The above image or similar ones and sentiments have made the rounds on social media right in stride with the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement. Normally, I just shake my head and remove the individual from my social media feed but when a grade school friend posted it, I felt compelled to respond. Below is my response:
Dear Friend –
Let me start by saying, I see you. You are the white spouse and mother of a black husband and biracial child during what can be/is a divisive time, that is a hard position. I know because as you are aware, I grew up in that family structure and am that biracial child.
Growing up, my African American culture/side was fairly non-existent residing, learning and interacting with mainly caucasians everyday until I left for college. Even my complexion and external features gave me a 50/50 chance of passing as Hispanic. The idyllic black person for a conservative community to accept consciously or subconsciously.
I was straddling a proverbial fence between two sides. But I couldn’t seesaw forever and had to get off on the right side of things even if that meant my life becomes uncomfortable to help save the lives of my husband and children.
And this is the reason I write you –
You like myself, have the unique position to be listened to openly by both sides; those unaffected by unfair and discriminatory policing and those whose experiences dictate they must have conversations with their sons in grade school on interacting with the police to save their lives.
I agree all police are not inherently bad and strive to maintain their commitment to serving and protecting the community. The issue is for the 90% doing right, they are missing the biggest problem in our communities – the 10% doing wrong. It is apart of their job to police their coworkers as well.
I have spent most of my corporate career in finance in one way or another. There are checks and balances, just as we learned in high school, in any reputable business all up and down an accounting department. To catch innocent mistakes, blatant mismanagement and the more egregious embezzlement. If my co-worker or employee is doing things in violation of company policy and agreement with our client, I have a duty to report it and follow through especially if those actions affect the client or the public at large.
But say I do report it and nothing happens? I don’t get to shrug it off and keep on because now I can be viewed as complicit in the wrongdoing. Standing up for what’s right is not a one and done thing. You follow through to protect the innocent and I think that is the point here or at least it is for me with the call for police reform.
The Holocaust had a similar issue, too many people ignored what they knew was wrong or thought might be questionable to the extent there was a genocide of an entire people in modern times. Who’s to say more people speaking up would have stopped Auschwitz from happening, I cannot answer that with any certainty but it couldn’t have hurt efforts to prevent it either.
To say those cops are just bad apples is to minimize what a bad apple can do to the whole bushel.
When you are not checking, double checking, triple checking one bad apple can spoil the whole bushel. It doesn’t do so blatantly, it’s gradual – oh that’s just barely a soft spot, you can cut it out or eat around it’s fine. That one’s a little mushy but the ones it’s touching seem good.
We can’t do that with an institution that’s supposed to protect us, all of us. One bad apple in the police has the ability to affect the entire bushel through micro-aggressions, stereotyping, and intimidation to name a few ways.
Do I think it’s inappropriate or unnecessary to say not all cops are bad at this time?
YES.
The core (pun unintentional) of the movement is not cops are bad but that black people want to be treated EQUAL and JUSTLY by police. My husband is an EMT/Firefighter and I expect the police to be on scene to protect him when he receives a call to dangerous situation.
I also know that as a 6’5” black man, when he’s out of uniform the police do see him as a threat for simply being himself because bad apples instill stereotyping in the police culture and department.
I have witnessed this in my own life while reporting an actual crime – I was “not white enough” to live in my own neighborhood. While reporting an individual stealing copper off a home build site, the reporting officer asked to see my ID to confirm my residency while standing in my own doorway.
Think about that, think about the inherit bias there is in that profession that my residency was called into question while letting an actual criminal drive away.
The above photo post/sentiment for all its good intentions has the focus of minimizing that there is an issue within the police force by saying its only 10% so let’s focus on the good. Focusing on the good is pretending to not see the bad no matter how small the percentage and that only allows the bad apples to continue to spread their sickness among the bushel.