Police on a Pedestal by Terrell Carter

Author:Terrell Carter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: ABC-CLIO

Brief Concluding Thoughts

“If your theology allows you to exclude people in the afterlife, it makes it easier to do the same in the here and now.”

—Holy Heretics Podcast, 2018

A story is being told that needs to be addressed. The truth is that black people commit crimes. Black people in Chicago and St. Louis shoot each other on a regular basis. Black people in New York break into cars, steal them, and go on joy rides. Black people in Baltimore sell and smoke crack. White people all over our country do the same thing. But that’s not the story that’s being told. The story that we’re regularly being told is that only, or primarily, blacks are criminals.

When a police officer is accused or found guilty of breaking the law or mistreating black and brown citizens, the media and white citizens say that officer was a bad officer or an outlier, implying that the officer was acting in a way that wasn’t normal for the culture of policing. But when an African American is accused or convicted of wrongdoing, the assumptions and statements are that person represents all black people. We never hear that they are a bad singular person. Instead, they represent all people like them.

I know that black people shoot and rob each other, steal cars, and use drugs. It’s a fact that can’t be denied. Criminal behavior is a part of black life. But that’s not the only experience of black people. The story that’s being told implies that this type of behavior forms the foundation for much of black life. That isn’t true. Black people who participate in this type of behavior are in the minority. Just as in white, Asian, Latino, or any other culture. The story implies that black criminality is much worse and more pervasive than the criminality of any other group of people. We can no longer believe this story.

The formation and sharing of this story weren’t by accident. It was done intentionally by a small group of people who hoped that people in our country wouldn’t be savvy enough to decipher bad information or were not inclined to ask more questions when they heard the story told. Unfortunately, in many ways their plan was successful. In our nation, we have an image in our minds of who black people are and how they act that has been passed down from generation to generation. We allow a few incidents to represent an entire group of people and their existence.

The story may show that black criminality is real, but it doesn’t show that black criminality doesn’t exist solely because black people hold a disposition toward crime. Data may show that some blacks do have extensive criminal histories and serve longer prison terms due to those histories, but their initial introduction to the criminal justice system may have been due to the attitudes, misconceptions, and illegal and immoral actions of those who are charged with protecting and serving them. The story may show that whites’ views

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