Classic Essays

Police Protection in a Non-White America

As the Other displaces us in the police and the military and the bureaucracy, “protection by” will become a distant memory — our thoughts will turn to “protection from.”

AT NEW YORK’S Police Academy some years ago, our racially indeterminate instructor was reviewing the twin subjects of racial discrimination and sexual harassment. He carefully pointed out that under the law, the “protected groups” are blacks, Hispanics, American Indians, Pacific Islanders, Asians, etc. — and women. I, the only unquestionably white male in the class, had the temerity to raise my hand and ask, “Do I understand that under the law, as you’ve explained it, anyone can discriminate against me all they want and I have absolutely no recourse?”

After a moment of awkward silence, he’ conceded that this was so, that laws against discrimination apply only to those in protected groups and that all other Americans, by definition, are assumed to be in a position of power and immune from discrimination. Since they are in the majority, he said, they do not need special legislation for protection.

I responded that, as I looked about the room, I had to wonder what was meant by “majority.”

The instructor said the law refers to a majority “on a national level.” By then he was clearly annoyed and promptly changed the subject.

This instructor, by the way, referred to Martin Luther King, Jr., Paul Robeson and W.E.B. du Bois as “great American heroes.” He also said, “We can’t all possess the courage and intelligence of someone like a Henry Winston.”

Henry Winston speaks at a Communist meeting in East Germany

I doubt if the rest of the class caught this. Since all they can talk about is basketball and sex, they wouldn’t likely have known that Henry Winston (pictured, above and at right; a black married to a white woman) was a top-ranking official of the Communist Party, U.S.A.

This is what your military and police departments are becoming, folks. Where will you find your protection in the future?

(Based on an article in Instauration)

Read more at Jamie Kelso’s online Instauration archive

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B.Smith
B.Smith
23 November, 2019 2:31 pm

Where will we find our protection?
Among ourselves sir!
Ourselves, together again as a folk.
Ourselves alone.