For centuries, white people from lower economic classes have been hired as police patrol by the white ruling class. White folks have been given guns and badges to exercise unlimited force on enslaved people, poor people of color and dark-skinned immigrant labor. This power is so intoxicating that white people consistently choose to police vulnerable people instead of finding solidarity with them in a common struggle against wealthy white exploiters. Sure, Kyle Rittenhouse shot white protestors. But he drove to Kenosha to police people of color—and protect wealthier white people and their property. Policing people of color remains common practice in classrooms, curriculums, churches, stores and neighborhoods, where white people do not necessarily need guns and badges to demand “others” know their place. In the wake of the Rittenhouse trial, I’ve been reflecting on the life of John Brown, a 19th century white boy who took up arms for a completely different cause. He consistently organized armed men to protect and serve runaway slaves. When his white neighbors asked him if he would help them drive out Indigenous peoples who hunted annually in the area, Brown adamantly refused, telling them that he’d rather use his gun to drive his white neighbors out of the country. He was also on record saying that Black folk would have ten times as many white friends if white people cared half as much about the Black freedom struggle as they did about keeping up with the extravagance and luxury of their white neighbors.
