The importance of knowing the history

Without an understanding of the history involved, it's difficult to understand the reality of systemic racism. I have to keep reminding myself of this. I didn't learn the full history of indigenous-settler relations in school. I learned what the dominant group wanted me to learn. So I had no idea until adulthood about the horrific acts committed by settlers against indigenous people in North America (and around the colonized nations of the world). 

I grew up with police officers around me, and I was never taught about the connection between slavery and policing. Or indigenous people and policing for that matter. Without an awareness of the history there, it made it difficult for me to process the reasons why people connect colonization with policing. But police were first employed to keep runaway slaves in check. And to control the indigenous people. 

Here's a quote from Desmond Cole's book The Skin We're In: 

"But Abdirahman tried to run, and at that moment the police priority was to detain him, to control his body and to make sure he couldn't escape, by any means necessary."

This could be describing an event that took place in 1816, 1916, or 2016. Systemic racism hasn't changed. The subject of this sentence could be a runaway slave, an indigenous man living on a reserve, or a Black man living with mental illness in Ottawa. 

The reality is that this is describing a police interaction with a Abdirahman Abdi in 2016. According to the story, Abdirahman was a regular at a cafe in Ottawa and the people working there were aware that he was mentally ill. They were forced to call the police one day when he was harassing customers as that's who people call when they need that sort of support. In this case, as with many other cases, it turned violent and he was murdered by the police. 

I am still warming up to the idea of defunding the police and moving that money to other forms of support within communities. This is mainly because it is such a new concept for me and I am still learning. Abdirahman's story helps me with this. I can't help but wonder what would have happened if there was another support system in place that people could have called in order to help them with the same situation. Someone without guns, but armed with the skills to help someone like Abdiraman. 

I need to know more, so I shall read on. This is why I'm here.     


 

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