Our Laws Were Founded on Racism

“You are breaking the law.”⠀
“The law is the law.”⠀
“We are a country of laws.”⠀
“If you followed the law you wouldn’t have a problem.”⠀
“If he had done as he was told he’d be alive today.”

All of these are sound bites and phrases people regurgitate. This is colonizer language meant to intimidate and control BIPOC. Due to our muddled histories of colonization and slavery many of us have been taught to simply obey—usually out of a survival tactic to ensure we stay alive. Usually because our parents & grandparents had no choice. Especially those who survived wars, slavery, those who came as refugees and currently undocumented.

How many times have you heard these phrases? How many times have #BIPOC been told to follow the law blindly? That if we only followed it that all would go well for us. That it would protect you.

When they say “you are breaking the law” we must interrogate that and ask “who wrote that law and who does it serve?” Many of the “laws” on the books were never meant to serve BIPOC especially on policing. In fact, policing originated from “slave patrols.”⠀
Can we see how problematic that is? How can we rely on a force that was originally intended to persecute and terrorize Black people? It is unconscionable that we are supposed to rely on a force that hasn’t reckoned with its history, and faced it head on.

When laws are founded on racist ideology there is no other way forward then to dismantle them. The same people who build them can’t “reform” them, that’s a contradiction. Reform is not even an option anymore. We have tried that and have failed miserably.

Other laws originally enacted on racist beliefs are many of the immigration laws we have today, dating back to the Immigration Act of 1924 that banned Japanese people and only allowed “Northern Europeans” into the country. And most recently the banning of asylum.
The truth is many of these laws were never meant to serve the wellbeing of Black Indigenous People of Color. But rather to keep us under the thumb of the dominant group as a way to implement their racist agenda where the same small number of folks stay in power and the rest of us keep trying to survive and live by their norms.

Sound extreme? Black & Brown children are sitting in cages while 33% of Black people are in jail even though they only account for 12% of the US population. Case in point.

Way too many people of all backgrounds and colors are seeing thru this façade right now and they are angry AF and they are asking questions—and that is exactly what we need. What we need for change and activation to take place because once you see it you can’t unsee it.

Ask all the questions, be critical, get curious and then ask some more questions. Demand your government do better. We have to be able to critically question these laws that they tell us we must blindly obey and follow. As BIPOC many of us have been taught to not question authority. We need to unlearn that and replace it with A LOT of questioning and critical thinking.

And white supporters, get louder too, act like this was impacting YOU directly. Use your white privilege to raise hell. We’re tired of carrying this.

Let’s demand the receipts. All. Of. The. Fucking. Receipts. It’s our time.