcomes for minority youth. But success in K-12 requires stable families with adequate housing and economic resources. A holistic approach to childhood education must include parent (and grandparent) education, job training, and economic development. Families must have adequate income to provide the housing, nutrition and security needs to guarantee positive educational outcomes for their children. This is the meaning of “defunding the police.”
The reparations for centuries of systemic racism must repair the ravages of segregation. Investments in housing, schools and jobs are the sine qua non for achieving America’s promise of equal opportunity.
But none of this is possible without addressing the root cause of the societal ills we address: racism. The R Word.
The rest of this essay may be a bit uncomfortable for many readers.
White people are not superior.
Europe is not a continent.
Columbus did not discover America.
God is not a White male.
Racism is the belief that some races, especially the light skinned ones, are superior to others. On closer inspection, we observe that “race” is a myth – we are members of the singular human race – and every group on Earth can celebrate heroes and sheroes that demonstrate the unlimited potential of the human family.
Halford H. Fairchild, Ph.D. is Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Africana Studies at Pitzer College. He is a Past President of The Association of Black Psychologists and editor of Black Lives Matter: Lifespan Perspectives (Indo American Books, 2017).