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Intersectionality: Black Police Officers

Intersectionality, according to the dictionary means, “The interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender as they apply to a given individual or group, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage.” This word has more relevant now than ever. My perfect “real world” example of intersectionality is the life of a Black police officer.

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A first-person source of what it is like to be a Black police officer.

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This is a beautiful picture. Denver police officer, Nate Magee, chants and marches with a BLM protest. Black, blue or Nate?

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Black Police Chiefs, Feeling Squeezed, Face Criticism on All Sides

As police departments are scrutinized for racist policing practices, African-American chiefs find themselves caught between skeptical residents and officers.

In class this week, we discussed, intersectionality. Does the triangle with stripes fit in with the triangles, or does it fit in with the stripes? Even though this striped triangle is both of these things, it has a difficulty finding which group it belongs too. Often times the stripes and triangles argue with who faces more oppression. However intersectionality acknowledges that oppression must be faced together, not separately because they’re oppressing two different things. This word and analogy made me think of Black police officers in todays society. They are Black. They are police officers. But who are they? This article does a great job at pinpointing some Black police officers feelings and having a conversation about this uneasy topic. 

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You feel something, as an African-American male, that there’s extra pressure on you to somehow wave a magic wand and you can make some of the things go away,

Kenton Buckner, Syracuse police chief