Boston Celtics star shooting guard is used to make people uncomfortable for all the right reasons.
He makes opposing defenses uncomfortable with his growing offensive repertoire; his lockdown D does the same to some of the NBA’s best offensive threats. And when he’s making the most of his platform as a nascent star in the league, he has no qualms about pushing fans to think differently.
To many — frankly, the majority of — people in the U.S., police are looked upon as relatively impartial, unbiased enforcers of the law.
Not so to many minorities in the United States — especially Black Americans.
Jaylen Brown: “I want to take a look at the term ‘police brutality’ and maybe offer another term as ‘domestic terrorism’ because that’s what it was in the eyes of George Floyd, and the eyes of Trayvon Martin.“ pic.twitter.com/kzb6UdaVwS
— Clevis Murray (@ClevisMurray) August 10, 2020
From anecdotal experience of excessive force and presumptive guilt to the statistical disproportionality of arrests and sentencing in Black and brown communities at a much higher rate than their white peers, the very way these people see policing diverges — and that in itself is a barrier to change.
Speaking after Boston’s win over the Orlando Magic in overtime Sunday, Brown opened up on the issue of police brutality.
“I want to take a look at the term police brutality and maybe offer another term as domestic terrorism, because that’s what it was in the eyes of George Floyd, and that’s what it was in the eyes of Trayvon Martin. And that’s what it is in the eyes of a lot of people of color and minority communities, on our own soil.”
“I’ll be posting an article on my social for guys to learn and tune in more, but thank you guys for listening,” he added.
True to his word, he elaborated on these ideas on his Instagram later in the day.
“We have settled for the term “police brutality”in America. The term police brutality does not fit George Floyd as we watched his Civil Rights being violated!!! Policing units and individuals have terrorized black people dating back to slave patrols and into the present.”
This regime of terror Brown describes is not some conspiracy theory, but a historical fact born out by scholarly research.
Before the Civil War, slave patrols roamed the U.S. to enforce the ownership of Black Americans and enslaved Black Africans.
Boston's Jaylen Brown calls on us to use our vote to fight racism https://t.co/naBa2mHCv7
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) July 30, 2020
Afterwards, the history of the prison industrial complex can find direct lines back to the institutions of Jim Crow rule that disenfranchised Blacks and often re-ensnared poor blacks via debt slavery instead –especially the practice of convict leasing.
This is not to say that most police over the decades have not tried to do their job as a public servant — it refers to the roots of the fraught relationships Blacks have had with the institution instead, where even the non-slavery-connected origins of policing often had problematic relationships with minorities.
Brown is pointing to the deep historical ties the police institution has had over the years where, at least in these origins and contexts, it was created to terrorize the Black community by design
Jaylen Brown delivers powerful message on racial justice, John Lewis https://t.co/KuHTRxjT3i
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) July 20, 2020
“The fear instated into the Black and minority community is intentional always has been!” related the Cal-Berkeley product on this point.
“I realize for some Americans this statement is simply not true and I am glad you have that PRIVILEGED viewpoint but others such as George Floyd and countless other human beings that we don’t know, it is a different reality,” he added.Reminder it’s 2020 and the Ku Klux Klan is not classified as a terrorist organization it’s 2020 and lynching is STILL not a federal hate crime!! People yell in the comments all the time “racism doesn’t exist” and I can finally understand that racism is so deep and normalized they can’t even see it ! So I guess in a sick way they gotta point.”
The point Brown is trying to make here is not that police are inherently racist, but that the institution, having never truly reckoned with the ugly truths of its origins, has carried that baggage into the present.
Manifesting in unequal treatment before the law that seems to some the fault of the oppressed despite evidence to the contrary, Black Americans have taken to the streets of the U.S. to protest that treatment while trying to shine a light on the historical roots of present-day oppression in the hopes we institute policy change to end it.
Boston's Jaylen Brown continues to push NBAers to use their platform https://t.co/RGz5NUYkiL
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) August 7, 2020
If policing is to truly protect and serve all citizens equally, a reckoning with those ugly historical roots and how some have persisted into the present is in order, according to Brown.
“It starts with the framework,” he explained. “Right now, there’s an enlightenment kind of going on and an understanding, I think, amongst American population, people are now aware that African Americans in this country have been treated unfairly.”
“It’s a surprise to most but it’s not a surprise to me,” he added.
“It starts with the framework. How this is country was built … starting from slavery, to Jim Crow to ‘separate but equal‘ to where we’re at now has trickle down effects of systemic racism.”
“And we still have some [that] bleeds into today’s society that we can rectify with policy change.”
[lawrence-related id=40096,39738,39657,39302]