Letters from Our Readers

Jahan Choudhry BAR Comments Editor

10 Jun 2020

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This week police brutality and racism in the United States and Brazil were on your minds. We share your letters for “Murder of Black Youth in Rio de Janeiro Shows Racist Nature of Policing in Brazil,” “Policing in the US is Not About Enforcing Law. It’s About White Supremacy,” and “We Can’t Breathe.”

“Murder of Black Youth in Rio de Janeiro Shows Racist Nature of Policing in Brazil” by Peoples Dispatch Staff discusses the recent murder of a Rio de Janeiro teen.

Ailson Reis de Albuquerque writes:

“I am Brazilian. First, in Brazil, at the state level, we have two police forces. One, called Policia Civil, has the competence to investigate crimes, the other force is called Policia Militar, or PM. The PM force is very brutal and uses similar techniques of torture and violence that they used to do during the Brazilian dictatorial regime (1964-1986). As in the US, the police behave sweetly with whites and very violently with Brazilians of color. In summary, the police in Brazil kill to keep the status quo of blacks in painful poverty and whites enjoying all the richness of the very blessed Brazilian land. I would say that they are the cruelest face of the Brazilian version of white supremacy amongst our mostly AfroBrazilian population.”

In “Policing in the US is Not About Enforcing Law. It’s About White Supremacy” Paul Butler uses the police killing of George Floyd and arrest of CNN reporter Oscar Jimenez to analyze the white supremacy at the heart of US policing.

Jess James writes:

“I'm sorry, I love Black Agenda Report but this is ridiculous. Everybody in America except for the one percent is in danger of the police, Chicago has a black mayor who runs the police force like a Gestapo. Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, all have liberal mayors whose police force terrorizes minorities.”

Dawn Gibson replies:

“Except that the police literally evolved from slave catcher patrols.

“Yes, as Black Agenda Report has noted in the past, the Black Leadership Class and other non Black POC (as well as white people) have been effective managers of systems and institutions of white supremacy/capitalism.

“And even though what you say is true, that theoretically all those who are not the 1% are in danger of police, it has been more than evident that the police disproportionately attack Black and brown people on a regular basis. White people (and white presenting people) benefit from that and have supported the police.”

“We Can’t Breathe” by Dante J. James asks, “Can and should America continue to breathe if it continues to suffocate African American people and our communities?”

Lisa Alman Yapari writes:

“As long as African Americans are treated as less than human beings, the power structures of the US in particular and of the entire West in general deserve to be dismantled. The US and the West made a fatal error in assuming that there can be no other alternative social and political structure to their own. There can be. And there will be. If they refuse to change their white supremacy culture and to adapt their sociopolitical structures to include minorities as equals, both the US and the West will certainly fall. They only have until 2030. After that year, it will become increasingly more difficult to salvage what is good about the West. Despite knowing this, I still have hope. The past and current generations have given birth to the most brilliant minds among black thinkers and black activists. If white people can find the humility to listen to them and the resolve to make the changes in their society that are required, there may still be hope for the West.”

The decline of the West seems to be happening before our eyes. We must continue to educate the masses against the corporate media’s miseducation of this process.

Jahan Choudhry is Comments Editor for Black Agenda Report. He is an organizer with the Saturday Free School based in Philadelphia, PA.

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