I was pleased and proud to see ordinary New Yorkers engage in peaceful civil disobedience yesterday. The slaying of Queens resident Sean Bell is the latest incident of physical violence against the dispossessed committed by the City of New York. The gang-bang style beating of Philadelphia motorists just this past Saturday only heightens tensions between ordinary citizens and the police they pay to protect them. The link between events in New York and Philadelphia is significant.
Tensions have been high in Philadelphia this decade. Except for 2002, Philadelphia has experienced more than 300 murders every year since the year 2000. On May 3rd, Officer Steven Liczbinski was shot and killed during a bank robbery in Philly, which has taken the stress levels of an underpaid, overtaxed police force even higher.
Much has to be done to stop this violence. Many are starting to think that marching and rallying, the old-style protests, are no longer enough. We have also learned that having Black people in positions of political and business leadership isn’t enough to prevent police brutality in our working-class and lower-income communities. Perhaps it is time to lift our political activism up to a broader scope.
Certainly schools, housing, and job opportunities must be improved. Social programs meant to eradicate the culture of street-level violence must be fully funded. Obviously, police departments in major cities must undergo rigorous review and overhaul. But to prevent police officers from victimizing Black and Brown people, something else needs to happen: a political imperative must be put in place that insists people of color are no longer police targets, and the scope of this initiative must be international.
It is no coincidence that Civil Rights Era legislation was passed in this country during the mid-20th century, when African states were reclaiming their autonomy and the Cold War still waged. In order to effectively negotiate for access to natural resources throughout the continent, Western multinational corporations had to clean their domestic houses. An international movement to liberate people of color in Africa (and in Asia , the Caribbean, and Latin America) compelled political leadership in this country to begin to move on Civil Rights, and the public discourse concerning the rights of the dispossessed in this country started to shift.
It is also no coincidence that Cubans are among the best-treated refugees in this country, especially when compared to Haitians, as the political imperative is in place to privilege anyone running away from Fidel. That may begin to change now that Castro is older and his health is in decline, but American domestic policies concerning immigration in the late 20th century have been shaped by this country’s international interests.
There has always been an international component to Civil Rights. Now is the time to accelerate that key activist work. Marching to protest the killing of Sean Bell is important, but organizations that examine foreign nations in the best interests of Black people throughout the Diaspora, like TransAfrica Forum , might actually be doing more long-term, institutionalized work to end police brutality in the US.
Why not “open every door in Attica, send ’em to Africa”? Exchange programs that allow young African Americans to spend two weeks, two months, a full semester, or an academic year somewhere on the continent should be implemented as part of any education and job-related initiative in Urban America. We have to start thinking outside the borders. Otherwise, despite all our marches and protests, African-descended people in this country will continue to be perceived as vulnerable targets.
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