#1 Muted & Listening

Systemic Racism, Problems with Modern Law Enforcement, and the Broken Criminal Justice System  LINKS: http://kirwaninstitute.osu.edu/research/understanding-implicit-bias/  https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html  Does Systemic Racism really exist in American Police forces? Is Police brutality a widespread issue or simply sensationalized by the media? In light of recent events, we will discuss these issues as well as other underlying problems I see with modern law enforcement and the broken criminal justice system. Say what you want about the current upheaval, strife, and rioting. No, we cannot condone that lawless behavior. There will always be agitators seeking to undermine true progress.  But at the core of this, there is a deeply troubling situation that has been ignored for far too long. Racial bias is without a doubt prevalent in our society. It is systemic and widespread. The worst part about it is that for the most part, it is completely implicit. Meaning we subconsciously exhibit the racial bias in every aspect of life. We don’t even realize we are doing it. That’s what makes it so difficult to address. Admitting the problem is always the first step. I’m not saying that there are millions of outwardly racist Nazis running around controlling the country. If that were the case it would be easy. We wouldn’t tolerate it.  But the more dangerous form of racism is the implicit kind. We haven’t even been able to admit that it exists. We all just need to open our hearts and our minds and most importantly our ears. We need to listen right now. We need to make our best effort to put ourselves in the shoes of our brothers and sisters who are suffering and have been suffering for generations. We need to stop pointing fingers and placing blame and just unite as a nation to overcome this crisis. Enough division, enough hate, enough violence, enough justification, and deflection. We must face this head-on together. We must do it now.  The militarization of the police matched with unchecked power and way too