The Myth of Blue Racism
Racism is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as “prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior.”
Race. That’s the key word there. Racism is about discrimination based on race. With that simple fact in mind, I’d implore you to take a look at this video.
Yes, that is a video put out by New York’s largest police union saying that officers face “blue racism.” Essentially, this union has taken the idea of Blue Lives Matter, and has taken it to the next (il)logical conclusion. The concept of “blue racism” just doesn’t make sense, however.
Police officers are not a race. They may be an institution made up of all different races, but “police officer” is not a race. This makes the whole idea of “blue racism” complete bullshit. The makes of this video don’t understand that, and have completed doubled down on this notion.
Not only do they try to make “blue racism” a thing, but they claim that police officers are seen “through an even more racist lens.” To support this claim, they show footage of protesters tipping over police cars and news stories of different officers being harmed or killed in the line of duty. The narrator in the video even goes so far as to say that officers are afraid to make it known that they are cops out of fear for their safety. To top it all off, the video has the gall to use a quote from Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream.”
Where do I even begin?
Let’s start with what was missing from this video. While there was plenty of footage of police officers killed, there was nothing shown of any of the blacks killed by police officers all over the country. Did they forget about Michael Brown? What about Tamir Rice? Eric Garner? Philando Castile? The list goes on and on.
That’s what is so infuriating about this video. While they claim that police officers are viewed in a “more racist lens” than anyone, I don’t think it’s possible to be seen in a more racist lens than blacks are seen on a daily basis. Whenever the police deal with blacks, there is a presumption of guilt. In their eyes, we’re nothing but thugs and hoodlums. Why do you think unarmed black men are killed while armed white men are met with reason and tact? So for this video to even suggest that the police themselves face more racism than the people they oppress is actually insulting.
Even more insulting is the fact that they state a fear of identifying themselves as a police officer due to possible harm they may face. Well you know what? At least you can hide the fact that you’re an officer while not in uniform. Me? There ain’t no hiding the fact that I’m black. When I am pulled over, I can’t just say “Officer I swear I’m not black.” If I am protesting in a group with other blacks, we can’t hide the fact that we’re black. It’s just who we are. So even if an officer is afraid to say they’re a cop, which is a bit of a ridiculous notion anyways, at least you can just not identify yourself and be fine.
All in all, this video is one of the most asinine things I’ve seen in some time. When you are one of the main source of consternation and oppression and prejudice for us black folk, as the police surely are, you don’t get to try and flip that around. You don’t get to try and claim that people are racist against you. That’s just not how this works.