Center for American Progress

It’s Time for Honest, Thorough Conversation About Policing and Race in America
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It’s Time for Honest, Thorough Conversation About Policing and Race in America

Todd A. Cox and Danyelle Solomon discuss why America must mandate bold and aggressive reforms to help ensure an end to senseless and preventable police killings.

Multiple shots fired point blank into a man outside of a convenience store, pinned down on the ground by two officers. Multiple shots fired into a car pulled over for a broken tail light, while a 4-year-old child sits in the backseat. One day later, the country woke up to yet another devastating act of gun violence: The deplorable coordinated assassination of law enforcement officers in Dallas as #BlackLivesMatter protesters peacefully marched the streets against police violence.

As parents of black children and American citizens, we are simultaneously scared and enraged. The constant barrage of images of black men being gunned down by law enforcement with seemingly no accountability reinforces what W.E.B. DuBois called a double consciousness for African-Americans, whereby African-Americans live life with two conflicting identities — as the oppressed other and as an American.

The above excerpt was originally published in InsideSources. Click here to view the full article.

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Authors

Todd A. Cox

Director, Criminal Justice Policy

Danyelle Solomon

Former Vice President, Race and Ethnicity Policy