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UNAPOLOGETIC BLACK OP-ED
Why White Men Love "Law and Order" Rhetoric Until The Tables Are Turned
Even a broken clock is right twice a day — the illusion of justice in America
While former President Trump claimed to represent "law and order," his thirty-four felony convictions and his supporters' subsequent refusal to accept the outcome are a powerful reminder of the hypocrisy at the heart of this movement. When Barry Goldwater, a man who Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. criticized as endorsing a "philosophy which gives aid and comfort to the racists," ran for office, he also weaponized the "law and order" slogan to garner support, a strategy Nixon expanded as part of his "southern strategy." Nevertheless, Black Americans have long since recognized this seemingly benign statement is rooted in racism, the notion that the law should be enforced, but only when some groups break the law.
Our justice system purports to be blind, that "no man is above the law." And yet, we see that concept has been applied disproportionately to punish Black people while allowing far too many White people to skate past accountability. For instance, when 14-year-old George Stinney Jr. was falsely accused of raping and killing two White girls in South Carolina in 1944, an all-white jury deliberated for only…
