Stand up for justice

The ongoing, state-sanctioned lynchings of people of color represent only the tip of the iceberg of the heinous and systematic oppression, exploitation and injustice in American society. To say that “progress has been made” since the civil rights era is to turn a blind eye to what happens daily on the streets, in the schools, in the prisons of New York City, Baltimore and cities and communities across this country.

I urge readers of The Riverdale Press to read Michelle Alexander’s “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.”  Learn what happened to Kalief Browder, a New York City teen who was sent to Rikers Island after being wrongfully accused of stealing a backpack. A high school sophomore, Kalief spent three years in Rikers, much of it in solitary confinement, beaten by prison guards and fellow inmates. 

Re-read, or read for the first time, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 Letter from Birmingham Jail, pleading for, demanding action and solidarity from white allies:

“I must confess that over the last few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says, ‘I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can’t agree with your methods of direct action;’ who paternalistically feels he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by the myth of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a ‘more convenient season.’

“Shallow understanding from people of goodwill is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.” 

Consider whether Freddie Gray’s larynx could have been crushed, and his spinal cord nearly severed, simply because he was not wearing a seat belt. It’s a relief that six police officers are being charged in the death of Mr. Gray. But charged only with manslaughter? Please, stand up, regardless of your color or class, and make your voice heard, not just one day but every day, for an end to police brutality and bloodlust, and for racial and economic justice and equality for all, in America, in 2015. We need an end to broken windows policing. We need an end to police commissioners like William Bratton. We need to hold moderates like Mayor de Blasio to account. Yes, there is a school-to-prison pipeline for black and latino kids. Yes, Freddie Gray was arrested for running. Yes, this is our criminal justice system, our social and economic system with a permanent black underclass. Yes, this is our war on drugs (read, people of color). Yes. Black Lives Matter. Please show up for racial and economic justice.

Jennifer Scarlott lives in Riverdale. Point of view is a column open to all.