Debunking the Invincibility Myth of Black Men

     When I was 13 or 14, I learned that my brother had been arrested for possession of marijuana. It wasn't his own, and he had no intention to sell it; however, New York City’s recently implemented “Stop and Frisk” Policy meant that police no longer needed a warrant to search people in public places such as train stations, schools, and on the street. When reading jargon about why the NYPD decided to implement these measures, I learned about ”Broken Windows Policing,” or the attempt to prevent crimes by cracking down on minor infractions. Theoretically this could work, as most races commit crimes at generally the same rate; however, policing in the United States has specifically targeted minorities such as blacks and Hispanics. This systematic targeting has led to mass incarceration-- prisons have effectively become new plantations, where black men are shipped off, forced to work for cents an hour, and abused constantly. And mass incarceration affects more than the people inside: families are torn apart and incomes are lost, meaning that those left on the outside, specifically children, will have a much harder time for the rest of their lives.
     This all stems from black men being seen too often as threats to white America. When hearing about countless victims of police brutality in the past five years or so, the media often refers to the victims as thugs and use stereotypically “black” images of them. Furthermore, when police recount why they shot and killed black men, they oftentimes says "I feared for my life," despite the fact that the victims are typically unarmed. The invincibility myth of black men has been perpetrated for far too long, and this is very dangerous to the black community. Blacks go through many of the same problems as whites, yet oftentimes they are ignored or attributed to internal disposition. Suicide rates amongst young black men are also staggeringly high-- illustrating that blacks are not as invulnerable as once thought. If white America were made to see this, then maybe a few black lives can be saved.