Karen's unexpected and difficult lessons

I have learned a lot during the human rights weekend. 

Two major things: 

1)    I need to start realizing when I'm conforming to society, and start taking initiative to stand out and question the situation in general.

2)     Police. I've learned a lot about police this weekend. The conversation I had was not in any way related to the program, but it was a side conversation I had with two South Africans (one male and one female- the male was 18 and the female was about 20). I've noticed that I am extremely ignorant when it comes to the subject of police brutality. My brother is involved with law enforcement, so when people are negative towards officers, I find myself getting defensive. It is really difficult for me to hear all of the negativity surrounding police, because I know an abundance of officers who are the polar opposite of what we hear about in the media. Overall I don't like to generalize all cops as bad cops. Because i'm surrounded by the good, it's hard for me to accept the bad. Now, that's not saying that police brutality and discrimination do not exist, because it does and i'm trying to educate myself more about it. 

When I look back at my brothers graduating academy class, I realize that the majority of the class were white, upper class males. That could very well be because of the location/state we live in, but I don't want to use that as an excuse. The majority of men in jail and prison are black males. We all face subconscious pre-assumptions and judgments about others. What makes a difference is if you can pick up on those assumptions to better the world we live in.

Life in Africa is different than life at home. I mean, if you're a young African male (or any African male) walking to your home in your township at night, you can bet you'll be pulled over by a cop. The police here don't have reasons, they just do it because they can. Power is an amazing concept (and by amazing, I mean so complex and fascinating to learn about ). Police here are of all different races. They literally have the power to see anybody they want, stop them, beat them, put them in a car, and drop them off in a different area so they have to walk back to their township (at night too- which puts them at a higher risk for getting attacked again on their walk back home). That specific scenario I just gave is a really common case. 

I never believed that this was an issue. I've seriously been so ignorant, however people in Africa go through life so differently than in the USA. I couldn't imagine having to worry about walking at night just because I was black. White privileged is so relevant. We're absorbed in our privilege and don't really recognize that we even have it. 

When I asked the two if they could then go report what happened to them, they asked me who they would report it to. I can't believe I didn't even think of that. At home (USA), I'm a white, privileged, middle class, female who has a state trooper as a brother. I have never seriously felt like I was unsafe. I know that if anything happened, I could contact somebody to come help. I couldn't imagine walking day to day, feeling like you are completely isolated on this planet, with nobody to help or save you if needed. 

In addition to the brutality of South African police, some will watch gang violence occur, but won't intervene because they don't want to get hurt. They'll watch the gangs fight and kill people, but won't do anything. Instead, they come back later and decide to find people and arrest them, even if they weren't involved.