by B. R. GOWANI
Freddie Carlos Gray, Jr.
August 16, 1989 – April 19, 2015 PHOTO/WJLA
You know for sure that the color of the President of the United States, even after almost six and a half years in power, has failed to make any impact in saving the lives of black people when you hear or read that another black person was shot to death by police in some of other city/town of some or other state. This time it was Freddie Gray’s turn. This 26 year-old youth died in a police custody in Baltimore, Maryland – the state located right next to Washington DC, the US capital. Gray was arrested on April 12th and died of injuries-related complications on April 19th.
The only democratic mean the powerless have is that of protest. The victims friends, families, and sympathizers protested. Then it turned violent. Then people in power took notice.
A police vehicle chases protestors away in a parking lot along Reisterstown Road near Mondawmin Mall, April 27, 2015 in Baltimore, Maryland. A group of young protestors clashed with police in the streets near Mondawmin Mall in the afternoon following Freddie Gray’s funeral. PHOTO/Drew Angerer/Getty Images/Huffington Post
Whatever Obama’s mistakes may be – and there are many – one has to acknowledge that being a black person, he can’t be immune from pain when he sees black persons being pushed behind bars in a disproportionate number and/or being killed by law enforcement agencies on a regular basis.
On May 1, President Barack Obama said it is “absolutely vital that the truth comes out” regarding the murder of Gray. Three days back, after criticizing the violent aspect of the protests and the acknowledgment that blacks are the target of police violence, Obama talked about “soul-searching” that need to be done by police departments, communities, and the country as a whole. In the end he pointed out,
“If we really want to solve the problem, we could, it’s just it would require everybody saying this is important, this is significant and that we just don’t pay attention to these communities when a CVS burns. And we don’t just pay attention when a man gets shot or has his spine snapped.”
On May 1, the State of Maryland declared Gray’s death as “homicide.” As a result, all the six officers involved are now in police custody. This time, at least, the justice system seems to have worked fast – as far as the police officers being in custody is concerned. Let’s wait and see how the final verdict comes out.
Coming back to Obama, no doubt he is angry and vents out his frustration. But Obama’s is a lame frustration. He is not taking any executive action to drastically reduce the number in the black populated prisons, to stop the killing of black people by police, and to improve the economic condition of his community. Instead he wants everyone to go on soul-searching trip.
Now this is pure baloney. The United States is a soul-less entity. And its capitalist culture makes sure that those who have one are made bereft of those souls. It was in 1619 that the first batch of black slaves arrived at Jamestown, Virginia. Since then, blacks have seen some kind of decent treatment for a few decades only. Noam Chomsky puts it properly.
“The Thirteenth Amendment formally ended slavery, but a decade later “slavery by another name” (also the title of an important study by Douglas A. Blackmon) was introduced. Black life was criminalized by overly harsh codes that targeted black people. Soon an even more valuable form of slavery was available for agribusiness, mining, steel — more valuable because the state, not the capitalist, was responsible for sustaining the enslaved labor force, meaning that blacks were arrested without real cause and prisoners were put to work for these business interests. The system provided a major contribution to the rapid industrial development from the late 19th century.
“That system remained pretty much in place until World War II led to a need for free labor for the war industry. Then followed a few decades of rapid and relatively egalitarian growth, with the state playing an even more critical role in economic development than before. A black man might get a decent job in a unionized factory, buy a house, send his children to college, along with other opportunities. The civil rights movement opened other doors, though in limited ways. One illustration was the fate of Martin Luther King’s efforts to confront northern racism and develop a movement of the poor, which was effectively blocked.
“The neoliberal reaction that set in from the late ‘70s, escalating under Reagan and his successors, hit the poorest and most oppressed sectors of society even more than the large majority, who have suffered relative stagnation or decline while wealth accumulates in very few hands. Reagan’s drug war, deeply racist in conception and execution, initiated a new Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander’s apt term for the revived criminalization of black life, evident in the shocking incarceration rates and the devastating impact on black society.”
B. R.. Gowani can be reached at brgowani@hotmail.com