Who Will Guard the Guardians?
The more things change, the more they remain the same. From 1882 to 1968, 3, 446 blacks were lynched in America. Sad but true, George Floyd’s death is just one of many troubling and pervasive sagas in American history. Black lives have never truly mattered and some whites subconsciously and overtly believe that “it ain’t bloodshed unless its white blood being shed.”
Not only black lives, but neither does black opinion matter until it is embraced by white people. Black athletes tried to bring attention to the chronic problem of police brutality, but their peaceful protests were scorned and deemed unamerican by most whites including the 45th president of the United States who referred to them as “sons of bitches.”
Why so many whites thought that such a demonstration was unamerican speaks to the pervasive disjunction between white and black America. We should be mindful that it does not take eight minutes and forty-six seconds to kneel or stand during the national anthem, but rather, a video of that length to awaken white America to the realization that black lives matter! But this was not the first time that black athletes tried to bring attention to injustice in America. Over fifty years ago, Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their fists at the 1968 Olympics.
Mark Twain once wrote: “There are many humorous things in the world; among them, the white man’s notion that he is less savage than the other savages.” White privilege is a construct of the post-Columbian world manifested in myriad ways — endured by its victims and cherished by those who benefit from it. The fear of that privilege eroding is often the source of vitriol and animus directed at people of color.
Want to read this story later? Save it in Journal.
After enduring centuries of slavery in which the killing of blacks was an ordained right of whites, the freedom of slaves ushered in a new era of oppression and murder. Although the 14th Amendment granted former slaves “ equal protection of the laws”, these words were as meaningless as “all men are created equal.” Even though the 15th Amendment granted citizenship to African Americans, blacks remained on the periphery of American society, often treated as unwanted denizens in a nation under God.
Some white Americans view the Constitution as a palladium not to be violated or ignored. Others, however, believe this to be true only when the rule of law favors them. Gentlemen’s agreements, Jim Crow laws, and other forms of systematic discriminations are as American as apple pie and hotdogs at a baseball game. Historically, they are used to circumvent the law and to create a milieu more palatable to whites. The KKK was — and still is — a terrorist organization formed during Reconstruction to keep a knee or a foot on the neck of black people and to reconstruct the laws of the Constitution. Its membership included members of Congress and the Supreme Court.
Some whites see racism as a figment of the African American imagination. To African Americans, however, it is a ghost that has haunted them in the American house. For centuries race has been a taboo subject that makes many Americans uncomfortable. Far too long we have lived in two nations, one black and one white, often separated by color rather than character. Unfortunately, the perception of some blacks getting ahead often comes with its associated “blacklash” of resentment.
As an engineering student in Philadelphia during the early 70s, I was a victim of police brutality on several occasions. Mayor Rizzo ascended to power under the mantra of “Law and Order.” This gave the police cart blanch over the city’s black population. If three or more black students left the campus in Center City, they were automatically stopped by police and asked for identification. Once, I said to a policeman “ I thought this was America, not South Africa.” The policeman said to me, what the f**k did you say? My friend from Philadelphia said to the police, that I didn't mean what I said. Then the policeman said to us: I am busting my ass to send my daughter to college and here they are giving free education to a bunch of niggers! Then he threw my Student ID and Driver’s License out the window to the ground and said: “nigger pick them up.”
I had been called a nigger before, but never by policemen and it shocked me! But it was their way of letting you know that they could say or do anything they wanted to you. They were there to protect and serve the white population and to oppress you under the guise of law and order. Afterward, My friend from Philadelphia, familiar with police tactics, told me that had I not picked them up, the officer would have driven me to a gang neighborhood and I would have become just another victim of gang violence in the city. Harassments by the police were constant, and once I was thrown to the ground and a gun placed to my head just for walking down the street. Unfortunately, just about every black male has a story to tell, and every black father has to have a discussion with their son on how to behave when pulled over by the police.
While in college, I lived across the street from the MOVE organization and I constantly witnessed violence by police officers against them. Once, I saw two policemen hold a pregnant black woman while a third policeman repeatedly kicked her between her legs, all without consequence to them. The police knew that they are seldom held accountable as long as they direct their violence against black people. And yet, someway, somehow, they built a statue to the law and order mayor that blessed such behavior. For instance, during Rizzo’s re-election bid in 1975, he said “Just wait after November, you’ll have a front row seat because I’m going to make Attila the Hun look like a faggot” when asked about his enemies.
Resentment of progress is the other side of this ugly racist coin that we must address. We were not only resented by the police, but by the student body and faculty during the nascent days of Affirmative Action. Ingrained in some whites is the notion that black people must remain below or behind them, perhaps a subluminal artifact of slavery and Jim Crow. The emergence of the Tea Party, the mantra of “taking our country back”, the delegitimization of America’s first black president are all symptoms of the disease of racism in desperate need of a cure.
I was so outraged after the killing of Trayvon Martin that I wrote a letter to President Obama in 2013, addressing some on the aforementioned issues. Below is the letter and the response from the White House.
Dear Mr. President:
On two previous occasions, I have written your office. Once to congratulate you on your election, the second time was to voice some of my concerns regarding the direction of the nation and to wish you well during your second campaign. This is my third and perhaps my last letter to you, and I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate you this time on winning a second term.
Mr. President, my concerns for the direction that the nation is heading still persists. Our ship of state remains in troubled waters as we pass by the isthmus that bounds one millennium to the other. At the beginning of the twentieth century, W.E.B. Dubois said that the problem of the twentieth century is “the problem of the color line.” The twentieth century has passed, yet his statement lingers. Many believe that your election was an affirmation that racial issues have become an anachronism. However, to many African Americans that see the ghost of racism in a house that continues to haunt them, the specter of racism recently exhibited is all the more frightening.
You have said on more than one occasion, that we are not “red states or blue states, a black America or a white America but the United States of America.” You have also said that we are a nation of laws; however, we should not promulgate one myth without promulgating the other. “Separate but Equal” was a law and so was Slavery and so is Stand Your Ground. The reality is that we are a nation comprised of the aforementioned colors as visible as the colors on our flag that so often obstructs the light of justice and equality. Perhaps more than any time in the post-Civil Rights era, your election has proved this to be an aphorism. Nothing exemplifies this better than recent changes and interpretations of the law that were initiated during the Civil Rights era.
It would be disingenuous of me to say that my faith in America has not diminished. Not because of things you have done, but because of things you are unable to do because of your race and ethnicity. We now live in an era, where the “N word” is not mentioned, except to sell records or whispered in the cloisters of white America. Yet, you and other members of your race, are called it daily not in words but in actions. I am afraid, Mr. President that many are using your presidency as a canvas to paint a new portrait of America, one that resembles the old, replete with its racial caricatures and stereotypes and painted in the colors of its laws. Racial stereotyping is not a phenomenon limited to young black men on our streets; it is pervasive throughout our society. It is used by your opponents to undermine your authority and prestige or to make requests of you that are unprecedented for others that have held your office.
If we are true to our better angels, then we can admit that race has been an underlying theme and a distraction to your administration. It is most unfortunate, but true, that there are many Americans that view your failure as their success. Your opponents consistently play the race card against you, and dare you to speak out against racial issues less you alienate some of the whites that support you. This is perhaps best exemplified by your support for Professor Gates. Professor Gates had the law on his side, but what mattered was not the law or his distinguished career at a prestigious educational institution or the attention drawn to a perennial problem that haunts the African American community; what mattered was that a black President supported another black man against a white law enforcement official.
Fifty years ago, an innocent seventeen-year-old was attacked by police and dogs in Birmingham, Alabama but he was only wounded. Mr. President I was a child in those days, but today I am a father of two young black men. Recently an innocent seventeen-year-old was fatally attacked by an overzealous citizen acting as a self-proclaimed policeman. Both aforementioned attacks were by white men that acted within the confines of the law and both victims were black kids that did not violate the law. Given the nation’s history of lynching, Jim Crow and other forms of discrimination upheld by the law and the disproportionate ratio of African Americans imprisoned for victimless crimes, it is understandable that the African American community was piqued by the recent verdict in the Trayvon Martin case; not by our system of justice but by our history of injustice that seems to persist.
It is a history in which African Americans struggled with the dichotomy of our laws being applied and justice being achieved. It is most unfortunate that our laws are not the reflection of truth and justice. Instead, they are a reflection of the ethos of the people that make and enforce them. Therefore, if the nation does not see that there is something very very wrong with the Trayvon Martin case, then there is something very very wrong with the nation. Mr. President, it is not enough to say that we are a nation of laws. Instead, we must reaffirm that we are a nation committed to freedom, justice and equality for all of its citizens. Moreover, if we are not mindful of our creed, then a Brave New World will be upon us; one in which some humans are more equal than others under the law and “separate” will once again mean unequal. Change sometimes is slow, but it can move in positive or negative directions and given the rapid change in technology it is even more important that the laws that guarantee and protect freedom for all Americans are constantly reviewed, upheld and enforced.
Fifty years after the Emancipation Proclamation, President Wilson gave a speech at Gettysburg in commemoration of that famous battle. In his speech slavery was not mentioned at all and Reconstruction was not only viewed as a failure by many white citizens but by the American intelligentsia. Fifty years after the March on Washington, prestigious members of the party of Lincoln refused invitations to speak at the Anniversary of Martin Luther King’s seminal speech in fear of political retribution. Their absence and silence have left the African American community wondering if we are experiencing another episode in the racial leitmotif of exclusion so prevalent throughout American history. And moreover, is it the kind of change that is beneficial to them.
Many feel that it is the antithesis of the change that they hoped for after the election of an African American president and the selection of an African American Attorney General. Therefore, it would be most ironic if the Civil Rights advancements were repealed under your administration. Hence, it is imperative that your administration take the initiative at the federal level to assure that progress continues to be made and that Affirmative Action laws are upheld. And moreover, that laws such as Stand Your Ground and Stop and Frisk do not become permanent fixtures of the American landscape. Furthermore, we must enact initiatives rather than react to those that want to turn back the clock on American history.
As always, Mr. President, I have faith in you and your administration, but my faith in my country has wavered given recent events that remind me of a time in America, when “movies were in black and white and so was everything else.” I know that the problems of your office are enormous, but I also know that if our ship of state is headed for the waters of equality for all Americans it needs a captain that can navigate us through troubled waters. Despite the storm that looms ahead and the maelstrom of problems of which our nation is currently engaged, I believe from the bottom of my heart that you are such a captain.
God bless you Mr. President and may God bless the United States of America!!!
Respectfully,
____________________
Richard L. Singley
📝 Save this story in Journal.
🌎 Wake up every Sunday morning to the week’s most noteworthy stories in Society waiting in your inbox. Read the Noteworthy in Society newsletter.
