10 ways white people are more racist than they realize

[loyalsister]

97. Initially only that one was proposed

Then the council member noted that two other parks have been designated alcohol free. Those are residential parks that sit on the premises of housing. The park that was suggested is a park where many people gather for barbecues, parties, etc.

When that wasn't enough to calm the opposition, there was a revision to ban alcohol in all parks. There are quite a few here. The initial proposal and defense was revealing enough for constituents to abandon someone who was elected with nearly 70% of the vote. Malicious or not, there was no way to back peddle enough to suppress that dog whistle. Particularly when there was no willingness to comprehend why the obvious disproportionate target for citations, fines, and police encounters would be racist.

7. White people are more likely to support the criminal justice system, including the death penalty, when they think it’s disproportionately punitive toward black people.

I think this applies to this situation. There is no doubt that that council member knew on some level that such a policy would be disproportionately punitive. I think it was not originally malicious but it was an effort to add another layer of institutional racism to our criminal justice system. Refusal to consider the consequences came a little closer to maliciousness.