Blakctivist

With all we have discussed with the police brutality it has really been an advantage for us as black African Americans. It is no threat to educate yourself on statistics and stigmas that have been created around the black community. Like I said from George Floyd to Stephan Clark and our most recent killings all lives gone too soon and really taken advantage of by someone who didn’t deserve the power to take advantage of them in the first place.

Remember that police killings are in close comparison to any type of pandemic. We are being killed disproportionately constantly. And it usually happens to more disenfranchised communities. We not only make up the population killed by COVID-19 we also make up the population killed by police brutality. The governments reaction to this systematic discrepancy will make the biggest difference in the end. Do not forget it is important to know whether or not a police officer is acting off of implicit or explicit bias which comes down to either he directly doesn’t care or has a disregard for your life as an African American or he was trying to use seven times the force on you then he would on a white man. A common reaction to an intimidation would be reflecting your own insecurities on someone else. And that’s exactly what these police officers are doing. Most police officers become police officers because they have some type of negative factors contributing to their past, either bullied as children or this maintain a type of complex that cannot be healed so they use their excess source of force or power to make themselves feel better based off of their inadequacies.

Whether it be implicit or explicit bias in explanation can be to extinction without much difference in order to combat police violence it’s necessary to combat police intuition, integrity and understanding behind simple situations. How can you become a police officer based off such a minute number of hours of training but in order to become a lawyer or doctor or anything that really does affect the lives of the community it takes 3+ years of college or higher education? That does not become an equivalent amount of knowledge between the two so therefore, police officers go by without understanding some rules and regulations that they’ve been given and they just go by the rulebook. Which is of course a form of implicit bias; now do you see how everything plays into each other?

We also dove into the topic of the “Dr. Martin Luther King versus Malcolm X” theory which made the different types of resistance very prevalent and understood. Being that they are both prominent black African-American activist who fought for the same ideal they just used very different perspectives to reach their final destination. I do believe as Black people our response to hostile environments are usually disconnected, and that could be because we all come from different childhoods and pass environments but based off of the response that certain African Americans use towards police officers does give you a glimpse of the background they came from. some should utilize the Malcolm X approach, which would be “by any means necessary” and some should take advantage of the Dr. Martin Luther King approach, we should be “weapons of love” so it’s all up to you and how you decide to handle situations but handling situations in a certain circumstance does say a lot about your character.

It’s also nice to look for your white counterparts for a little help in situations like these, such as the civil rights movement I don’t think that we would’ve made as much of an impact if we didn’t have people who weren’t of our color fighting for the same type of equality for us. I do find it interesting that some white counterparts will not fight for you physically but will behind-the-scenes, if it is a detrimental blow to their character and who they are in front of people they are not going to hurt themselves to help you but if it brings money to their pockets; they will do anything necessary to help but not be seen. For example: Kaepernick ‘s teammates suing the NFL for blackballing yet they never stood with him in unison or kneeled with him in unison during the national anthem.

I think throughout this whole project I’ve given my fellow African-Americans cues and tips and hacks to stay away and out of police custody. I’m all about the de-escalating even though it is the police his job to de-escalate I think as civilians we have to do our due diligence for the police because they have been taught to act so aggressively toward us. I think we should all be polite and continue to carry respect for people who don’t care nor respect us and that does playback into the Dr. Martin Luther King outlook, you cannot gain anything that you’re not giving so you have to give respect regardless of the situation. I think the comparisons made in this entire proposal have really helped myself actually uncover a new level of respect for my fellow African-Americans and what we have to go through in this tough United States of America. Continue to be a productive and stay educated.

Thank You

-JP