To transform our justice system, we must change the way we think about accountability. Our culture of punishment as accountability has never made us safer. But there are models of accountability that heal rather than harm.
EJUSA has a vision for how this kind of accountability can apply to policing for the damage and pain it has caused in Black and Brown communities. Read my latest op-ed to learn more, and please share it with your friends and family. Here’s a sample:
Police enforced slavery, enabled lynchings by white mobs, enforced Black Codes, and continue to criminalize Black and Brown kids in our schools for the same behavior that gets white kids a mere warning. In short, policing as a system has always upheld white supremacy, no matter how many individual officers act in good faith.
By now, it is clear that our justice system, including policing, must transform. Transformation cannot happen without accountability—for the present and the ugly past. But what does that look like in practice?
…An anti-racist vision of accountability repairs harm instead of causing more of it. This process, modeled on restorative justice, begins with the essential step of acknowledging and taking responsibility for the harm. From there, accountability continues with additional steps to make things right and prevent future harm.
Please read the entire op-ed and share it on social media. We can’t end mass incarceration or heal our brutal legacy of racism and police brutality unless we redefine accountability…for everyone.
Thank you for getting the message out there.
