Should we honor people who fought to continue slavery and further white supremacy? Absolutely not. Slavery and white supremacy are contrary to the values Americans profess, although they are unfortunately not contrary to our country’s foundations or actions.
As a leading institution of higher education with a particularly shameful history, it is imperative that Davidson works to make the admissions process as fair as possible. Current policies give advantages to wealthy applicants and to a group that is disproportionately white. This breaches Davidson’s professed commitments to integrity, inclusivity and diversity.
Given the virulent discourse concerning minority and ethnic groups this year, disagreements over the role that affirmative action plays in the U.S. will persist.
Bill Bratton was synonymous with the broken windows theory, and he was able to evolve his style of police as our understanding of the theory changed.
Racial discrepancies in Police stops cannot be explained by different crime rates among Black Communities.
Beyond Colin Kaepernick’s fundamental right to refuse to stand and salute the flag, the fact that Black Americans are second class citizens needs to be recognized.
For police, legitimacy is crucial: it means that citizens are more likely to comply with orders, report crimes, act as witnesses, assist in investigations and support police power. But, like a teacher on the first day of school, police only acquire a limited amount of respect from their title alone. The rest can be earned through their actions.
When the power differential between police and communities is so large, the “Police-Community Relations” narrative can skew the conversation.
This Department of Justice’s report on the Baltimore Police Department’s practices provides data for what the black community in Baltimore has said for years; they were ignored, criticized, and vilified.
Rhetoric from many opponents of Black Lives Matter has only deepened our divisions by dismissing oppression, linking civil rights with violence and professing Black criminality.