When my son Jason, whom I affectionately call Son No. 2, was 6 years old, I was reading him the story of the "Ugly Duckling." I remember the little ducks being white, and the ugly duckling being black. The little black duckling was shunned by the other ducks, and they would not play with him because of his color.
When my son asked me, "Dad, why do they not like the little black duck?" I was speechless.
Jason is now a Certified Public Accountant.
From a very young age, Black children are taught that blackness is a bad thing. Black psychologists Kenneth and Mamie Clark proved this point with their study of Black girls favoring white dolls over Black dolls.
I was recently at a Christmas party where we had a Black Santa. A little Black boy came up to me and said, "that is not the real Santa Claus."
The United States Supreme Court reminded us that the "vestiges of slavery still lingers," to the point that it causes self-hatred.
As African Americans we unfortunately expect mistreatment at the hands of white police officers, but not from Black officers. However, growing up in College Station in the 1970s, we often saw a few Black Pulaski County deputies who had a reputation of being brutal towards Black citizens.
During the 1960s, '70s and '80s, in an effort to prove themselves to their white fellow officers, Black cops felt compelled to be brutal toward Black citizens. The killing of Tyre Nichols at the hands of five Black police officers is a painful reminder that racism and racial stereotypes lead to self-hatred that can have deadly consequences.
There was a time when traversing the streets of Little Rock and seeing mainly white officers was somewhat nerve-wracking. However, as the Little Rock Police Department became more diverse, whenever I see a Black police officer, I am mostly at ease. I am proud of the fact that Son No. 3 (Preston) is a detective with the Little Rock Police Department.
I was born in 1960 and grew up in a time when seeing Blacks on television in a positive light was a big deal. We often saw Black people on television doing bad things and being arrested for criminal activity. During the 1970s and '80s Black Exploitation films, produced by white producers, often depicted African American men as pimps and drug dealers and women as prostitutes. Even today, rap videos depict Black young men and women in a negative light.
In school, we were taught that white people made significant contributions to the building of America and the world. Even in the context of biblical teaching, we were told that Adam and Eve and Moses were white, when they were actually Black. And the commonly accepted picture of Jesus does not even come close to what he looked like.
Even today, white supremacy is raising its ugly head in politics, leading Govs. Ron DeSantis, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and other Southern politicians to make the teaching of a significant portion of Black history and true history against the law.
In some situations, racism has taught even Black people to hate themselves. As an African American lawyer, I have seen Black clients denied justice due to the fact that they were Black, even by Black jurors. A Black person with a certain type of injury in many instances will not be awarded the same amount of money as a white person with the same type of injury, even at the hands of some Black jurors.
I remember representing a Black defendant in a criminal case in Pine Bluff that had nine Black and three white jurors. The jury was hung, because 11 voted "guilty" and one Black juror voted "not guilty."
I have had employment discrimination cases where Black management officials were guilty of acts of discrimination against Black subordinates. These management officials took part in the termination of Black employees while allowing white employees guilty of the same conduct to remain employed.
The killing of Tyre Nichols in Memphis has taught us that racism can lead to Black people hating those who look like them. This self-hatred is part of the reason why so many Black kids are killing each other.
These Black officers did not see Tyre Nichols as a fellow human being; they only saw him as a criminal who was up to no good. Whenever I have a discrimination case where the adverse employment decision was made or supported by a person who is also Black, I often cite the following language from a United States Supreme Court decision: "[b]ecause of the many facets of human motivation, it would be unwise to presume as a matter of law that human beings of one definable group will not discriminate against other members of their group." Castaneda v. Partida, 430 U.S. 482, 61 L.Ed. 2d 498, 97 S.Ct. 1272 (1977).
Whenever a white police officer kills a Black person unjustifiably, it causes outrage in the Black community. However, the killing of Tyre Nichols at the hands of Black officers proves that even Black people judge those who look like them not by the content of their character, but by the color of their skin.
That is unfortunate, because by all accounts, Tyre was a fine young man who was just simply trying to make it in America.
Austin Porter Jr. is a lawyer in Little Rock.