“With a spirit straining toward true self-esteem, the Negro must boldly throw off the manacles of self-abnegation and say to himself and the world: I am somebody. I am a person. I am a man with dignity and honor. I have a rich and noble history.”
-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Introduction
The declaration of a human being placed in a position to proclaim to other human beings they are “somebody”, they are a “person”, and they are a “man” is truly disgraceful. When a human being is not seen as a person, it is very easy to treat that individual inhumane with disrespect, hatred and belittlement. African Americans that were enslaved and those who are descendants of slaves, have far too long been on the receiving end of such degradation based solely on their ethnicity. The shameful American history of slavery is not something that is easily disregarded. It is meshed into the fabric of America. It permeates throughout the African American culture, even today because they have not forgotten. In many cases, they still live with the ripple effects of their sorrowful history. Not just for the African American, but for many that live in this society. They witness the ideologies of the slave era because the tentacles protrude from yesterday into the American culture today. Why is it that an African American man, i.e., Black man not viewed as equal in the American society?
According to activist James Baldwin, “the American Negro and white[s] do not discuss the past, except in considerately guarded snatches” 1 There is something to be said of the past when it is so horrible to recall. However, the past must be discussed even though it is painful. We must not forget the past in order to avoid making such mistakes again. Here, we will take a step back in time to look at this American history and the evolution of the slave and the slave master.
The discussion of the slave rarely delves deep into the psyche of the white slave master. It is important to review and discuss the mindset of a man (and women) that could inflict such evils upon another human being’s mind and body. Think about it; it takes a special kind of evil mentality to be able to eat a gourmet dinner while another human being (a slave) is being burned alive in a pit less than 10 feet away from you. The mindset of this white slave master is one that has potentially been carried from one generation to the next generation until it has landed in today’s society in the form of how white police officers think and feel about the African American male. It is akin to the oral history of the slave and the atrocities he or she endured that is passed on to the next generation. The evils of yesterday have taught African Americans how to interact with the white man in current day. The same could (and with all probability unbeknownst to the white man does) apply to the mindsets of the white slave masters in thinking they are responsible for “keeping the slave in their place”, except the title of slave is no more, but the African American male is viewed as the same from the prior period of his enslavement. More will be discussed about the dichotomy of the slave and the white slave master later in this curriculum unit.
Perhaps it was easy to harm the Negro because they were not seen as human. Was this perspective passed down through history to where law enforcement today sees black men through the same lenses? Recent events in America have displayed a disproportionate number of deadly encounters with white law enforcement officers killing unarmed African-American males. However, the trend did not start in the 21st Century. The issues of the day, with law enforcement and the white male authority as police, extends from enslaved men like Frederick Douglass, Denmark Vesey, Henry “Box” Brown, Booker T. Washington and many others. During that time, African American slaves were nothing more than property, forbidden to read and treated inhumanely. A slave could potentially receive a death sentence at the hands of the white slave master for simply knowing how to read. Even after slavery ended, oppressive laws were enacted to keep this race of people down. Freedom was really not free in the truest sense of the word. The African American was as free as the White man said he could be free. This curriculum unit will discuss specific details of the oppression of slavery on the African American male (interchangeable with the term “Negro” which is the actual ethnic term from this race. The evolution of the reference of African American denotes a more modern terminology.)
Many other prominent African American males that worked their entire lives and speaking out against injustice and inequality for the Negro must be included in this research and referenced here. Such individuals as W.E.B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, James Baldwin, Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Eldridge Cleaver, Medgar Evers, and many others worked to end discrimination against the Negro. The efforts of many men and women that sought to rid society of hatred of the Negro were jailed and eventually killed for the sake of equality and social justice. For most of those named here died in the name of fighting for equality and justice.
Today, it is stop and frisk, stop and identify, intimidation, harassment and the shooting of African-American males that are unarmed by law enforcement officers. For the slave, it was beatings and lynching’s. Today, it is being murdered at the hands of white law enforcement officers that are the legal authority in society, the same way the White Slave “Master” had authority over the slave. Black boys are not lynched in the town square today…they are shot while the cell phone video or police cam captures the incident. You, as the viewer, are told not to believe what your eyes are seeing. African American males pleading to simply breath while handcuffed with the police officer’s knee on the black man’s neck is today’s reality for the African American male.
This curriculum unit will focus on the African-American male, yesterday and today. It will explore police contact in urban communities. Various aspects of police tactics will be researched and discussed in conjunction with the African-American male, specifically the killing of this gender for no apparent reason. Criminal justice reform (specific to law enforcement) is necessary in America. The criminal justice system shows blatant disparities against males of color, specifically African-Americans. This unit will offer suggestions for reforming this system, beginning with the call for a comprehensive review of policing in America by the President of the United States. President Lyndon Johnson, established a Commission to review the criminal justice system in the 1960’s. From that review, the Omnibus Crime Control & Safe Streets Act was enacted. This Act established guidelines for law enforcement training that included diversity training, college education and other programs to help law enforcement officers to be better trained to work in the field. It is time for such a Commission to be re-established to review the current criminal justice system because of the wide range of disparities and police brutality.
The question is why is this gender marked as a criminal problem? Why are laws disproportionately affecting large portions of the African American community, especially for males. Why are prisons overcrowded with primarily African American males literally enslaved? This is indeed the new Jim Crow. An African American man can be sent to prison, lose his rights and freedom, be released from serving his prison sentence and “still” not be able to vote, serve on a jury or participate in a civilized society. Is this fair?
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