01 August 2015

The Guardian: “Farewell to America”

Obama’s ascent, I was told by many and frequently during his campaign, would change these odds. Whenever I asked How? no one could say exactly. But his very presence, they insisted, would provide a marker for my son and all who look like him. I never believed that. First of all, one person cannot undo centuries of discrimination, no matter how much nominal power they have. Second, given the institutions into which Obama would be embedded – namely the Democratic party and the presidency – there would only ever be so much he could or would do.


This most recent episode of racial awakening has lasted longer than most. For the last couple of years the brutal banality of daily life for some people in this country has become visible and undeniable to those who have no immediate connection to it. But nothing new has happened. There has been no spike in police brutality. What’s new is that people are looking. And thanks to new technology (namely the democratisation of the ability to film and distribute), they have lots to look at. As a result, a significant section of white America is outraged at the sight of what it had previously chosen to ignore, while a dwindling but still sizeable and vocal few still refuse to believe their eyes.

Gary Younge
protester confronts police after acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s killer in 2013
A protester confronts police after the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s killer in 2013. Photograph: Jae C Hong/AP

Interesting and disturbing piece about the racial relationships in the US, from the perspective of a (black) UK foreign correspondent. It’s hard to form an opinion from the outside, but I think a significant factor in police brutality is the demonstration of power and status, people with guns reinforcing their belief as better than the others on the streets – a dangerous path for someone who is supposed to serve community, not rule over it.

Back then, even before the advent of cell phones and digital cameras — which have been transforming in terms of documenting police violence — back then, you were much more vulnerable if you were white and you wanted to wail on somebody. You take out your nightstick and you’re white and you start hitting somebody, it has a completely different dynamic than if you were a black officer. It was simply safer to be brutal if you were black, and I didn't know quite what to do with that fact other than report it. It was as disturbing a dynamic as I could imagine. Something had been removed from the equation that gave white officers — however brutal they wanted to be, or however brutal they thought the moment required — it gave them pause before pulling out a nightstick and going at it. Some African American officers seemed to feel no such pause.

David Simon

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