BIG IDEA: American Policing Is Often Problematic

It feels like every week, another story appears in our newsfeeds about an unarmed Black man being killed by law enforcement officers.

Another name. Another hashtag.

Our country is hurting. Emotions are running deep. We are a nation divided.

However, where in the past I have watched responses to crises like these fall distinctly along racial lines, I now see more and more of my fellow white folk willing to consider that there may be more to these stories than we previously thought.

Below are some resources for us to learn more about the intersection of race and law enforcement in America.

Some of what I post or recommend will be a critique of the history, culture, and practices of police departments, as well as the entire U.S. justice system, of which they are a part.

Most of what I write will not be against, or even about, individual law enforcement officers. However, the system they are a part of is, in many places, corrupt, broken, and unjust. And that needs to be addressed.

As a white person in America, I was raised to believe that our system of laws (and its enforcers) are for me. As long as I obey those laws, comply with officers of the law, and entrust myself to the legal system, I will be treated fairly. And that has been my lived experience.

But that has not been the history or lived experience of my friends of color.

As white Americans, we need to interrogate our beliefs about how the American justice system works, and catch up on huge swaths of history that were white-washed out of the textbooks we read in school.

Check out the resources below to learn more.