If the Michael Brown shooting does nothing else it has brought back to light that there is still a racial issue in this country that needs to be addressed. Race does matter.
Why did the shooting death of one Black man cause such an explosion from the Black community? And why is this a national issue and not just a local issue as some are trying to make it? If something is not done nationally will there be other Fergusons exploding?
I received a phone call from a person from southern Missouri who now lives in Pittsburgh. He gave me some history on Missouri that most of us have forgotten. Missouri was part of the Missouri Compromise dealing with the expansion of slavery during the mid 1800s. Even though most people see St. Louis as a progressive city, we forget that it is right there with Arkansas and Mississippi, right above Kentucky. So it’s a large city with a huge homicide list and is among the leaders in Black on Black crime in this country, with East St. Louis at one time being the leader. The police forces in this area are much like Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee and Alabama. Are you catching my drift?
hich leads to the average citizen being caught between the racist trigger-happy police and the thugs.
He pointed out that just like Pittsburgh, when Affirmative Action was struck down nationwide, as the Black police officers hired during that era are retiring they are not being replaced by young Blacks, but young Whites who are from the suburbs who see all Blacks as the enemy or as thugs because most have had no interactions with Black people.
He pointed out that at one time Black police officers knew your parents, and other relatives because all Blacks were forced through segregation to live together. Today, these officers are being replaced by scared White police officers who shoot first and ask questions later; who see all Blacks as a threat, especially young Black males, thus creating some of the most vicious and racist police forces in the country. And even though St. Louis, via Ferguson, is in the spotlight today, this is not an isolated situation. This is the case in just about every urban area in the country with large Black populations, with very few Black officers and practically no Blacks in the new recruiting classes.
Pittsburgh is no exception. We are in the same boat. Remember Leon Ford? With recruiting class after recruiting class coming up with one or two Blacks if we are lucky, most have none.
The reactions of Whites in power have been the same, “We can’t find Blacks.” Or “Blacks aren’t scoring as high as Whites on the tests.”
This is not just an issue of what happens to the officer who shot Michael Brown, whether it was justified or not. The big question is what this country is going to do about its racial problem and the massive problem of Blacks not being safe in our communities from the White police and Black thugs?
Yes, many young Black males have made the streets in Black communities a war zone of death. But White police, who are supposed to be protecting us from these thugs, are almost as bad because they don’t treat people with respect and they have the attitude that all these people are thugs or beneath them because they are Black.
These are the cops who see it as just a job, who don’t want to live in the communities they are supposed to be serving and protecting, and who don’t care about the police force being lily White.
The Black community deserves police officers that care. That is why residency must be a part of all police departments, because how can you serve and protect a community if you know nothing about that community?
So race must be a factor in police and all public hiring where tax dollars are used because this racial problem that has exploded all over this country is just the tip of the iceberg. Black people, especially Black males, need jobs and we are tired of being disrespected and treated like inferior citizens not just by the police, but also by society as a whole. We are tired of being insulted by being told that we aren’t scoring high enough on tests created and distributed by Whites.
Because of all the criticism of the Affirmative Action ruling back in the 1970s that was put into place by the Pittsburgh police and across the country which stated that for every White male hired there were to be one White female, one Black female, and one Black male hired until the percentages came close to the number in the general population. I talked to seven of the nine commanders at the time about the performance of these Black officers and women on the force and they all said that these officers were just as capable if not better than the White males. They pointed out that women handled domestic violence situations much better. At that time domestic calls ranked number one in police calls, and generally were the most explosive. They still are.
Among these Blacks who were hired during this time, two rose to chief, and many others to commanders. Even though I only interviewed the Pittsburgh commanders, I’m sure this is true all over the country. Oh, by the way, we also have a female acting chief, and an assistant chief.
What Blacks are saying is that sure we have a Black president and sure conditions have improved, but if you look at the State of Black America issued by the Urban League, for both Pittsburgh and the country, we see that Blacks are still at the bottom, and we are tired of being treated like dirt, on the one side by the thugs and on the other side by the police, business community and politicians. To paraphrase the movie Network: “We are mad as hell and we aren’t taking it anymore.”
Ulish Carter is the managing editor of the New Pittsburgh Courier. He can be reached at ucarter@newpittsburghcourier.com)
