Jill Nelson sounds the alarm for African
Americans with this important anthology of essays by some of Black America's
griots--Richard Austin, Derrick Bell, Claude A. Clegg III, Stanley Crouch,
Ron Daniels, Arthur Doyle, Flores Alexander Forbes, Robin D. Kelly, Ishmael
Reed, Katheryn A. Russell and Patricia K. Williams. Standing tall and speaking
plainly, they connect the dots in a way that puts the spotlight on America's
misanthropic relationship with African Americans. They've provided all
the information we need to make the informed decision to put a stop to
this madness.
The anthology is divided into four parts-"Historical
Perspectives,'The Politics of Police Brutality,' 'Policing the Police'
and 'Repression and Resistance.' For African Americans, the most important
chapter in this anthology is the 'Historical Perspectives.' Here lies the
foundation of White-sanctioned brutality and cruelty."
From the text: "The policing of Black,
Latino and Native American communities in the United States initially took
the form of occupation, surveillance and pacification. Even before formal
police forces were established in cities at the end of the nineteenth century,
people in power relied on 'legal' and extralegal violence to pacify, discipline
and exploit communities of color."
People of color have been under seize from
the time Europeans first set foot on this continent. The names and faces
have changed. The politics, pathologies and paranoia of White people have
not.
From the text: "In the antebellum South,
the work of 'policing' was geared almost entirely to the maintenance of
slavery. 'Patrollers,' or individuals employed for the purpose of tracking
down fugitive slaves, were the most visible manifestation of an active
police force throughout the South, and virtually any adult White male could
be conscripted to help put down a slave revolt. The kind of violent, draconian
punishment we now associate with brutality and excess was not only a part
of the culture but codified in law. For example, a Virginia law of 1705
allowed slaveholders to burn, dismember, or mutilate slaves as punishment
for crimes, and a 1773 Maryland law provided for cutting off ears of Africans-slave
or free-who struck a White person."
In "Persecution of Negroes by Roughs and
Policemen," we can read for ourselves affidavits and depositions of Blacks
who were brave enough to file complaints, and of whites who told the truth
about what happened to Blacks. In his essay, "Police Brutality, Portent
of Disaster and Discomforting Divergence," Derrick Bell speaks of what
it means to find oneself in a situation with the police:
Eleanor Bumpurs. Amadou Diallo. Kevin
Cedeno. Tyisha Miller. Anthony Baez. Ron Settles. Charles Baltimore. Jesse
Washington. Jose Diaz et al. Ibae.