21st Century Lynchings and Racism in Worcester
On July 6,
2016 two Black men were murdered by the police. Alton Sterling was killed in
Baton Rouge. Philander Castile was killed in Minneapolis. As of this date 509
people have been killed by the police in 2016.
The majority
of the people killed by the police are White people, people with dark skin are
killed disproportionately more often. This is evidence of racial profiling. The
inference is that stopping racial profiling will help everyone including White
people.
In the late
19th Century and earlier 20th Century the Jim Crow laws
of the racist Southern USA were enforced by the means of lynching Black people
from a tree. Today the so called New Jim
Crow, such as mass incarceration and school to prison pipeline are being
enforce the 21st Century’s new form of lynching, police killings.
On July 7,
2016 about 100 Worcester residents protested the racist killings of the day
before. The protest was organized by Massachusetts Human Rights Committee and
the Progressive Labor Party organized the event. Other groups and individuals
participated such as Socialist Alternative.
The protest
in Worcester was one of several protests nationwide. There will be at one more
protest in Springfield at its City Hall on Monday, July 11, 2016 starting at 3
PM.
One young
man apparently from Clark U. led the chant “No Justice, No Peace” A lady
protester shouted out several times “‘racist cops’ means ‘fight back’ ”
Another speaker made the connection between
economic income disparity and racism. This speaker sought economic equality as
a means to abolish racism and other forms of discrimination.
Worcester’s
problems with race relations were also raised in the speeches. The racist
incident in which a City boss used racially offensive language during a road
rage incident, the malicious prosecution of the Black Lives Matter protesters,
and the Councillor Gaffney’s racist attack on Mosaic were mentioned.
A lady came
up to me and congratulated me for my opposition to Coucillor Gaffney. She said
he was arrogant, privileged, and a frat boy. I told her I agreed.
The
protesters made plans to meet again. Some wanted to discuss body cams for the
Worcester Police and the details of Chief Sargent’s “Broken Windows” policing
policy.
As the
protest was winding down, a group of mostly young people started to walk to
the police station as a means of venting the anger at the police. I would not
be surprised should they demand and got a meeting with Chief Sargent. Sometimes
the militancy of the young is quite amazing.
As I am
writing this column I heard on the news that two police officers were killed in
Texas. I personally condemn this type of individual “lone wolf” activity.
Political action is done by the people in a mass way, demonstration, rallies,
petition, meetings, etc.
The struggle
for justice is a class struggle usually lasting decades. The same can be said
for the struggle for racial and gender Justice.
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