2001-2005
Day 81
2001: Black Children Five Times More Likely Than White Youth to Be Incarcerated (Even Though They Do Not Commit More Crimes)
From the Equal Justice Initiative:
Even as the number of children incarcerated in juvenile facilities continues to decline nationwide, the racial disparity in youth incarceration has grown, according to data from the Department of Justice. As of 2015, African American youth were five times as likely as white youth to be detained or committed to youth facilities.
A new fact sheet from the Sentencing Project shows that the racial disparity in youth incarceration has increased since 2001, when Black youth were four times as likely as whites to be incarcerated.
From 2001 to 2015, juvenile incarceration fell by 54 percent, but white youth incarceration has declined faster than that of Black youth. The national rate of youth incarceration was 152 per 100,000; the Black youth placement rate was 433 per 100,000, compared to 86 per 100,000 for white youth. Overall, the racial disparity between Black and white youth in custody increased 22 percent since 2001.
Of the 48,043 youth held in juvenile facilities (including residential treatment centers, detention centers, training schools, and juvenile jails and prisons) in the United States as of October 2015, 44 percent were African American. Only 16 percent of youth nationwide are Black.
The Sentencing Project’s state-by-state analysis showed that in six states, African American youth are at least 10 times as likely to be held in placement as are white youth: New Jersey, Wisconsin, Montana, Delaware, Connecticut, and Massachusetts.
While three states (Vermont, West Virginia, and New Hampshire) decreased their racial disparity by at least half, the disparity at least doubled in Maryland, Montana, Connecticut, Delaware, and Wisconsin.
“The disparity exists because of differences in how young people of color are treated at every point of contact with the justice system, but the growth of the incarceration disparity is likely due to growing disparities in arrests, which feeds the rest of the system,” Joshua Rovner, who studies juvenile justice at the Sentencing Project, told Mother Jones.
Black children are more than twice as likely as white kids to be arrested, but the data shows this disparity is not because Black kids are committing more crimes, Mother Jones reports. Black youth are burdened by a presumption of guilt and dangerousness — a legacy of our history of racial injustice that marks youth of color for disparately frequent stops, searches, and violence and leads to higher rates of childhood suspension, expulsion, and arrest at school; disproportionate contact with the juvenile justice system; harsher charging decisions and disadvantaged plea negotiations; a greater likelihood of being denied bail and diversion; an increased risk of wrongful convictions and unfair sentences; and higher rates of probation and parole revocation.
“In an era of racial segregation, especially residential segregation, Black youths’ lives are surrounded by police officers, and their teenaged mistakes are more likely to land in the juvenile justice system,” Mr. Rovner explained. “White youth’s mistakes are not.”
Sources/Comments:
Click HERE
Day 82
2002: White Supremacy Explodes Thanks To The Internet
Oh, the wonders of the Internet! So wonderful, and yet so horrifying.
Sadly, with the rise of internet use, the rise of White Supremacy really started to retake hold in America. The Anti Defamation League posted a report in 2002 about the rise of White Supremacy due to the internet. This is the intro to it:
The Internet has provided the far-right fringe with formerly inconceivable opportunities. Online, racists, anti-Semites, and anti-government extremists can reach a much larger audience than ever before and can more easily portray themselves as legitimate.
Anyone using the Internet may inadvertently be exposed to hate online. When uninformed or easily influenced people – particularly children – come across hate propaganda, they can fall prey to its deceptive reasoning and adopt hateful beliefs themselves, sometimes going so far as to act on what they have read.
Though the number of active right-wing extremists is relatively small, the harm they can cause is significant. By spreading their views, racists, anti-Semites, and anti-government "patriots" encourage and sustain prejudice in the mainstream. In addition, these extremists are often ready to break the law in support of their beliefs.
The Internet has provided the means for extremists to create an "electronic community of hate." In the Internet age, extremists are no longer isolated from others who share their beliefs. Now, they can communicate with thousands of their compatriots with the click of a mouse, from the comfort of their own homes. Just as it has benefited millions of ordinary people, the Internet has profited, connected, and inspired extremists in previously unimaginable ways.
This report will detail three important, measurable respects in which the "electronic community of hate" strengthens the work of right-wing extremists offline. First of all, the Internet has provided them with instant and anonymous access to propaganda that inspires and guides criminal activity. Secondly, it helps them to more effectively coordinate their activities. Finally, it offers them new ways to make money.
These, then, are actual, measurable consequences of right-wing extremism on the Internet and should be of concern to us all.
Back to me talking: In today’s terms, here’s how it looks-
--Dehumanizing immigrants or any people of color- saying things likes, “THEY are all rapists” or “THEY are all violent” (anti-immigrant talk is part of White Supremacy)
--Calling White Supremacists “good guys”
--”White rights” movements where whites talk about how whites are the ones oppressed, not people of color (barf- this one is so gross to me)
--Articles that are published on White Supremacy websites being touted as actual news and real
--Trying to remove anti bias training from the workplace
--Calling yourself a "patriot" when really you are just a white supremacist wrapped up in a flag
A few more facts:
The Southern Poverty Law Center reports a dramatic increase in the number of white nationalist groups in the U.S., from 100 chapters in 2017 to 148 in 2018.
The Anti-Defamation League reports a 182 percent increase in incidents of the distribution of white supremacist propaganda, and an increase in the number of rallies and demonstrations by white supremacy groups, from 76 in 2017 to 91 in 2018.
A study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies found the number of terrorist attacks by far-right perpetrators quadrupled in the U.S. between 2016 and 2017, and that far-right attacks in Europe rose 43 percent over the same period. Among those incidents, CSIS states, the rise of attacks by white supremacists and anti-government extremists is “of particular concern.”
We need to recognize that White Supremacy is real, it is on the rise, and it is absolutely not OK.
Sources/Comments:
Day 83
2003: 57-Year-Old City Employee Murdered In Botched Police Raid
This story is so eerily similar to Breonna Taylor that it hurts. No-knock warrant, confidential informant, the real perpetrator had been arrested days earlier. How is this acceptable and nobody held accountable???? How can we not be furious and demanding justice when the same crap keeps happening again and again??? It's easy for me to see why people are marching in the streets screaming "ENOUGH!"
From The ABA Journal:
On May 16, 2003, a dozen New York City police officers stormed an apartment building in Harlem on no-knock warrant. They were acting on a tip from a lying confidential informant who told them a convicted felon was dealing drugs and guns from the sixth floor. But there was no felon. The only resident in the building was Alberta Spruill, a 57-year-old city employee described by friends as a “devout churchgoer.”
Before breaking in, the raid team set off a grenade. The boom stunned Spruill and she fell to the ground. Once they had figured out they made a mistake, the officer attempted to help Spruill to her feet. But she went limp, and slipped into cardiac arrest. She died two hours later.
The ensuing NYPD investigation found that the alleged drug dealer was arrested days earlier, and had been in police custody ever since. The informant had lied. The officers who conducted the raid had done no investigation to corroborate the informant’s tip. By 2006, New Yorkers filed more than a thousand complaints about botched raids, a 50 percent increase over 2002, the year before the raid on Alberta Spruill.
Sources/Comments:
Click HERE
Day 84
2004: Frank Jude Beaten By Off Duty Cops At A Party, Then Beaten MORE When 911 Called And Cops Arrived to "Stop" the Beating
This one is a doozy- I can’t believe I never heard this before. Frank Jude is my age.
Frank Jude was invited by some acquaintances to a party. When he arrived, he sensed a tense vibe toward him. He was the only African American, and a couple of the guests called him the N--- word. Turns out, most of these party goers were off duty cops.
Eventually, Frank decided to leave because he felt uncomfortable. He went out and got into his car, when 3 off duty cops who attended the party followed him and started questioning him. One of them claimed that Frank had stolen his wallet and police badge. Frank insisted he didn’t steal it, but the off duty cops pulled him out of the car, handcuffed him, and started beating him. They did NOT find the wallet or badge, but continued to beat him nevertheless while he was handcuffed and on the ground (and, even if they did find the wallet, can we all agree that this punishment is a bit excessive? The fact that they didn’t find anything just proves even more what horrible people these off duty cops are). The three men choked, punched and kicked Mr. Jude, put a knife to his neck and a gun to his head and stuck a sharp object in his ears.
A neighbor saw this violence and quickly dialed 911 for help for Frank. Cops arrived, and JOINED IN the fighting. They continued to beat Frank over and over.
It took several months for any steps to be taken to discipline the officers.
After this incident, 911 calls went down in Milwaukee by 20% for two years. Why? Because residents didn’t trust cops and didn’t believe they could call them for help. Few residents were willing to put themselves at risk by calling the police.
I mean, would you call the police and trust they would come to help and not harm if this happened to your neighbor/friend/brother? I would not.
Sources/Comments:
Day 85
2005: Race and Hurricane Katrina
This one is tricky because there is so much history and backstory that goes into what happened. There are books and dissertations written about this, so condensing this into a FB post is, well, impossible- but I will do my best. I’m going to do this in bullet form, and you can go research any of these bullet points further.
-Hurricane Katrina hit August 29, 2005. It caused the levees to break and flooded the city, mostly the East side, where, due to redlining, African Americans lived. The levees were not well maintained. Much speculation has been made that the levees were not well maintained because they were in the African American sector and so they were neglected. There is ample evidence to support this.
-In the 60s, white developers built a suburb in East New Orleans. White people moved there. Hurricane Betsy came and wiped out the suburb in the 60s, so the white people moved away. African Americans were forced into this area due to redlining and other racial segregation measures, but all the white money left and so it was not at all protected from future flooding. Again, read entire dissertations about this- this is the very brief synopsis.
-The response to Katrina was slow and, well, awful by every measure. The poor response led Kanye West to say, “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.” This was the first time West went rogue and made controversial comments. Whether or not you agree with him, this is how black people in New Orleans felt- that if they were white, the response would have been much faster and much better organized. But, because they were black, they were left to suffer without the help of the federal government.
-The images of reports and looting by African Americans were GREATLY exaggerated. Yes, there was some, but it was people looking for food in order to survive- it was NOT the violence and crime that was projected in the media. Unfortunately, this false depiction of black violence led to vigilantes coming and causing greater crime. One vigilante killed two black men who were trying to find food (they were not being violent- they were literally starving). One leader of the national guard lamented that the media caused more violence to occur because of the false reporting. Perhaps more food instead of armed forces would have helped.
-Blacks found it extremely difficult to get loans to fix their houses and restart their businesses. It took many up to 14 years to get FEMA funds to fix their houses, so they eventually just left NO and started over. Whites were able to get loans much quicker.
-White residents in St. Bernard Parish (a very white area of NO), who did not want blacks escaping flood waters to come through their town, blocked off the roads and forced them to turn around and walk an additional two hours to find a safe place.
-After Katrina, St. Bernard Parish redrew it’s boundaries, rental codes, and housing assistance to kick all blacks out of their neighborhood. They made renting to blacks illegal. In a move not meant to hide their racism, this happened: “The council truly distinguished itself in September 2006 when it passed an ordinance that, critics said, danced about as close to legalized segregation as perhaps any law since 1972, the year Louisiana finally deleted its Jim Crow laws. Known as the “blood relative ordinance,” this law prohibited homeowners from renting their properties to anyone who was not a bona fide blood relation without first obtaining a permit–a loaded concept anywhere, but particularly in St. Bernard, where the white majority owned 93 percent of the pre-storm housing.” If the landlord rented to a black person, they would cut off the power to the house.
-Blacks did not have the same access as whites to leave NO before the storm hit. Of course, access to cars and friends to stay at outside of NO was one issue, but so was the real consequences of leaving- if they left and the hurricane didn’t hit, as is often the case, and then couldn’t get back into the city to get to work, they would be fired. So the ability to leave a job for a few days to protect yourself and family from the hurricane wasn’t an option.
I could go on and on, but I’ll leave with this quote from a white man about the rebuilding efforts in NO:
“They don’t want the blacks back,” explained Lynn Dean, 84, a quirky, self-styled “mini-mogul” who served for years on the St. Bernard Parish Council and was one of only two council members to oppose the blood relative law. “What they’d like to do now with Katrina is say, We’ll wipe out all of them. They’re not gonna say that out in the open, but how do you say? Actions speak louder than words. There’s their action.”
Sources/Comments:
The Yellow House is a great book for a personal account.
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