Let me preface this by saying that I consider the actions of Tou Thao, Derek Chauvin, J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane, Jonathan Mattingly, Brett Hankinson, and Myles Cosgrove absolutely reprehensible. By no means is it my objective to justify, legitimate, or excuse the actions of these men. All I am doing is expressing my personal feelings towards the question of 'systemic racism' and 'social justice' particularly in the context of the recent protests over the unjust killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. I realize this is a controversial topic, and ideologues will likely label this article 'controversial' too, however, this is a question that has been bothering me for a while now and I've given this a lot of thought (hence the delay in uploading), and thus I feel not only a burning desire to share my two cents but also caution against a potential for anarchy. This might drag on for a while but I would safely consider this article to be my first and most important piece of political commentary.
Firstly, I feel it is necessary to define a few terms before I move on. In my estimation there needs to be drawn a distinction between 'social change' and 'social justice'. A democracy is definitionally a system of 'social change'. It is representative and thus is sufficiently flexible to be able to adapt to changing socio-cultural values. A democratic society is desirable precisely due to this inherent quality of flexibility. Protests in the past such as Martin Luther King Jr's Civil Rights protest, the students protest against the Vietnam War in the '60s, and the Women's Rights Movement in the '70s, are all a manifestation of how the body politic can effect 'social change'. They utilized the flexibility of the political system to pursue actionable goals that were codified in law. In other words, they relied upon democracy to change society. 'Social justice' on the other hand is characterized by a general disillusionment in the current system. It definitionally expresses pessimism as to the capacity of current institutions to dispense justice. Therefore, protests that fly the banner of social justice are pursuing their goals by tearing down and replacing the political system. In essence, social justice is more revolutionary in character. A useful metaphor, I think, would be to conceive of society as a complicated mechanical watch. 'Social change' seeks to replace the gears in the watch that have turned rusty in order to make the watch tick accurately, whilst 'social justice' seeks to replace the watch as a whole, believing that no amount of tinkering, repair, or gear replacement will help the watch tick as it should. By no means do I intend to create a moral binary between 'social change' and 'social justice'. Each is useful in its own right and under specific contexts. For example, I would say that 'social justice' is warranted when dealing with oppressive societies such as Fascistic and Marxist societies that existed in the 20th century. No amount of 'tinkering' could ever fix the inherent oppressiveness of these societies themselves, therefore the only option would be to 'replace the watch itself'. Such 'replacements' naturally tend to be chaotic and disruptive precisely because it requires an overhaul of everything. A revolution. In my conception democracies were invented in part to prevent the constancy of chaos that naturally results from revolution as by creating a society that can constantly change the populace need not violently revolt but calmly demonstrate. They need not cast chaos but cast their ballot. The watch need not be replaced but simply fixed.
The Breonna Taylor Incident
The unjust murder of Breonna Taylor led to significant legislative and procedural changes with respect to policing. For example, the Louisville Mayor suspended the use of "no-knock" warrants; the Louisville Metro Police Department now requires all officers to wear body cameras; the 'Justice in Policing Act 2020' was introduced in Congress, which aims to combat excessive police force, misconduct, and racial bias; and the FBI began investigating the case, which will potentially lead to the conviction of officers Jonathan Mattingly, Brett Hankinson, and Myles Cosgrove. It was the initial public outcry by activist Shaun King and the 'first wave' of protests on May 26th that led to such reforms being tabled as officials became aware of the gravitas of the issue. Although a terrible tragedy, the reforms enacted and greater accountability introduced is demonstrative of the proper functioning of a flexible democracy. This is the essence of 'social change' and effective representation. However, the protests that followed (lasting until the 29th of May) were characterized by violence, mindlessness, and sheer chaos to the extent that Juniyah Palmer, Breonna Taylor's sister, commented the following on her Facebook page:
"At this point y'all are no longer doing this for my sister! You guys are just vandalizing stuff for NO reason, I had a friend ask people why they are there most didn't even know the 'protest' was for my sister."
Although there is an inherent tendency towards violence in any gathering of a large number of people simply due to the psychological phenomenon known as 'group shift', it becomes evident that a culture of protesting as an end-in-itself has gripped the U.S. and that Breonna Taylor's death merely acted as a platform to foreground the issue of 'systemic racism' in the U.S. To the protestors legislative changes and safeguards against police brutality aren't sufficient. There has been no rallying cry to limit qualified immunity, establish a standardized (perhaps federal) framework of policing methodology, increase federal oversight of police misconduct, and limit the power of police unions. Such demands seem almost reminiscent of the organized protests that characterized the '60s and '70s and to me perfectly characterizes the type of social change that needs to occur to reduce the persistence of police brutality in the U.S.
Instead, these protestors demand revolution. They demand 'social justice'. Police brutality is the most potent image that demonstrates their message of 'systemic racism' as an inherent function of American democratic society. In the absence of legislative barriers and express obstacles that are demonstrably probative of 'systemic racism', the protestors have come to rely upon a dangerous and largely masked realm of power; culture.
George Floyd: The Power of a Martyr
Indeed most depressing and tragic of all would be the tale of George Floyd. The power of the words "I can't breathe" inspired people all across the globe. Once more an unjust death by the hands of police was deified into an icon that symbolized oppression and revolution simultaneously, adding to the mystical nature of the protest movement itself. Floyd represented a veritable Christ-like figure imbuing the movement with the moral superiority and religious dogmatism necessary to move the masses. The transition from concrete walls to glass ceilings has tribalized the movement and predisposed it to pursuing ever more abstract goals. Once more I would like to reiterate the fact that I am in no manner whatsoever downplaying or undermining the death of George Floyd. I simply believe that he was not only a pivotal trigger in raising racial tensions to their logical threshold but also redefined the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and the concept of 'social justice' itself. His death awakened the postmodern sensibility underlying the BLM movement and its goal of destruction. The movement's loose structure, occasional violent tactics, ambiguous and unattainable policies all demonstrate its postmodern focus on oppression rather than structured solutions. For as much as I despise Marxists, they at least had a clear view of how they were going to 'replace their watch' in the 20th century. The danger of the current protests is that it lacks a clear 'replacement watch'. For example, the protests have inspired the idea of 'defunding the police'. However, as a testament to the disorganization and chaotic structure fuelling the protests, said idea varies from mere state budgetary restructuring to community regulation of the police force to all-out abolition of the police. This fragmentation is precisely what shapes and maintains the movement's loose structure and hyperfocus on the problems of society in lieu of potential solutions. This line of thinking is perfectly postmodern because postmodernism views even the most democratic and meritocratic systems as nothing more than an oppressive function of power hierarchies.
Concluding Thoughts
The police represent an essential element of society (acknowledged by the majority of Americans, especially given the fact that only 20% of Americans voted to defund the police in a recent Yougov poll) and constitutes the enforcement arm of the justice institution. Whilst I readily acknowledge the presence of police brutality it may not be for the reasons commonly cited. I've come to realize that most phenomena rarely have a monocausal explanation. I believe that individual prejudices have a part to play for sure, but more significantly the power asymmetries that typify the relationship between police officer and civilian tend to exacerbate individual prejudices and feelings of inferiority, resulting in amplified violence or rather the potential for violence and brutality. This much is clear when one examines the conclusions of Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment and particularly Christopher Browning's application of the same to the psychology of Nazi foot soldiers during the Holocaust. In my mind, this means that police officers are placed in an environment where the worst can be drawn out of them and hence the institution naturally requires more regulation and oversight than most. This rationale is further justified when one realizes that Derek Chauvin has had 17 complaints filed against him in the past and was involved in 3 shootings. However, psychology isn't the only factor in this equation, perceived 'systemic racism' is to blame as well. This is not to say that there exists a causal relationship between 'systemic racism' and police brutality but the conflation of both concepts has led to growing violence and racial tribalism. For example, the observed Ferguson effect, hypothesized that growing alienation with the police results in a higher crime rate due to the fact that police officers aren't willing to make arrests or conduct their duties in fear of a backlash. This serves to create a repetitive cycle where increasing police distancing raises the crime rate, necessitating more rigorous policing, thus inevitably fuelling police brutality and further antagonizing the public. In my mind, incorporating the structural changes and regulations to policing mentioned above will help ease tensions and reconnect the people with their security apparatus, however, doing so presupposes that 'systemic racism' does not exist and there are no barriers to the police force earnestly implementing said changes. I will not deny the ubiquitous presence of personal bias (which is natural in any human with a value system whether one is conscious of it or otherwise) however there is little evidence of substance to corroborate the claim that 'systemic racism' persists in American society. Most arguments resort to glass ceilings and cultural indoctrination, however, quantifiable metrics paint a different picture insofar as minorities are concerned. For instance, Asian Americans have a higher economic mobility rate than white Americans (Wong et al.1998), Hispanics have roughly the same economic mobility rate as white Americans (Becker and Tomes 1979), and conclusively, intergenerational economic mobility is higher among black women than white women even after controlling for wage rates and hours worked (Raj Chetty, Nathaniel Hendren, Maggie R Jones, Sonya R Porter 2019). Thus a more complex view of perceived privilege and 'systemic racism' comes into view. Once accounting for other factors like gender and position relative to other minorities the white hegemony of the system becomes increasingly hard to defend. I implore you, dear reader, to construe my words only to the extent of the issues considered in this article. Please do not try and extrapolate my political or ideological position from this article because that would not only distort the meaning of this article but once again fuel the perpetual revolutionary chaos that plagues our world in a time where ordered change is needed. I realize this may have been a long and boring mess, but if you were to take one thing away from this article it'd be to become the precise and calculating watchmaker, able to replace broken gears and fix a timeless masterpiece, rather than the mad shopper constantly in search for the next watch to provide some semblance of time.