The Global Conundrum of Caste or Economic Segregation: Chapter 7.
Dalit means suppressed. Chapter 6 showed the tale of successful mixed-race Black individuals. They take a trajectory out of their rat hole. It creates an illusion of an egalitarian integrated society. However, this integration is merely an illusion.
Black Lives Matter
Black people in the USA are poor and remain poor. Chapter 5 explained the commercialized education system in the USA. This system ensures that people remain in the periphery they inherited at birth. Staying alive between birth and death is not easy. Prisons are crammed with the Black population.[1] This is not a claim that they are innocent. Rather, they have little opportunity, much less an incentive to live a decent life.
The Black population lives in ghettos. They grow up with little or very basic education. Born to poor parents, the only option is physical labor. Survival over centuries forged this capacity in them. Their stellar performance in sports proves this fact. However, in the de-industrialized USA, there are no labor jobs. An environment of despair drags these American Dalits into crime. They face alcohol, drugs, and worst, poisons like fentanyl. Prison remains a transit lounge for them between these destinations.
The Police
Police and its force is the first demonstration of state power. This defines the relationship with citizens. One section might be in conflict with police at three times their population share. This is not a success story for any country. It is certainly not one for the richest, mighty and superpower USA.
The Good Wife TV Show
There is an old TV show from Hollywood “The Good Wife.” It features Alicia Florrick, the protagonist around whose life the courtroom drama revolves. Do not be misled by the name. It is an actual courtroom drama showing law practice in the modern USA. The research on legal issues is outstanding. They quote actual cases on their dramatic legal issues.
Season three, episode nineteen picked up a burning issue. It brought forth the plight of American Dalits. The episode is called Blue Ribbon Panel. This oversight panel consists of one Black person, one woman, and two judges, etc. They act as oversight on police excesses. Alicia serves as a substitute member. She discovers that the commission, far from being fair, acts as a convenient political tool. It covers up the excesses.
The inconsistencies and anomalies in the official narrative were too obvious. They were glaring for the audience to notice themselves. A white Chicago police officer was under investigation for shooting an unarmed Black man. Facts revealed that the officer planted a “drop gun” on the victim to justify the killing. The panel remained more worried about optics and political fallout than about justice for the Black victim. That is the short story of the USA, too.
Fiction explains the racism in police. This is more so in its perception of Black people whom they do not trust.[2] Since 2015, US police officers have fatally shot at least 135 unarmed Black people nationwide.[3] Outlets like Newsweek counted the victims. They found over 160 to 170 unarmed Black citizens killed by police since Michael Brown’s death in 2014.[4] The underlying pattern of police atrocities is documented in US data, journalism, and official investigations.
Police Training
American police are trained under a fancy-named doctrine. This is called the defense of life standard. They are permitted to shoot when they perceive an imminent threat. The training spends considerable time teaching officers to perceive threats rapidly. The result is a hair-trigger legalized by doctrine and practice.
India’s Criminal Procedure Code Section 176 mandates a judicial magistrate inquiry whenever police firing causes death. An independent officer of the court, not a departmental peer, examines the killing. The inquiry is not optional. It is statutory.
America has no equivalent statutory requirement. The investigation is internal. The prosecutor who decides whether to charge the officer works daily with the same police department. The grand jury that declines to indict hears only what the prosecutor presents. The officer’s peers judge the officer’s perception. Perception being subjective, the officer almost always walks.
The mix-black Obama Administration
As stated earlier, those who escape the rat hole often forget those left behind. Barack Hussein Obama is of mixed-race descent. He served as President of the USA for eight years. He also received the Nobel Peace Prize. He had two terms, the Justice Department, and a bully pulpit.
Philando Castile was shot during his second term. Alton Sterling was killed that same week. Obama gave careful, measured speeches about both. He did not change the training doctrine. He did not change the statutory framework. He did not change the departmental review. He did not even attempt to do anything. A system in which he could become President, was too perfect for any change. He lives under the protection of the Secret Service. He has inaugurated the Obama Presidential Memorial recently. This was for people to come and watch.[5] That is his confession about his achievements.
A monument for an insider who became outsider.
This is how the American caste system works by exploiting the poor and outcast. The next chapter explores the Japanese feudal pyramid and the Burakumin outcasts.
References:
- Black citizens represent about 30 percent of the prison population, but only 12 percent of the overall population.
- Why do US police keep killing unarmed Black men?
- Fatal police shootings of unarmed Black people reveal a troubling pattern.
- Timeline of death of Black people at the hands of US police
- Barack Obama builds a monument for himself