Days after celebrating Independence Day, two black men were robbed from their dignity and freedom. Their names are Alton Sterling, murdered for selling CDs, and Philando Castile, murdered for a broken tail light. These black men were fathers, sons, neighbors, friends, etc. They were both shot multiples times because they either “resist arrest” or “reached for licensed firearm.” The police officers that did this are both racist and had similar, yet previous incidents. The two officers that shot and killed Sterling while on the ground, Salamoni and Lake, were reported to have previous incidents similar to this. US Uncut reported Salamoni was “accused” of unnecessary battery while arresting in August of 2014. He then was investigated for a vehicle pursuit in July of 2015. The other officer, Lake, was investigated for two incidents in 2014. US Uncut also reported he “allegedly” injured a fifteen-year-old boy while arresting. Not only that, he was “alleged” to show excessive force in the shooting of a twenty-eight year old black man. Jeronimo Yanez is the name of the officer who shot and killed Castille. Castille was killed shortly after Sterling. Castille’s girlfriend, Lavish Reynolds, was recording and living this incident with four year old daughter in the back seat of the car. Reynolds said, “Please, officer, don’t tell me that you just did this to [Castille] him.” Yanez response, “f*ck”then made Reynolds step out the car to be arrested. She and her daughter were attained until five in the morning. The department did not comfort nor feed them afterwards. I have yet to mention that after these killings, an unidentified black man was found hung from Atlanta’s tree park. The man was found early morning where the KKKs (met the night before) held meetings and recruitment. Without an autopsy report it was ruled a suicide. At the end of this, one wonders why alleged is in quotation. Alleged is in quotation because this is an example of white supremacy. These police officers are alleged because they are not held accountable; even if there’s evidence to prove so.
On July 7, 2016, the shooting of Dallas took place. Black Lives Matter protesters were marching peacefully until police officers (that were on duty) were killed by a sniper. The sniper was mistaken for a black man, Mark Hughs, who carried legal firearm to the protest. white twitter automatically assumed this man was guilty, but from the help of bystanders and black twitter evidence, this man is innocent. This assumption was made because he was black and carried. Many people do not know that Texas is the fourty-fifth state to allow citizens to openly carry firearms. White people were oblivious to this fact and accused Hughs. These events caused a gargantuan uproar on social media that an former white Illinois congressman, Joe Walsh openly tweeted,” This is now war. Watch Out Obama. Watch out black lives matter punks. Real America is coming after you.” Walsh openly called out for a race war. Threatening the life of the President is a class E felony under US Code Title 18, Section 871. White privilege is Walsh losing his position and threatening Loretta Lynch to not incarcerate him. Theses are all modern day examples of institutional racism.
Institutional or systemic racism is a form of racism that are structured in political and social institutions. When was Institutional racism established? Institutional racism began in Europe and continued into the US after the American Revolution. The “founders” of the US originally built racism in institutions and legal systems because white supremacy is one of the values that the “founders” were trying to preserve. For that being said, Blacks were not worthy of having equal rights, even after the establishment of Declaration of Independence. The Library of Congress states that Thomas Jefferson made no mention of rights for blacks, denied blacks the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson was only referring to white colonist. The reason I mention this information is because Institutional racism is not new. Blacks was never worthy of equality and the government knows that. The legal system displays that. White privilege is in our documents. White privilege is appropriating black culture but refuse to protect / support blacks in time of need. White privilege is a white cop killing an unarmed black for being a “threat.” White privilege is needing psychiatric care or paid leave after killing someone. White privilege is a white boy serving three month in jail for rape. Our legal system can't and will never function on equality. Because of this, the country will and never be a one-race fits all. Black men and women are being murdered for being black. Black Privilege is getting use to hearing tragedies like these. Black privilege is me writing this article with tears in my eyes. Black privilege is knowing that the legal system refuse to see fault. Institutional is the new black. How many more black bodies will it take for this to be declared genocide? My heart goes out to all my brothers and sisters that are victims of the legal system. We are all fighting for change. We're not asking for your acceptance to let Black lives matter. Black lives always matter to us.
