I had a “conversation” on Facebook today with a white guy who essentially wanted facts to prove that there is any systemic racial profiling or police brutality aimed at black and brown men in this country. That should have been my first clue to keep scrolling, but as so often happens, I took the bait. So, I figure I might as well get some mileage out of this response here because I don’t have the energy to repeat it over and over again to disingenuous white people. So here goes:
It is incredulous to me how you can’t connect the dots between this story and the Mike Brown story. How does a white guy who is already wanted by police, assault 2 cops, breaking one cop’s hand, clearly trying to elude them…live to tell about it, while another guy…who is black…doesn’t assault a cop (at least there is no evidence of that, unlike in this story where we have clear evidence of such)…and is gunned down in the street as seen by 5 eyewitnesses with eerily similar stories?
And there’s no connection to racial profiling and police brutality against black men? You’d have to be a white man in America blinded by white privilege to miss that connection. Oh. Sorry. I guess you are.
But ok. You want facts? How about this:
FACT – as it relates to Ferguson MO, we know very little “officially released” information about police officer Darren Wilson, but we know LOTS of “officially released” information about Mike Brown.
FACT – between 2006 and 2012, a black man was shot by the police every 48 hours in this country.
FACT – in 2012 alone, a black man was shot by police, security guard or a vigilante every 28 hours…and in a mind-blowing 71% of the cases, had no weapon. In other words…UNARMED.
FACT – black folks make up 13% of the U.S. population, but over 40% of the prison population.
FACT – Even though African-Americans use or sell drugs about the same rate as whites, they are 2.8 to 5.5 times more likely to be arrested for drugs than whites.
FACT – Black offenders receive longer sentences compared to whites for the same offenses.
FACT – in the past 4 weeks alone, 5 unarmed black men across this country have been shot (one tasered) and killed by police officers. Note: you’ll have to scroll to the bottom of this article to get the information on the 5th guy who was tasered and died. By the way, any irony on the fact that an article on how many black men are killed by police had to be updated a day after it originally posted because the number just keeps going up and up?
And my final FACT – what I have been trying to convey to you is that black folks are weary, angry and hurt at what is happening across this country to us and even more weary, angry and hurt at some white people’s seeming all-out resistance (to the point of being irrational and illogical) to connect the dots and tell the truth. This is not a gray area. It is black and white – literally – and we’re tired of white people trying to make us think we’re crazy.
Furthermore, it is so damn arrogant to tell black folks that our reality as a black person in America isn’t really our reality…which is essentially what you’re trying to do by “facting” us to death.
But nonetheless, because I want ya’ll to “get it” I gave you some FACTS. I’ve got 500 years worth of more FACTS if that’s what it takes to convince you, but I’m guessing that the FACT that it would take that many more FACTS means it isn’t worth the effort.