THE POWER OF OTHERING
We are all truly at the tipping point of losing our fundamental constitutional freedoms.
BY SULLIVAN LEWIS
Let’s get straight to the (tipping) point.
Black Americans are disproportionately targeted by our justice system, stripping us of our constitutional rights.
People of color are negatively affected by socioeconomic factors resulting in fewer job opportunities, less access to higher education, income inequality, and homelessness.
We know that Black Americans, specifically, are hugely affected by our Healthcare System. Black women are still three times as likely to die during childbirth than their white counterparts.
Additionally, Blacks do not receive 16 of the common life-saving referral-based procedures their white counterparts are offered. Add that to the disproportionate affects of police brutality.
Despite all we know and all the available information surrounding these inequalities, somehow our white counterparts still believe that people of color and late-arriving immigrants of color are the issue. Even though people of color in total makeup roughly 39.3% of the total US population, roughly 29% of the total US workforce and roughly 17.4% of small business ownership. Keep in mind, small business makes up 47.5% of job creation in America.
This hypocrisy also exists in crime rates. According to The Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) our white counterparts are 5.1 times more likely to commit the same crimes without the consequence of incarceration or minimum sentencing when incarcerated. Turns out, the socioeconomic problem whites are experiencing is on them. We’re not the problem. In fact, some would conclude that the opposite is true.
Ironically, white Americans have been lied to by the people they’ve elected to represent them–the Donald Trumps, Mitch McConnells and Lindsey Grahams of government. These people have dangled their privilege, security, prosperities, and successes in the face of less fortunate white Americans, while constantly telling them “you can have all these things too if not for those people.” In the Black community we’ve referred to this as “dangling a white carrot.” Just as one would dangle a carrot in front of a horse.
It’s typically assumed that people of color are not valued. But I challenge that. I think wealthy, white, legislators know our value. They’ve figured out that the best way to cover their tracks of wrongdoings and abuse of power towards their own people is to “otherise” us. And for the several that stray, they use fear and force to bring them back to the flock.
We are all in the same boat. And it ain’t Noah’s Ark. Fact is, we are all truly at the Tipping Point of losing our fundamental constitutional freedoms. I’m not talking about the freedom to get your hair done, workout in a gym, or not wear a mask in public like a jack-ass. I’m talking about the freedom to assemble. The freedom to peacefully protest. The freedom to speak up when we see something wrong within the branches of our government. Most importantly, we’re losing the freedom to remind these fools that we elected them and they work for us! Remember, the Constitution was created to protect people from government, not each other. Reality is, it’s up to us to connect the dots and lead our flock because the sooner we learn how little things got us here, the sooner we can impact real change.
