structural racism – Failure to Listen

NEVER FORGET: America’s Terrorism Of Communities of Color

FailureToListen.com wants Communities of Color to NEVER FORGET! #BlackVotersMatter and #BlackLivesMatter

To that end, a gallery of images on police brutality, slavery, and torture will serve as reminders of our fight for justice. Eventually, I hope to put the images and videos on a decentralized public blockchain for history.

Mid-term elections are fast approaching. Communities of color will be deluged with politicians from both sides scaring you to vote for them. Already Trump found a group of black pastors willing to sell their souls and congregation to him. Don’t trust them, and they do not speak the word of the Lord if they take orders from the devil.

As usual, the Democrats will take black voters for granted, promising us nothing but expecting loyalty and our votes. They will use black celebrities to corral our votes.

What has the Democratic party done to deserve the loyalty of communities of color over the last several decades? Democrat sponsored legislation supporting a war on drugs and mass incarceration have destroyed families of color. Liberal Democrat supported media portray black men as super predators. To make matters worse, Democrats profit from private prisons and the mass incarceration of people of color.

Black lives do not matter to either party but #BlackVotersMatter tremendously. It’s time we use our votes to build our communities. We need candidates who will hold police and white all accountable for their racist crimes. Vote for candidates who prioritize issues of inclusivity or issues that are relevant to communities of color.

To end police brutality and reduce mass incarceration, society needs laws that make it criminal and also shameful, unethical and inhumane for any system to produce those outcomes. The criminal justice system in its current state rewards racial profiling and police brutality. Every time an innocent person or a suspect of a misdemeanor dies or winds up imprisoned then dead, that death often deemed justified, means financial gain to the US prison-industrial complex. It’s a complex composed of different arms of a system that feeds on taxpayers and the bodies of prisoners through mass incarceration. The more prisoners, the more profit for everyone who is part of the prison-industrial-judicial complex.

Also, the courtroom, a significant portal of entry into that complex is exceptionally biased so much so that cases involving people of color result in a culture that is unsympathetic and hostile to the majority of innocent people of color.

The Democrats’ use of healthcare will sway voters since the GOP are bent on repealing the ACA. There is another issue that is emblematic of Trump and his supporters. The issue is racism, in particular, structural racism and it is relevant to communities of color.

The industrial-prison-judicial complex is an example of structural racism that is destroying communities of color. It’s executing a slow genocide by stripping people of color of human rights then using their bodies for profit, crimes, experiments, and sexual exploitation.

If Democrats want the Black vote or the Latino vote or POC vote, let them make our children’s lives and safety a priority and a major party theme this midterm election.

In addition, here is an incomplete list of action steps that can cut police brutality and incarceration rates.

End the use of excessive or lethal force at traffic stops and on 911 calls for help
Mandatory drug testing after cops harm or kill a suspect
Mandatory body cam. A fine and temporary suspension without pay if body cam was off during an incident of excessive use of force.
All suspensions will be without pay
Psychological screening of all police on hiring, biannual routine testing and after use of excessive force.
People who call the police because a person is black or an immigrant will be fined and a clear path to civil suit available.
All contractors hired to support the prison-industrial-judicial complex will be held accountable for poor outcomes to prisoners under their responsibility.
Mandatory reports of all deaths and injuries while in police custody or imprisoned.

What are the relevant issues in your community?

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Source of Images: Social Media; Pinterest and Twitter

After attorneys uncover racial profiling, charges dropped in almost 50 Minneapolis marijuana stings

In a fascinating case of addressing impact rather than intention, district attorney in Minneapolis have dismissed felony marijuana charges against 47 people, 46 of whom are black, and halted future low-level sting operations. The racial disparity was brought to light in late May, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports, and shockingly, the powers that be took swift action.
— Read on m.dailykos.com/stories/2018/6/8/1770332/-After-attorneys-uncover-racial-profiling-charges-dropped-in-almost-50-Minneapolis-marijuana-stings

It’s rare to read an article where a police department responded appropriately. Minneapolis Police Chief, Medaria Arradondo, ended sting operations on low-level marijuana crimes when presented with stats showing incontrovertible evidence of racial profiling. #ThePowerOfData

Why Are There So Many Single Black Women?

Mass Incarceration: What Caused The Dramatic Rise In Never Married African-Americans

Why are so many black women single? Could this be due to structural racism? Mass Incarceration? A system that disrupted black families, leaving Black women and children to fend for themselves in an increasingly hostile world.

In general, marriage is on the decline in America. In 2016, 48% of all Americans married as opposed to 29% of African-Americans.
Approximately 1 in 2 of all African-Americans has never married as opposed to 1 in 3 of all Americans.

Black men marry white women at twice the rate that Black women marry White men.

In 2017, 15% of black men were married to non-black women while only 7% of black women were married to non-black men.
Of those with non-black spouses, 60% of black men were married to White women while only 4% of black women were married to white men.

Curiously, in 2012 The U.S Census Bureau did a study on the history of marriage and discovered some surprising statistics. From 1890 to 1960s, African-Americans 35 and older were more likely to be married than White Americans. Then in 1980 something changed. The number of married African-Americans declined. The number of never-married African Americans began to climb, jumping from 10% in 1980 to 25% in 2010.

In the 1960-70’s mass incarceration began. The chart below shows how the rise in mass incarceration may be related to the dramatic rise in the number of never-married African-Americans.

Why are so many Black women single? Why was there a dramatic rise in never married African-Americans around the same time mass incarceration started to take hold? The data suggests a link. Mass incarceration maybe playing a crucial role in breaking up African-American families, sentencing many black women to single parenting or single life. This observation needs further investigation to determine if an association exists.

Since a majority of black women will not consider dating a non-black man, what does that mean for the future of African-Americans as mass incarceration becomes the American way of life? Was the war on drugs that led to mass incarceration intended to be a war on African American families?

#SingleBlackWomen

#MassIncarceration

#BlacknNeverMarried

References:

Black Demographics

Marriage In Black America

Supreme Court: It’s Legal For Police Officers To Kill Americans When They FEEL Threatened

Some days it’s not worth getting out of bed. The news always seems terrible, and as a woman of color, I feel estranged from the greater society.

The stories I read are insane. This morning I read a story that the Supreme Court made it legal for trained cops to murder unarmed civilians if a cop feels threatened. Cops only need to utter the words without proof. Cops cannot be sued and officially have a license to murder innocent people by just uttering the phrase, ‘I felt threatened.’ Police officers are public servants trained and paid by tax dollars to protect and serve the public not themselves. Do you think the supreme court made the right decision in giving police officers the right to murder Americans at will?

Do you think self-defense can be employed to protect Americans against police violence?

How can an armed and trained cop feel threatened by a kid running away from him? How can an armed and trained cop feel threatened when they outnumber the suspect? Why are armed and trained cops mostly threatened by unarmed POC and not by armed whites?

If armed and trained cops can feel threatened by an unarmed black man, can you imagine how threatened an unarmed black man feels when he sees a cop? Can a black man who feels threatened by a white police officer murder him in self-defense? Wouldn’t that equal justice?