Posted on 12/26/2014 2:14:40 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
In the wake of a grand jury's decision not to indict Officer Darren Wilson for the killing of teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, many people are asking a heart-wrenching question: "Why don't black lives matter?"
The answer can be found in our nation's long history of criminalizing youth of color - particularly African-American boys. They have long been demonized as predators to be feared. And this fear of black boys remains woven within the American fabric. We are reminded of it every time there is a headline reporting the death of yet another unarmed black youth.
But the path that ends with a young black man dead in the street begins long before an officer stops a youth. It's the tragic end of a long process that funnels children of color out of school and into the justice system.
It's a process found in schools across the country.
It can be seen in statistics that show black children are expelled at three times the rate of white children for similar instances of misconduct. Even in preschool, black children make up 18 percent of preschool enrollment, but are 42 percent of preschool students suspended once. They are almost half (48 percent) of preschoolers suspended more than once.
Suspensions do not help these children.
Studies show that these children are more likely to drop out of school and enter the justice system. The practice of stationing police officers in schools only brings the justice system into the school with tragic results. Black children are arrested at school and subjected to excessive force at alarming rates.
The lesson black children learn from this experience is clear: They are feared by others. They are predisposed to be criminals. They are worthy of suspicion and excessive force, but little else. It's a lesson that's been taught in Birmingham, Alabama, where police officers stationed in the schools frequently use pepper spray on students.
The students in this predominately African-American school district aren't engaging in criminal behavior, but typical teenage misbehavior: yelling, throwing temper tantrums and getting into school yard fights. These are all things that at one time simply resulted in a trip to the principal's office.
Today, Birmingham school officials say such behavior is criminal. They say the pepper spray is the only recourse these officers, also known as school resource officers, have at their disposal. So they discipline these students with a chemical weapon used on violent criminals. Even students who have done nothing wrong get a taste of it as officers spray the chemical in hallways and lunchrooms, stinging the eyes of bystanders.
This is no way to treat children. It is why the Southern Poverty Law Center will take the Birmingham Police Department to federal court early next year for a trial over these practices.
But this is about much more than the practices in one school district. If we care about the death of Michael Brown and others, we must stop this school-to-prison pipeline that needlessly pushes these children into the justice system. We must stop this system that reinforces for teachers and police officers the myth that black children are inherently dangerous.
Teachers, school resource officers and even the cop on the beat should make every effort to keep young lives on track. This isn't to say children shouldn't be disciplined, only that we shouldn't derail young lives at every opportunity.
Until we end this system that grooms our children for the criminal justice system, we should not be shocked by the increasingly long roll call of black youths killed in encounters with police. We should not be shocked by our bloated prison system filled with young black men. And we should not be shocked by the growing chorus of voices asking why black lives don't seem to matter.
Proper discipline and education at home from the day of birth will end the problem!!
Systems don’t “groom” people: families do. It isn’t the “system” that romanticizes hip-hop; gang bangers; drugs and crime. The expanding Black sub-culture that scorns “acting white”; that scorns education, refinement, courtesy, hard work and responsibility grooms Black kids. Oh, heaven forefend that a kid who is tearing up a school; terrorizing other students; terrorizing teachers; dealing drugs and / or sexually assaulting other students should be put out of school. What a crock of crap!
What is a teacher to do when many in her class show zero respect, deliberately disrupt the class, challenge her authority, are physically violent to the teacher as well as other students, and are the size of full grown men? Is she supposed to sit there and just get clocked by one of these young criminals? Many of these “yutes” should be in cages, not roaming free.
“It is curious that blacks, the least educated thirteen percent of the population, the least productive, most criminal, and most dependent on governmental charity, should dominate national politics. Yet they do. Virtually everything revolves around what blacks want, demand, do, or can’t do. Their power seems without limit.”
Read more of “Fred on Everything” at:
http://www.fredoneverything.net/BlackPower.shtml
Black lives don’t matter when that ‘black life’ is attempting to take a gun away from a police officer and kill him.
Black lives don’t matter much when they’re raping or beating a woman to death of any color or age.
Black lives don’t matter when they’re killing young children.
Black lives don’t matter when a group of ‘black lives’ is attempting to kill an innocent stranger...
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Oh - and the above? These ‘exceptions’ also applies to ‘white lives’... Chinese lives - Hispanic lives... Jewish lives - Quaker lives... even Unitarian Indian transgender lives. In short - everyone.
The best thing ‘blacks lives’ can do to have the rest of us seeing them as overly violent and criminal is to STOP being overly violent and criminal.
Period. It’s that easy. If people see you as a jerk - stop being a jerk.
Oh and eff the SPLC - it’s a hate group... and eff any FBI agents working with them.
There’s a race war going on, I didn’t start it but I have chosen sides.
The statistics still show violent crime by blacks is many times higher than violent crime by whites.
Blame whoever you want, but facts are facts.
“A call to end criminalization of black youths: guest opinion”
He’s barking up the wrong tree. He should be talking to the black criminals.
Live like a thug, die like a thug.
Is the mission of the SPLC to impoverish the law, depriving it of substance? It seems to be succeeding.
I don't.
“Typical teenage behavior”
The typical teen strong arms a clerk and steals cigars then attacks a police officer? The typical teen lays a trap for a police officer at a convenience mart by petty theft and then attempts to kill the responding police officer with a hand gun he had brought for the purpose? No agenda here I guess. In order to be revolutionary Marxists promoting black supremacy you have suspend rational though and just believe in the evil of your enemies.
The simple answer is that they are not judged for who they are but for what they do.
Stereotypes don’t get created in a vacuum, they get created as a result of the same thing happening over and over.
How do you “criminalize” that which is criminal? The author here is trying to “legitimize” crime. How is that going to create “civil” rights?
“Ebony Howard, Sr. Staff Attorney, Southern Poverty Law Center”
Sorry, that’s as far as I could get.
Common sense is no longer common, is it?
The suspensions are to preserve order and help the kids who want to learn.
The kids being suspended are disruptive and are destroying the learning environment. Our first duty is to the kids that want to learn. Otherwise you drag everyone down to the level of the losers being suspended.
The simple answer is low intelligence. Poor discipline as a child and a feral attitude.
Nobody wants to Accept this as a possibility
Well i read the news everyday and i also follow FBI and prison statistics so.....
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