Extra

Putting Becky’s editorial on “Bogus Traffic Stop” into a larger context:  

First, I would suggest people read a very thought provoking speech by a black minister to a white congregation about racism: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-metta/i-racist_b_7770652.html

Second, I would suggest watching the short but powerful TED talk by Alice Goffman about how we're priming some kids for college — & others for prison. http://www.ted.com/talks/alice_goffman_college_or_prison_two_destinies_one_blatant_injustice

Third, I would suggest people get and read “The New Jim Crow” book by law professor Michelle Alexander. Like a good lawyer, she extensively documents every step of her presentation. 

She traces racism in the United States historically, through a series of clear steps beginning with the very foundation of the country. The U.S. began with the belief that blacks were not people, and with the ideal of an eternal segregation. The Civil War was fought to preserve the Union, and freeing slaves was a tactical step very late in the war. Reconstruction was quickly gutted for political reasons, and was followed soon after by a fierce backlash, resulting in the original Jim Crow, complete with black codes, traditions, and often, forced labor. WWII lead to some small integration steps in the military, in interstate bussing, and in law schools. The Brown school desegregation decision had basically no effect for nearly a decade, until the Civil Rights Movement emerged. The reaction to this overdue progress was the creation of a “law and order” mantra, which evolved into a “War on Crime” under Nixon, and a “War on Drugs” under Reagan. Bill Clinton later vowed that nobody was going to be tougher on crimes than he was, which lead to what Michelle Alexander calls the “Age of Mass Incarceration.” 

We have all heard of driving while black, and walking while black. Michelle Alexander's second point is that research clearly shows that all races use and sell drugs at remarkably similar rates, and black communities want the protections provided by law enforcement as much as white communities. However, at every step, blacks are stopped, searched, arrested, prosecuted, convicted, and jailed at disproportionate rates. This has created a massive community of people excluded from housing, school aid, jobs, welfare, food stamps, military, professional licenses, etc. The federal inmate population has risen from 41,000 in 1980 to 500,000 now. If the Berkeley Police Drug Task Force really wanted to make drug arrests, they should focus on Telegraph Ave, the student dorms, and fraternities, where drugs are done in the open, not south and west Berkeley. 

In the third focus of her book, Michelle Alexander argues that the U.S. Supreme Court has also been influenced by "War on Crime" and "War on Drugs" rhetoric, and has progressively weakened the individual protections of the constitution by allowing random searches of schools, consent searches without notice of the right to refuse, pretext stops, nonsensical drug courier profiles, cash forfeiture, and militarization of the police. What is far less known is that the U.S. Supreme Court has immunized the entire legal and criminal justice system from claims of racial bias by essentially eliminating all litigation based on racial profiling. Today, cases based on racial profiling are no longer actionable. In essence, the racist has to admit that his actions were conscious and intentional for the case to be heard in court. A mere denial of being a racist, while using a racial profile along with other factors, is sufficient to avoid any court scrutiny. Also, only the government is empowered to enforce the Civil Rights Act, not individuals or Civil Rights groups. 

If I were born with a different color skin or in a different neighborhood without white privilege, my life would very likely have been very different.