An Open Letter to Congress
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Following the Civil Rights Movement, the outcry of Black Americans has largely fallen on deaf ears. White people have ignored our voices, preferring to believe that the passage of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act somehow catapulted this nation into post-racialism (there is no such thing). They are, of course, wrong. And as they have turned a blind eye (“I’m color blind; I don’t see race”), the police have consolidated power; terrorized, raped, and murdered Black folks; and become a militia, waging war, using state dollars, against Black, Hispanic/Latinx, and Native American People. The blood on the hands of the police has flooded our communities (physically and mentally), staining the soles of the shoes of the people who later gentrify (co-opt) their remains.
This country idolizes Dr. King (though he was demonized while living) — loves to invoke his name in opposition to violent protests. Yet, this country has never — not once — heeded his words. Dr. King was unequivocal in asserting that what hurts one of us hurts us all. Black neighborhoods have been occupied for centuries. We’ve known for a long time the horror of the police and the lengths to which they will go to preserve the status quo. And White people have known too. They have seen the videos on the news and on the internet. If they truly respected Dr. King, they would have known that, if necessary, the police and the national guard would descend on their neighborhoods as they have ours. Would tear gas them, riddle their back with bullets (rubber or real), impose a curfew upon them, would “dominate [their] streets”. They thought that this injustice was only for people of darker hues. Again, they were wrong. And now, this country faces a dire situation: an ongoing pandemic; widespread riots, looting, and protests; an economy in nosedive; and a president who seems intent on willing us over the precipice into fascism.
America’s governing failures have finally come to a head. Decades of creating an underclass, composed primarily of brown, Black, and poor people has generated, predictably, a profound sense of animus within large swaths of the population. Folks have decided that this incompetence can no longer stand. They have gone beyond exercising their vote to effect change. They are now in the streets, they are donating, they are writing, they are withholding their labor and money, and they have time, so they will not stop. They should not stop until some real change has occurred.
Congresspeople your role is clear. You have the power to bring about this change. Set aside politics and power for a moment. Consider what is right. Will you allow this nation to follow in the footsteps of Germany, or Italy, and be swept, by “populist” fervor and incompetence, into fascism? Will you allow Black, Native, and Hispanic/Latinx Americans’ freedom to continue to be circumscribed not just by the actions of the police, but by systemic racism at all levels? Will you allow the market to continue to claim lives in the name of efficiency and profit? If yes, I can assure you that the next several decades of American history will be horrific and that the decades that follow will name you as complicit in this horror. Instead, use your power to tell the truth. Go to the floors of congress, the news networks, and your constituencies and tell them that this country will fail if we do not begin to see ourselves as one nation, that our president is neither democrat nor republican (not a believer in democracy, representative or otherwise), that our economy has been unfair for decades, that Black and brown people do face discrimination, and that, if your fellow members of congress work together, this country can begin to rectify all of these problems.
Start by calling for and adamantly supporting the creation of a police watchdog, composed of elected citizens, in every jurisdiction in the country. Police are meant to protect and serve the communities that they are stationed in. Ultimately, then, it ought to be the people of that community who decide whether or not the police are fulfilling their duty. The body should have teeth — it should be vested with the authority to make disciplinary decisions when police officers are accused of misconduct or worse. The body should be open to all, including those formerly convicted of a crime. We have seen, time and again, that the accountability systems for police officers are impotent. Residents of Minneapolis (where George Floyd was murdered by police on May 25th, 2020), Louisville (where Breonna Taylor was murdered, in her own home, by police on March 13th, 2020), St. Anthony (where Philando Castile was murdered by police on July 6th, 2016), Lakewood (where Daniel Covarrubias was murdered, while reaching for his cell phone, by police on April 21st, 2015), Ferguson (where Michael Brown was murdered by police on August 9th, 2014), Cleveland (where Tamir Rice, at only 12 years old, was murdered by police on November 22, 2014), and of the other cities, towns, and reservations where people are being senselessly gunned down by policemen are better suited to do the work of holding police accountable than anyone else. Let them.
Your voice is needed now more than ever. I hope to hear you speak out soon.
