Black History Month is a time to reflect on the past and present achievements of Black people in the US and the Our Authors Study Club held its annual roundtable discussion recently online. This year, the topic was Black resistance and Black community reform.
“After the murder of George Floyd, I was hoping for systemic change, but that never happened as the structure has stayed the same.” Dr. Donna Nicol, chair of African Studies at CSUDH, said as participants discussed the fatal police brutality situation that took the life of Tyre Nichols in Memphis.
“His murder highlights the double marginalization of the Black community as some Black people have started taking the ideology of the oppressor to justify his murder at the hands of police,” Nicol said.
Nicol also referenced James Baldwin and his statement that Black police officers will try to prove that they are not biased and go above and beyond to reprimand Black people. Nichols was beaten to death by several Black officers after being stopped for a traffic violation.
As the video was released, many Black people from across America expressed being too tired to witness another murder on video and shunned away from watching it.
Dr. Julianne Malveaux, dean of the College of Ethnic Studies at Cal State LA, deems that it’s not fatigue, but pain that Black Americans don’t want to feel again.
“We are not fatigued, we are tired, it’s the difference. We keep seeing our young men and women killed because of police culture,” Malveaux said.
“Anti-Blackness and racism are seen throughout the police force in a record-setting number of situations over the history of the police force,” she added. “It didn’t start with these Black officers, and it isn’t going to end with them. We have to look at how White supremacy affects everybody because it is a disease that has spread in every part of American culture.”
“The swiftness with regards to the Memphis police department firing and charging all officers involved made me question why aren’t other police departments that deal with this same issue not moving as fast?” Dr. Boris Ricks, director at the Center of Southern California studies said as he pushed for police departments to move with the same eagerness when holding their officers accountable for their actions.
“To get to the root of this problem, we need systemic change. If you look at the code of conduct at departments around the country, you notice none of them call for the aggressive manner cops have displayed in these fatal situations.” Ricks said. “If we don’t have standardized policing, these situations will continue. Police reform is how we will deal with this situation.”
