In this podcast, Khalil Gibran
Muhammad, author of The
Condemnation of Blackness
Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America discusses the history of policing in
America, and its ties to racial politics. black codes and Jim Crow laws after the civil war and into the
start of the 20th century, and the impact of the migrations of POC from the South to the North.
Police forces in the South originated as slave patrols, with the force of law behind them in the form of
so-called 'slave codes'. In the North, police forces came about to monitor and control the activities of
poor people, particularly immigrants. In the South, after the civil war and into the 20th century, to
maintain racial hegemony, other means were introduced such as 'black codes' and Jim Crow laws to try and
institute controls that had been lost after the 13th amendment was ratified. To escape these, POC moved to
the North in a series of migrations. This influx into Northern cities, along with the professionalization of
the police forces after the crime waves that occurred during the prohibition, resulted in a potent force
which when combined with selective enforcement of laws was used to subjugate POC, limit their activities and
movements, and confine them to live in certain neighborhoods. These neighborhoods became the target of
increasingly more intense policing, eventually with the use of military grade weapons, under the rubric of
the "war on drugs". Police started to be trained in 'warrior' courses, which taught them to think like
Predators. Today, while some of the most racist laws are no longer on the books, the legacy of these laws
remains, as does selective inforcement of existing laws, and even more often unilateral violence perpetrated
on communities of POC, with this violence being protected by the code of the 'thin blue line'. As such
racism in policing remains both systematic and selective, and remarkably resistant to any reforms, according
to Muhammad.
These developments have subjected POC to a new form of Jim Crow, according to Michelle Alexander, author of
The
New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, and nothing symbolizes that
more than the current prison system in the United States, which according to her in this interview has resulted in a new caste system. POC have much worse outcomes in their interactions with the legal
system than white persons - they get arrested at a higher percentage, get longer and harsher sentences, and
after returning into the community have more difficulty finding jobs and housing, leading to high rates of
disenfranchisement, which allows few choices to make ends meet. People who take a relatively forgiving
attitude to persons they view as part of their own community or ethnicity often take a much harsher and more
punitive view to those who they consider as the 'other'. Indeed there is evidence
that homogenous communities are often more tolerant than diverse communities, and process of diversification
can create tremendous tensions. The US justice and prison system creates for POC a vicious cycle, which
limits their choices, punishes them harshly (often at a young age) for stepping even slightly out of line,
and for many makes it nearly impossible to gain relief from its grasp, even if they are not perpetually in
jail. For Alexander then, persons such as Susan Burton, who may have been caught in the system for years but manage
to somehow rise above it and become activists for positive change are some of the most inspiring people in
the world.