Daily Dose of US Racism

[Comrade B]

Police who shot an unarmed 70 year old black man will not be going to prison, or being charged, UH-Mur-IKA
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/15/us/15homer.html?pagewanted=2&ref=us

Can't say it is a big surprise unfortunately that the cops are getting off

[bayano]

I remember a 74 year old Latino man that was killed by police in Blue Island just outside of Chicago. The cops explanation this time around? They thought he was a 17 year old graffiti writer they were looking for. Okay, firstly, 74 year olds and 17 year olds don't have the same stance or posture, so they don't have the same sillouhette (sp?), and they definitely don't resemble each other. But then, why would the cops have shot a young graff writer in the first place? The community came out in full force, though I forget what happened to those particular bad apple cops (i kid). This was a few years ago.

Unrelated, but this week I read that the oldest man on Death Row just died of natural causes. He was 94, and it was in an Arizona prison. He had been on Death Row for 26 years, and in prison for about 58 years out of his life (well, at least). Insane. A society with no respect for its seniors.

[bayano]

As if news couldn't come faster, two new things to add.

Firstly, the cops who murdered Sean Bell (http://www.justiceforsean.net/) just got saved from a civil suit. And a report (http://gothamist.com/2010/02/17/stop-and-frisks_at_all_time_high_87.php) just came out that in 2009, police stop-and-frisks were at a record high in NYC, 87% of the subjects of which were people of color. that is, 13% of stop and frisks are non-latino whites, while the city is officially 35% non-latino white

[Agnapostate]

How would the police even distinguish Latino and non-Latino whites on the basis of appearance?

[bayano]

Well, the main issue is how people are identified on census roles, police reports and other data. For years, there was no place for Latino(which i prefer) or Hispanic(which i despise, but what the govt usually uses). Then, the US govt came up with a bizarre solution: to have race as one thing where there is no Hispanic option, and then have a second question for ethnicity to which there are only two answers: Hispanic or non-Hispanic. the solutions since have also been silly.

in other words, Latinos had and still today often have no choice to call ourselves 'mixed' or 'mestizo' or 'Latino'. we have to pick white or black or asian or native american, and then say latino or not. that means you have very dark skinned and indigenous Latinos ticking white on surveys and govt questionnaires because those are the options given, but to a cop it would be clear. or you have Afro-Latinos (of which there are tens of millions around the americas) in the usa just ticking black.

then, there are the conservative lighter Latinos who, in their country or parents' parents' country would be essentially white, but anyone in the USA would consider them Latino/hispanic. they answer census and other documents as white for other reasons, but still get harassed often times, despite their class, politics, and family background.

so very, very few Latinos in the United States can 'pass' as gringo whites, but most have to say 'white' on government data even though they aren't perceived as such.

hope that helps clear it up

[Agnapostate]

Most Hispanic whites, being of predominantly Spanish descent, don't seem to me to be distinct from other Mediterranean whites such as Greeks or Italians. They'll certainly never pass as Swedes, but certainly also belong to the white race. I'll be starting a thread about this issue soon, but I've always been extremely disdainful of the "Hispanic" and "Latino" classifications, as it would be absurd to group all citizens of the Anglophone countries (and their descendants in other countries!) in one common "ethnic" group regardless of their racial backgrounds. Of course, the common perception of "Hispanics" is a stereotype of someone with tan to reddish brown skin, brown or black hair, and light to dark brown eyes (in other words, someone that looks like a mixed to full-blooded Indian), which is the basis for so many people assuming that I'm "Mexican" because I fulfill that profile and have a Spanish surname, despite the fact that I've never lived outside of L.A. County. :confused:

[Dimentio]

Why do the US government still use race as a term on the passports?

[bayano]

at first i was gonna suggest you pick up "How the Irish Became White". its not so simple as 'the white race'. whiteness means something different in different countries and parts of the world, even if the pattern of imperialism and neo-colonialism has been largely the same.

but ive heard your perspective before, almost always from west coast Mexicanos/chicanos. i respectfully disagree. perhaps it is bcuz my family is from the smallest spanish speaking country in the americas, but i think there is a different perspective. central and south americans often group together, whereas there are mexican or boricua barrios. mexicans in the usa tend to be more nationalist than other latin americans, perhaps in part because the political traditions are different. in south america, we have the example of simon bolivar, and in central america we have francisco morazan- both symbols of a 19th century tradition that called for latin american unity and attempted it. theyre such central figures that it is rare to find a town in central america without Plaza or Parque Morazan in the center, and every city has one as well. so the idea of latin american unification has never fully died, and certainly got stronger with the ascent of Hugo Chavez and the pink tide. as such, we consider ourselves panas or colombians or salvis or nicas or ecuatorianos, but we also consider ourselves [email protected] [email protected] or [email protected] because there is a belief in unity in north america that is partly based in culture, and partly in a latent desire for latin american unity. its not to say central and south americans in the usa arent nationalistic or patriotic. but beyond that, there is still the legend of the dream.

aside from that, we are la raza cosmica, not bcuz of how much indigenous, spanish, or african blood we have, but bcuz we have blood from all over the world- including chinese, arab, irish, jewish, south asian, etc too. there are seemingly a hundred different tendencies of how Latinos in the usa identify, and i like the most unifying ones, and the most accurate.

[Communist]

.
From Sean Bell to stop-and-frisks
Racist profiling is a U.S. tradition (http://www.workers.org/2010/us/racist_profiling_0304/)

By Dolores Cox
Feb 25, 2010

History has a way of repeating itself, it is said. This couldn’t be truer than in the racist differential treatment of Black men and youth by U.S. state and local police departments. Equal justice under the law has never been part of the U.S. criminal justice system.

Take the Sean Bell case. On Nov. 25, 2006, Bell, a 23-year-old African American, was killed by New York Police Department officers in a hail of 50 bullets while sitting unarmed in his car as he was leaving his bachelor party at a local night club in Queens. He was to be married later that same day.

Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield, in the car with him and also unarmed, were seriously wounded.

On April 25, 2008, a state judge acquitted the three police officers of every charge of manslaughter and reckless endangerment in the shootings.

Essentially the judge ruled Bell’s killing to be justified; no crime committed. This decision is a measure of how devalued Black life is and how easily Black men are demonized and disparaged.

Sean Bell’s case proves how deadly race can still be in a politically illusionary “post-racial” society. In the past wallets, candy bars, keys and packs of cigarettes were deemed sufficient cause to provoke such malicious responses. But now, nothing but race-based suspicion is required.

This past Feb. 16, ironically during Black History Month, the U.S. attorney general stated that the Justice Department investigation determined that there was insufficient evidence to pursue federal charges against the officers who killed Bell and wounded his companions.

Specifically, the Justice Department stated: “After a careful and thorough review, a team of experienced federal prosecutors and FBI agents determined that the evidence was insufficient to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the law enforcement personnel who fired at Bell acted willfully. Accordingly, the investigation into this incident has been closed.” (Daily Challenge, Feb. 18)

Later that day, the Rev. Al Sharpton, president of the National Action Network and representing the Bell family, held a press conference on the Justice Department’s decision in Washington, D.C. Present were Nicole Paultre-Bell, Sean’s widow; Trent Benefield; Joseph Guzman; and attorneys Michael Hardy and Sanford Rubenstein.

Sharpton stated, “We intend to pursue internal NYPD proceedings and the civil lawsuit to try and bring some justice to Sean Bell’s children and family, and to Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield, whom I still feel had their civil rights violated. ... Fifty shots on an unarmed man who engaged in no crime is intolerable.” (Daily Challenge, Feb. 18)

At a Feb. 20 rally in New York, William Bell, Sean’s father, asked, “Who are the laws made for? Are they made for us or the police?” (http://tiny.cc/bILM3) Since receiving the Justice Department’s verdict, the distraught family says they feel they’re reliving what happened to Sean Bell all over again.

Bell killing — not an isolated incident

A Feb. 17 report published by the Center for Constitutional Rights reveals new NYPD data for 2009 showing a significant rise in “stop-and-frisks.” (www.ccrjustice.org (http://www.ccrjustice.org)) For that year the reported number of New Yorkers stopped was more than half a million. The racial disparity in the number of stops had increased with 87 percent being Black and Latino/a — significantly more compared to whites.

The CCR is representing victims of stop-and-frisk policies from 2005 to 2008 in a class action lawsuit filed in 2008. During this period, approximately 80 percent of people stopped were Blacks and Latinos/as, who only made up 25 percent and 28 percent of the general population, respectively. Crime “suspects” are frequently stopped for vague, undefined reasons such as “furtive movements,” “casing a victim or location,” “inappropriate attire for season,” “wearing clothes commonly used in a crime” and “suspicious bulge.” However, only 1.3 percent of those stopped last year had weapons.

The CCR states that there’s a need for important reforms to the oversight of the NYPD due to the trend of racial disparities increasing. The CCR concludes that stop-and-frisks without reasonable suspicion violate the Fourteenth Amendment and the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

That a travesty of justice occurred in the Sean Bell case is an understatement.

Racist police oppression has been statistically documented. Continued racial profiling, harassment, beatings, shootings, killings, arrests and imprisonment of Black men and youth by the police reveal that the more things change, the more they remain the same.

Everyone should be outraged at the Justice Department’s decision in the Sean Bell case and recommit to the struggle. We are all Sean Bell!


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