#30 Color of Policing

03/20/21 • 40 min

Paul Wilson, a founding member of Black Police Association and former superintendent with London’s Metropolitan Police with 31 years of public service expounded on why changing policing is almost insurmountable. He described the Police Occupational Cultures, vulnerabilities within the police services, and the birth of policing in the U.S and U.K. Paul expressed that the greatest pandemic in London is the loss of young Black men because regardless of your location in England and Wales, Black people are being disproportionately stopped and searched by the police.
"But at that time, they had something called the "sus" law. Suspected persons? And it was a law that was prevalently used if you'd like to control young Black people. Suspected persons member - police officer, could stop any Black person or indeed anyone, and without a victim, and without or little corroboration to arrest that person for being suspected of about to commit an offense" - Paul Wilson

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#29 Now The Whole Five Fifths

Leah Turner J.D., Professor at Maryland University and a licensed Acupuncturist shared her experiences as a biracial person. She shared her observations on biracial privileges and moving through white spaces, her perspectives on blackness, and the power of the heart.
"She raised me to be racially ambiguous. She didn't hid any of my blackness, she didn't try to deny it. I interacted with my father's side of the family, in fact, That was the only side of the family I knew. My mother's side, the white side of the family actually disinherited and disowned her. So I had no relationship with the white people in my bloodline" - Leah Turner J.D.

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#31 Equity is Tough but...

Julie Kefer, Senior Director of Operations at UCLA was resonate about the need for an equitable society as she acknowledged that racism was always there but it is easy to pretend that it was not. She recognized the enormity of the work can be overwhelming, but she insisted that the outcome must be the motivation.
"I feel very sort of overwhelmed by the challenge and the enormity of what we're all realizing especially as a white person, phew... we're not where we thought we were at all. How do we talk together, how do we get better.." - Julie Kefer