A Colony in A Nation; a review

I will start this review by saying that I was never a particular fan of Chris Hayes.  Why bother?  I had Rachel Maddow to spin me up when it came to smart, cogent, progressive commentary.  That said, I never actively disliked Chris Hayes until his breathless reporting from Ferguson, during the unrest over the shooting death of Michael Brown.  Hayes, and so  many other news-faces, continually (and inaccurately) reporting on the "militarized police", irritated me beyond belief.

I tell you all of this because I want to encourage you all you to read this book.  I don't want you to read it because I am a fan of the author.  I'm not... but, I respect him for his writing on this subject.

Hayes posits simply that visible minorities in the United States don't enjoy all of the benefits of white citizens.  He says (with complete accuracy) that generations of "law & order" have turned our country into a place with an internal colonial system. 

Here is how it works:

In the Nation, people have rights, and among those rights are equal protection under the law; the right to due process, and to be safe in your person, property, papers and effects from unlawful search & seizure (see the 4th amendment to the Constitution).  In the Nation, the words "probable cause" are an important part of due process.  In the Nation, you are assumed to be a decent person unless you prove otherwise.  These things are assumed when your skin is white.

In the colony, where you are most likely to be brown or black, the assumption is that you are probably doing something wrong, or about to do something wrong, or just did something wrong... in the colony, your right to equal protection under the law fades away, and the less affluent you are, the faster your rights disintegrate.   In the Colony, "probable cause" becomes more ephemeral, it becomes a created conduit for suspicion that leads to the continued erosion of your rights.  In the colony there is less law enforcement, but lot more enforcement of order.

Hayes give lots of great examples of the truth of these things.  If you are of the white middle class, you may find some of this disturbing.  If you are black or Latino, you know these thing to be true, especially if you live in an urban area, or you live in a small town where, although you may be in the majority, the town's leadership (and the cops) are overwhelmingly white.  If you are white, and poor, you may realize that you are more colonial than you think, because although you may get a pass in some instances because of your skin color, your treatment under the law changes depending on how much money you control.  You may find that fact particularly galling if you are a Trump voter.

In the Nation, the cops are there to keep the peace and deter crime.  In the Colony, the cops are an army of occupation.  In the Nation the cops are there to help you.  In the Colony, the cops are there to keep you in line.  It the Nation, the cops use discretion when it comes to deciding how to handle small infractions.  In the Colony, your ass is going to jail.  In the Nation, you'll get a ticket, in the Colony you'll get arrested or shot.

Hayes paints some interesting pictures in this well-written piece.  He uses historical and statistical means to make all of his points.  I enjoyed reading this, even though he didn't tell me anything that I didn't know, having grown up in the Colony, right at the edge of the Nation.  He didn't say anything about policing that I didn't know to be true in a great many places.  I wish he had spent less time talking about Ferguson.

Read this.  It will go fast, but you won't be disappointed.  You might even have your eyes opened a bit.