On March 18, 2018, Stephon Clark, a 21-year-old, unarmed, black man was shot and killed by local police in his own backyard. His death sentence was the result of holding a phone that strangely resembled a weapon while his back was against officers. Days later, federal officials announced no charges would be filed against the police officers who murdered Alton Sterling, another unarmed black man. Reason being “there was insufficient evidence to show Alton Sterling’s civil rights had been violated” (BBC). Too bad for Alton, the right to life is no longer inherent. Too bad for Alton and every other black and brown person, that in a “post-racial” America, true democracy remains an eluding dream.
Too many times have I heard that racism is a thing of the past. Uninformed individuals attribute equality to how long-ago slavery existed and how black our former president is. While I won’t deny America of its gains, I won’t concede to the nonexistence of racism just because I haven’t seen any white hoods lately. It’s the 21st century guys, just as technology and human knowledge has progressed and advanced, so has racism. Racism is subtler, more sneaky and underhanded than before. It’s the latest, sleekest, and shiniest version yet. We have a new device that includes voter suppression, attacks and restrictions on minorities, and loss of life (the old hits), plus a new upgrade of intimidation, which includes the birther conspiracy, the Muslim ban, and the wall.
Old racism said minorities didn’t have the right to vote. Today, new racism says technically they can vote, but we’re going to make it hard for them by imposing voter registration laws and gerrymandering districts, so if they do vote, it won’t count as much. If they go to prison, they’ll never be able to vote again. So, when we, the government, make decisions that affect their lives, they have no say in the matter. Old racism would lynch any man, woman, or child that spoke up about anything. New racism states that black people who protest are terrorist and placed on the FBI’s “Most Wanted” list. Members of the Black Lives Matter movement are under constant surveillance just because they’re tired of the police killing black people. Old racism said black kids were not allowed to attend school with white kids. New racism says schools are funded by property taxes, so if you live in a poor neighborhood, you’ll attend a poor school and get a poor education, thus ensuring you have a poor life. Also, your poor school will prepare you for your future poor life in prison, hence the School to Prison Pipeline. Old Racism said we hate blacks and immigrants. New racism says the 1st black president isn’t even an American citizen, which means he can’t be a legitimate president. Nice try black people, but you can’t have this one. When Trump first announced his Muslim ban during the campaign, he called for a ban on all Muslims. Plus, his wall and his war on Dreamers, makes its seem as if Hispanic people are unwanted here. His rhetoric is offensive to Americans who are Muslim or Hispanic. New racism sends the message without words that you do not belong. This is our soil. To top it off, new racism is killing black and brown people legally, as if their lives never mattered. As of 2017, blacks and Hispanics made up 30% of the US population. They were 48% of police killings and 60% of unarmed people murdered by the police. As compared to whites, who made up 63% of the population, 48% of all police killings, and 37% of unarmed people who died at the hands of the police. As a disclaimer, I understand that most of these issues affect white Americans also, but the fact that minorities are overrepresented in every case, make its seem as if they are being targeted. Which isn’t so absurd, considering the War on Drugs. Law and Order was the new racist way of saying vote for me and I’ll put all the black people in jail for you.
When I think about countries prone to democratic erosion, I think about poor countries, countries with new and unstable democracies, or countries in the state of war or some other emergency, never the United States. America has its issues, but as I’ve been taught, we have a long, rich history of democracy. That is why, it is so easy to overlook that for some Americans, democracy is slipping away piece by piece. Professor Colgan of Brown University stated that “the breakdown of democracy happens when it is unanticipated.” So, my goal is to show that democracy is, indeed, eroding for minorities, so that we can move forward by taking the steps necessary to stop the corrosion of American democracy.
Sources:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43563885
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxqZWZmZGNvbGdhbnxneDozN2RmZGMzMmEyOWRmNjM5
https://policeviolencereport.org/
Picture from Atlanta Black Star
12 Extremely Disturbing Statistics About Police Violence and Black People That Should Alarm You
I think it’s fair to say that democracy in America is, at the very least, not safe or at least not guaranteed to be permanent going forward.
I love comparing different forms of racism to different forms of technology–almost like it upgrades with our iPhones and becomes more quiet and difficult to detect.
I also agree that stealth racism in America is one of the larger contributing factors to our polarization as a nation–even if we won’t say it. There seems to be a fundamental difference in rhetoric when discussing racial issues with the “left” and “right” and if we treated it less like a civil war and rather decided to simply be decent human beings to one another, then perhaps we could push against polarization together.
I hope you agree that there is still room for a conversation to be had between the two sides. I just worry that neither side will be willing to compromise or discuss their more sensitive differences. Each side thinks the other is dangerous, and each side doesn’t fully understand the other, and the result is unnecessary strains on race relations, which obviously needs to be addressed.
Great reminder that, although the United States is often see as the apex of democratic freedom and equality, democratic erosion can appear anywhere and that it does not discriminate between wealthy or poor countries. The democracy in the United States is not stable; however, I would like to believe that it is generally secure. I do believe that ‘closest racism’ exists and with during President Trump’s campaign, as voters and citizens, we say a lot of the ‘ugly’ side of Americans across the United States. While I do agree with you that aspects of racism are sneakier and that we still have a long way to go before racism is actually ridden; however, I do believe that there is a lot of differences between all sides of the conversation. I think polarization begins with the automatic instinct to side with what an individual believes is comfortable and in order to solve or improve an issue like racism in cultural melting pot of a country like the United States, all sides need to open honest dialogue. Honest dialogue should hurt, it should be blunt, and it should directly address the problem otherwise we remain in this stagnant limbo where civil freedoms are continually frozen. As much as I agree with your standpoint on the issue, one thing I would be interested in you addressing is the role of Asians in the America. Typically the hate speech that we see in the media has the narrative of ‘whites v. blacks’ or ‘whites v. Hispanics’, but Asians are usually left out of the conversations. Asians are typically regarded in American society as the “model minority” which places Asians in an awkward middle ground when discussing racial problems in America. I feel that Asians present a problem towards racists white Americans who believe that minorities are the problem but at the same time, Asians present a problem in the argument that the American system is structured for minorities to fail. If you have any comments or thoughts, I would love to hear it otherwise great post!
I enjoyed reading your perspective on how racism continues to be a part of democratic erosion. It is difficult for many people who have not been a victim of racism, to understand the dynamic of existing in a country they were born and raised in. Even though slavery has ended, the mentality behind it never went away. The African American race went through slavery, to caste, to under class. Vagrancy laws were enacted to punish anyone of black skin. They were subject to fines and being placed in jail for simply being unemployed or not having a residence.
Mississippi would lead the nation from the 1860’s to the end of the century to some of the atrocious mob behavior imaginable. Some of the responses to this form of white supremacy was to leave the South in all. Creating a mass migration of African Americans to move North and West. This all transpired up until the 1930’s. You make a great point, you cannot just simply forget that America has this languishing history. Many people of today just say “move on” or “you didn’t experience slavery”. This may be true, but it doesn’t mean that there are members of families and society who sacrificed a lot, who dealt with extreme xenophobia so that future generations may not have to deal with the same problems.
Sadly we see almost on a daily basis that a young black man was killed for the perception of doing something illegal. Why does this happen so often to only black men? Why does the life of a man only live on through a hashtag? Racism is very real in America. This must be acknowledged by the opposition.
I think you bring up many a great points that do in my eyes as well work to erode the democracy of the US. One of them being the inherent institutional racism that has plagued the modern United States. As you mention the US no longer works in plain sight anymore they do things in a subtle way in order to avoid any responsibility or accountability. Both of accountability and responsibility are actively avoided because of policies that have an underlining effect that discriminates against minorities. For example, as you said gerrymandering, which does allow the voices of some to be counted the same. When things like police brutality only happen in black and minority communities there is an outcry of institutional racism from within the government because this only occurs in those two communities and not in a white neighborhood. Therefore, I do agree with your attempt to link racism to the erosion of democracy because referring back to John Locke’s social contract theory it states that you have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of property. He also states that in the case that the government does not protect you, you have the right to overthrow it. Considering that the government does not effectively protect the lives of minorities as is witnessed with police brutality and the ineffective policies that fall short in benefiting minorities is why democracy is eroding because it is losing its legitimacy for protecting its citizens equally.