Perhaps there would be more black police officers if the St. Louis Public Schools did not manufacture social incompetence to feed into the prison and criminal industrial complex. If the school system only manufactures people who only know how to steal cars, and not build them, why would you be surprised that a law enforcement class only had white students and no blacks?
With all the corruption that occurs within the ranks of city government, I am not surprised that Mokwa would say there is a deficit of black applicants. They are all in jail.
Black people are not viewed as authorities. Instead, black people are beaten and shot by white police officers, their health is compromised and minimized by the white doctor, the white judge is consistently ordering the most severe sentences to black people, and the black leader is supporting the power of the white authority.
I would argue this is the goal: to disqualify or eliminate blacks in any position where they could have authority. The same things are uttered by suburban school districts in this city – that there aren’t enough black teachers to join their faculties.
It is a crock, because the real problem is white people are socialized to cooperate with people who look like them – other whites. They have problems taking orders from people who don’t look like them, because they are raised to believe they are superior to all people.
Racism works well with the complacency issues supported by institutions in Missouri. As long as the institution is not questioned, people conform to the demand of the institution. St. Louis has a rich history, just as the State of Missouri, for minimizing difference in its policies and in its methods for sustaining white authority.
Jennifer A. Thompson
St. Louis Police Department