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You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/12/indigenous-or-american-we-need-to-protect-black-bodies-everywhere
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| Indigenous or American, we need to protect black bodies everywhere | Indigenous or American, we need to protect black bodies everywhere |
| (about 4 hours later) | |
| The black American writer Ta-Nehisi Coates grapples with the brutality of his country. He lays bare the inheritance of slavery that has defied a civil war and persists to this day, more than 150 years since Lincoln’s emancipation proclamation. | The black American writer Ta-Nehisi Coates grapples with the brutality of his country. He lays bare the inheritance of slavery that has defied a civil war and persists to this day, more than 150 years since Lincoln’s emancipation proclamation. |
| Related: Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates review – an urgent wake-up call | Related: Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates review – an urgent wake-up call |
| Coates meets the physical violence he sees all around him with the violence of his own words. In his book Between the World and Me, he writes a letter to his son. It is a devastating and distressing assessment of the black condition in America. | Coates meets the physical violence he sees all around him with the violence of his own words. In his book Between the World and Me, he writes a letter to his son. It is a devastating and distressing assessment of the black condition in America. |
| “Here is what I would like for you to know: in America it is traditional to destroy the black body – it is heritage.” | “Here is what I would like for you to know: in America it is traditional to destroy the black body – it is heritage.” |
| Coates channels the spirit of the great writer James Baldwin. Indeed he is seen as the second coming of Baldwin. As Baldwin was to the era of segregation, Coates is to the supposed “post-racial America”. An America with a black man in the White House and black men dead on the streets. | Coates channels the spirit of the great writer James Baldwin. Indeed he is seen as the second coming of Baldwin. As Baldwin was to the era of segregation, Coates is to the supposed “post-racial America”. An America with a black man in the White House and black men dead on the streets. |
| Coates’ book finds its inspiration in Baldwin’s essay The Fire Next Time, where Baldwin, also in a letter, counsels his nephew: | Coates’ book finds its inspiration in Baldwin’s essay The Fire Next Time, where Baldwin, also in a letter, counsels his nephew: |
| You can only be destroyed by believing that you really are what the white world calls a nigger. | You can only be destroyed by believing that you really are what the white world calls a nigger. |
| Sadly, nearly 30 years after his death, Baldwin’s warning resonates in a country where a black person can end up dead at the hands of a cop for being pulled over for a broken tail light. Yes, this has happened. | Sadly, nearly 30 years after his death, Baldwin’s warning resonates in a country where a black person can end up dead at the hands of a cop for being pulled over for a broken tail light. Yes, this has happened. |
| A year ago this week the faultline of race split open in Ferguson, Missouri. Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, was shot dead by a white police officer, Darren Wilson. | A year ago this week the faultline of race split open in Ferguson, Missouri. Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, was shot dead by a white police officer, Darren Wilson. |
| Wilson fired his gun 12 times. Riots broke out and other cities followed. | Wilson fired his gun 12 times. Riots broke out and other cities followed. |
| Brown had stolen from a convenience store. He struggled with Wilson, fled, and Wilson followed. The rest is lost in the violence and confusion of the night. A grand jury decided not to indict Wilson and he was cleared by the Justice Department, which believed witnesses who corroborated Wilson’s account that he shot in self-defence. | Brown had stolen from a convenience store. He struggled with Wilson, fled, and Wilson followed. The rest is lost in the violence and confusion of the night. A grand jury decided not to indict Wilson and he was cleared by the Justice Department, which believed witnesses who corroborated Wilson’s account that he shot in self-defence. |
| A year later people are back on Ferguson’s streets calling for justice. | A year later people are back on Ferguson’s streets calling for justice. |
| Michael Brown is just one of many. Eric Garner, Michael Scott, Freddie Gray: all black men, all shot dead, all symbols of injustice. How many others? Well, we don’t really know. The US government doesn’t keep records on people killed by police. | Michael Brown is just one of many. Eric Garner, Michael Scott, Freddie Gray: all black men, all shot dead, all symbols of injustice. How many others? Well, we don’t really know. The US government doesn’t keep records on people killed by police. |
| Related: About The Counted: why and how the Guardian is counting US police killings | Related: About The Counted: why and how the Guardian is counting US police killings |
| The Counted is a Guardian US project that collects data on police shootings in the US and its numbers are damning. Adjusted for percentage of population, African Americans are being killed by police at twice the rate of other Americans. Nearly a third of those black people killed so far this year were unarmed. | |
| The Washington Post says 24 unarmed black men have been shot and killed by police so far this year. One every nine days. | The Washington Post says 24 unarmed black men have been shot and killed by police so far this year. One every nine days. |
| Black Americans every day find themselves in conflict with the judicial system, locked up in shocking numbers. They are about 12% of the general population yet, according to the Justice Department, African American males make up around half of the US prison population. | Black Americans every day find themselves in conflict with the judicial system, locked up in shocking numbers. They are about 12% of the general population yet, according to the Justice Department, African American males make up around half of the US prison population. |
| There are more black men in prison than in university or college. And why are they imprisoned? The majority for non-violent drug offences. | There are more black men in prison than in university or college. And why are they imprisoned? The majority for non-violent drug offences. |
| The National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People – a dominant voice in African American politics – points out five times as many white people use drugs compared with black people, yet black people are sent to prison for drug crimes at 10 times the rate of white Americans. | The National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People – a dominant voice in African American politics – points out five times as many white people use drugs compared with black people, yet black people are sent to prison for drug crimes at 10 times the rate of white Americans. |
| Of course, justice should not be about colour. And yet the truth is inescapable: it is. | Of course, justice should not be about colour. And yet the truth is inescapable: it is. |
| Before we think this is a problem peculiar to America, consider that Indigenous Australians are not 3% of this country’s population yet are a quarter of the prison population. For youth it is even worse. Incarceration rates for Indigenous children are 24 times higher than non-Indigenous kids. | Before we think this is a problem peculiar to America, consider that Indigenous Australians are not 3% of this country’s population yet are a quarter of the prison population. For youth it is even worse. Incarceration rates for Indigenous children are 24 times higher than non-Indigenous kids. |
| Related: Indigenous Australia knows the cynicism exposed by Michael Brown's killing in Ferguson | Larissa Behrendt | Related: Indigenous Australia knows the cynicism exposed by Michael Brown's killing in Ferguson | Larissa Behrendt |
| Amnesty International’s secretary general, Salil Shetty, has singled out Western Australia as the worst. The rates in WA, he says, are higher than for black people in the US. | Amnesty International’s secretary general, Salil Shetty, has singled out Western Australia as the worst. The rates in WA, he says, are higher than for black people in the US. |
| Ta-Nehisi Coates does not write just of black Americans, he speaks to our experience as Indigenous people here. The need to defend our very bodies is as urgent in Walgett as it is in Washington. | |
| A new generation in America and here is being challenged and provoked by Coates as their parents heeded the words of James Baldwin: | A new generation in America and here is being challenged and provoked by Coates as their parents heeded the words of James Baldwin: |
| I have spent most of my life watching white people and outwitting them, so that I might survive. | I have spent most of my life watching white people and outwitting them, so that I might survive. |