DOS_patos
Unverified Legion of Trill member
Persecution based on race is one of the grounds on which people from other countries can seek asylum in the United States. To be successful under the Immigration and Nationality Act, asylum seekers must show they have been persecuted or have a well-founded fear of persecution because of grounds like their political views, religion, or nationality, and that the perpetrator is the government (which includes the police) or a group the government can’t or won’t control. Black Americans experience persecution based on race and reasonably fear such persecution by the American government, and if they lived in another country, it stands to reason America would grant them asylum. The extent of America’s oppression of Black people means that to dismantle systemic racism, America must begin by replacing the U.S. Constitution with one based on equality and human rights like South Africa did after the end of apartheid — a system of racial discrimination and segregation that has been compared to America’s Jim Crow laws.
While this may seem like a radical proposal, the U.S. Constitution is actually the world’s oldest written charter of government still in use today. The vast majority of countries have rewritten their constitutions to account for changing historical circumstances. And other suggested remedies to address systemic racism, like the House’s recently passed bill to create a commission to study providing reparations to Black Americans, may be necessary steps, but are not enough on their own. The many crimes America has committed against its Black citizens are not just economic. For decades, the U.S. government has systematically and intentionally persecuted Black Americans because of their race.
Again, let’s take the example of an asylum seeker from another country. An applicant who is pursuing asylum on the basis of racial discrimination must show a direct connection between their race and the persecution they have experienced or have a reasonable fear of experiencing. For example, a Black man would have to demonstrate he was repeatedly arrested and beaten by the police because he is Black, or that he received a harsher punishment for the same crime a white man committed because he is Black. In its Asylum Manual, Immigration Equality, an LGBTQ immigrants’ rights organization, explains that “courts have held that a ‘threat to life or freedom on account of race…is always persecution.’” Courts have held that serious physical harm, coercive medical or psychological treatment, invidious prosecution or disproportionate punishment for a criminal offense, severe discrimination, economic persecution, and severe criminal extortion or robbery are forms of abuse that may be considered persecution. Various types of harm that may not amount to persecution on their own may become persecution when evaluated as a whole, such as “enforced social or civil inactivity; economic harm; or constant surveillance,” according to the National Immigrant Justice Center.
In America, police are far more likely to kill Black people. Black men are approximately 2.5 times more likely to be killed by police than white men, and Black women are 1.4 times more likely to be killed by police than white women, with Black men and boys facing the highest risk of being killed by the police when compared with other groups of people. Recent examples include the police killings of Ma’Khia Bryant, Daunte Wright, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Elijah McClain. Moreover, the police rarely face repercussions for killing people on the job. From 2013 to 2020, 98.3% of police killings have not resulted in officers being charged with a crime, according to the Mapping Police Violence project. These higher and disproportionate rates of death at the hands of the police are an example of serious physical harm by a government actor. The lack of consequences for police who kill Black people is further evidence of the state’s failure to protect Black citizens.
Police violence, harassment and over-policing is not limited to one or even a handful of states, which means a Black person can’t simply relocate to another part of the country to escape it. Almost everywhere in the U.S., police departments kill Black people at a disproportionately higher rate, including states as varied as Missouri, Utah, Nevada, Florida, Arizona, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and California. In her research, Daanika Gordon, an assistant professor of sociology at Tufts University, has found that “predominantly Black neighborhoods are simultaneously over-policed when it comes to surveillance and social control, and under-policed when it comes to emergency services.” Black people are also harassed by police on the road. A 2015 analysis by The New York Times found that in North Carolina, police “used their discretion to search Black drivers or their cars more than twice as often as white motorists — even though they found drugs and weapons significantly more often when the driver was white. Officers were more likely to stop Black drivers for no discernible reason. And they were more likely to use force if the driver was Black, even when they did not encounter physical resistance.” Sometimes such stops result in death, such as in the cases of Wright and Philando Castile.
While this may seem like a radical proposal, the U.S. Constitution is actually the world’s oldest written charter of government still in use today. The vast majority of countries have rewritten their constitutions to account for changing historical circumstances. And other suggested remedies to address systemic racism, like the House’s recently passed bill to create a commission to study providing reparations to Black Americans, may be necessary steps, but are not enough on their own. The many crimes America has committed against its Black citizens are not just economic. For decades, the U.S. government has systematically and intentionally persecuted Black Americans because of their race.
Again, let’s take the example of an asylum seeker from another country. An applicant who is pursuing asylum on the basis of racial discrimination must show a direct connection between their race and the persecution they have experienced or have a reasonable fear of experiencing. For example, a Black man would have to demonstrate he was repeatedly arrested and beaten by the police because he is Black, or that he received a harsher punishment for the same crime a white man committed because he is Black. In its Asylum Manual, Immigration Equality, an LGBTQ immigrants’ rights organization, explains that “courts have held that a ‘threat to life or freedom on account of race…is always persecution.’” Courts have held that serious physical harm, coercive medical or psychological treatment, invidious prosecution or disproportionate punishment for a criminal offense, severe discrimination, economic persecution, and severe criminal extortion or robbery are forms of abuse that may be considered persecution. Various types of harm that may not amount to persecution on their own may become persecution when evaluated as a whole, such as “enforced social or civil inactivity; economic harm; or constant surveillance,” according to the National Immigrant Justice Center.
In America, police are far more likely to kill Black people. Black men are approximately 2.5 times more likely to be killed by police than white men, and Black women are 1.4 times more likely to be killed by police than white women, with Black men and boys facing the highest risk of being killed by the police when compared with other groups of people. Recent examples include the police killings of Ma’Khia Bryant, Daunte Wright, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Elijah McClain. Moreover, the police rarely face repercussions for killing people on the job. From 2013 to 2020, 98.3% of police killings have not resulted in officers being charged with a crime, according to the Mapping Police Violence project. These higher and disproportionate rates of death at the hands of the police are an example of serious physical harm by a government actor. The lack of consequences for police who kill Black people is further evidence of the state’s failure to protect Black citizens.
Police violence, harassment and over-policing is not limited to one or even a handful of states, which means a Black person can’t simply relocate to another part of the country to escape it. Almost everywhere in the U.S., police departments kill Black people at a disproportionately higher rate, including states as varied as Missouri, Utah, Nevada, Florida, Arizona, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and California. In her research, Daanika Gordon, an assistant professor of sociology at Tufts University, has found that “predominantly Black neighborhoods are simultaneously over-policed when it comes to surveillance and social control, and under-policed when it comes to emergency services.” Black people are also harassed by police on the road. A 2015 analysis by The New York Times found that in North Carolina, police “used their discretion to search Black drivers or their cars more than twice as often as white motorists — even though they found drugs and weapons significantly more often when the driver was white. Officers were more likely to stop Black drivers for no discernible reason. And they were more likely to use force if the driver was Black, even when they did not encounter physical resistance.” Sometimes such stops result in death, such as in the cases of Wright and Philando Castile.