The racist undertones of the Berner’s “Kamala is A Cop” meme
Since Senator Harris started gaining prominence as a presidential contender, Bernie fans started spreading a phrase that on the surface, is catchy, but is disgustingly racist when you analyze the intended message of it:
Bernie Bros are for the most part, young, white college students, or poor, white, uneducated non-students. (Note: Bernie voters and Bernie Bros are not synonymous in this context. Bernie does have some minority support at the time. But this is about The Bernie Bros. Which are mostly white.)
The “cops” don’t have any negative impact on their lives. Their only interactions with cops are when they listen to hip hop music that references them. Or when they’re calling the police themselves because it is a useful service for society, especially for white men that do not have any inherent risk by calling the police. They either coexist with cops or use cops for their safety. They do not have negative experiences that might give the word “cop” a traumatic or hurtful connotation.
So, why are they spreading the phrase about Senator Harris? Instead of something that more directly affects their cause and troubles?
Because they know that all races do not have this “coexist with or use cops” relationship like white men do. Police brutality, mass deportation, racial profiling, these are problems white men do not have. Minorities do. A key group to Senator Harris’s path to the nomination. There’s bad blood between police and minorities. But that bad blood exists because of systemic racism that allows law enforcement to disproportionately abuse people of color, not because there is something inherently wrong with being a police officer. Minorities are especially familiar and adept with the concept of not blaming every single individual for the actions of some. We know there’s good cops and bad cops, and we know what it’s like to be put into a box based on your characteristics.
But Bernie Bros do not understand this nuance. They think minorities hate cops and the Bros want to weaponize a painful history against a woman that is part of the group that has suffered at the hands of police.
So when a Bernie Bro comments under a post with a picture of Kamala standing next to police (turns out, the picture was taken after Kamala and law enforcement stopped a transnational human trafficking ring) and says “Kamala is a Cop”, and I see a profile picture of a white girl with flowers in her hair or a well dressed white boy posing by a bridge, this is what I hear:
“Haven’t you heard that this woman was part of law enforcement? Don’t you people hate the police? Don’t vote for her, she might catch you in the next illegal thing that you people like to do! Here’s a picture of her with police. I bet she took this right after arresting some of your people. You could be next, be careful!”
It’s an inherent assumption that minorities are against law enforcement because we are all criminals. We can’t vote for a woman that upheld the law because we break the law. We should be disgusted at this picture of her stopping human trafficking.
A lot of times when they elaborate on this phrase, Bernie Bros say: “She put black/brown people in jail.” They not only try to appeal to a belief they have that we all hate the police, but to a belief that we are all in a gang-like, tribal system where we think “oh she arrested one of us”
That line solidifies the belief that Bernie Bros do not understand why POC and police have a turbulent relationship. They think our relationship is painful because they uphold the laws and arrest people. Apparently, I should be upset that Kamala arrested people of my skin color. Even if they committed a crime, they should go free simply because they’re black/brown.
Some Bros even consider being a prosecutor an immediate disqualifier. But I am terrified of a world where we only have white male republicans running the DA and AG offices in our nation. Kamala enforced the law while at the same time did things she didn’t even have to do as a prosecutor. Like creating an environmental justice office for companies that primarily pollute poor communities of color, and a back on track program to rehabilitate drug crime offenders and help them re-enter society. That is not the job of a prosecutor. She could’ve just done her job and went after convictions. She made positive change with the power she did have. If she’s a cop, she was a damn good one.
TLDR: They attempt to appeal to us by assuming we hate law enforcement, that we don’t understand our country’s judicial system (where Kamala doesn’t “put people in prison” But a judge or a jury does after a crime is proven beyond a reasonable doubt), and that we have a tribe/gang-like mentality where we do not believe people of our own race should ever be held accountable.