Systematic racism works largely as an invisible hand that is not obvious to most, but can be clearly seen by minorities. It is cleverly woven into the fabric of everything we do as American people on a daily basis, yet doesn’t really stand out in the era of color blindness. This simply means that your teacher, neighbor, doctor, or Congressman, will smile at you in the morning, and call you a N-word in the evening on Twitter. However, in times of crisis, true feelings and intentions surface, and that is exactly what is happening here with Congressman Robert Pittenger’s racist commentary during this BBC interview:
Protesters in #Charlotte “hate white people” – North Carolina Congressman Pittenger tells #newsnight https://t.co/q6ELYD01QV
— BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) September 22, 2016
Not only are the Congressman’s comments racist, they are irrelevant as to why protests erupted in Charlotte. The people in Charlotte are not protesting because they are jealous of the economic status of whites, they are protesting because they feel their lives are not being valued by law enforcement. Citing welfare statistics and big government has nothing to do with why police are killing black motorists, and definitely does not correlate to why citizens are taking their outrage to the streets to demand justice.
With people like Congressman Pittenger in charge of policy creation, it’s not surprising that the use of deadly force against minorities is so disproportionate. Hopefully, this is a wake up call for citizens in Charlotte to exercise the power they have and vote politicians like Pittenger out of office. Replacing the people who create unjust policing policies is the only way to bring about real change.