Do white New Yorkers care about police brutality?

The only way Giuliani and the NYPD will be held accountable is if white people join the protest.

By Jill Nelson

Apr 10, 2000 | The morning of the funeral of 26-year-old Patrick Dorismond, the man who was shot by an undercover member of the New York Police Department on March 16 for saying no to drugs, I went swimming at the Harlem YMCA.

I swim nearly every morning, as much to dissipate my anger and frustration and to order my thoughts as for exercise. Somehow, the cool water and the repetition of strokes hones and focuses my passions, especially intense at this moment, living in a city where the police have shot and killed four unarmed black men in just over a year.

That Saturday morning, as always, swimming did its magic. Getting dressed I felt calmer, cooled out, ready to deal with another day. I was wearing a "Stop Police Brutality" button, and the sisters in the locker room asked for one. So I handed them round to all, including a silent white woman who was there, too. She looked at the button, looked at me, and asked, "What's police brutality?"

My first reaction was to slap her upside her head, give her a taste of the brutality that stalks people like me every day. I could not believe that here she was in the center of Harlem -- where white people are moving by the thousands -- still draped in the white privilege that allows her to not know what police brutality is, even as she stands in a community victimized by it.

Of course, someone who purports not to know what police brutality is probably hasn't heard the term "white privilege." But back in the day, white privilege was what young recruits to the civil rights movement tried (and usually failed) to shed: the advantages that accrue simply based on being white; the freedom to go about your business without worrying about your race, whether dealing with shopkeepers, schoolteachers, employers or police officers.

In today's winner-take-all, post-affirmative-action society, apparently privilege of every kind is to be grabbed, not shed, and it seems most whites have lost consciousness of the privilege their skin color represents. That's always galling to me, but in this period of crisis, it's dangerous. In the wake of the Amadou Diallo and Dorismond killings I've found myself asking desperately: Where are the white voices of outrage?

Since the murder of Diallo in February 1999 and the acquittal of the four officers who fired at him 41 times, the tension in this city is so thick you could grab a handful and put it in your pocket, although this is not necessary since there is no way to avoid it in the subway, on the streets, in stores or nearly anywhere you go. And it's not just tension between people of color and the police, but also with the white community, which has been by and large silent on the issue of police violence and use of excessive force.

Of course this tension has historic roots. Law enforcement historically was not charged with protecting black rights -- we didn't have any -- but white property, including black slaves. Today, many people of color still see the police as protectors of the racial and economic status quo. It's also clear that many whites in New York voted for Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and remain silent about his excesses, because of their fear of black and Latino people, particularly the young. And they've been willing to let Giuliani curtail these people's civil rights in exchange for feeling more comfortable and safe.

Perhaps there's cause for hope in the results of a recent polls. A CBS News/New York Times poll released Friday shows Giuliani's Senate rival Hillary Rodham Clinton with a lead in the race -- 49 percent vs. 41 percent. It is the fifth poll in two weeks to show Giuliani losing popularity. More to the point, a Daily News poll released April 2 reported that 72 percent of New Yorkers, across racial and economic lines, agree that the NYPD's use of deadly force has gotten out of hand.

But I'm not sure. Giuliani immediately dismissed the poll, and he can do that, with no consequences politically, unless white New Yorkers raise their voices against police brutality in an organized and sustained fashion.

If they don't, racial tension in this city will continue to mount, and New York will divide into two camps, people of color on one side, aided by a handful of progressive whites, and the mayor, police commissioner, police and all the silent white people on the other. A prescription for disaster and urban upheaval if there ever was one.

Next Page: I am more fearful of the police than of potential criminals

• View blog reactions