Princeton Professor Eddie Glaude Jr. dismissed law-and-order policies and the war on drugs Tuesday as “phrases” and “slogans” that have been used as “racial dog whistles.”
When asked if the spate of protests following the death of George Floyd while in Minneapolis police custody was producing a unique political environment in the United States, Glaude told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that it was.
“I think so. It does feel different to me,” Glaude said, adding that the country is “at a crossroads.”
“For our entire lifetime we have dealt with a frame of policing that has been overdetermined by calls for law and order, by being tough on crime, about a war on drugs,” Glaude said. (RELATED: Philly Restaurant Stops Offering Free Food To Police After Backlash — ‘We Believe Black Lives Matter’)
The professor argued that “those phrases, those slogans have been dog whistles. They’ve been racial dog whistles, ways to mobilize white fear in order to police not only black bodies and black communities but to police the very ways we think about our being together, our community.”
He suggested that for real change to occur in society, it will be necessary to “dismantle that frame of thinking about policing, to challenge how we think about communities and black folk, right. I think that’s a good thing.” (RELATED: DC Mayor Won’t Answer Repeated Questions About Removing ‘Defund The Police’ Mural From City Street)
Glaude suggested there is a persistent narrative in America that supports “deeply racist views about the inherent criminality of black communities and black people” that “we need to simply throw in the trash bin.”
Demonstrators calling to defund the Minneapolis Police Department march on University Avenue on June 6, 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo: Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)
Although the academic did not advocate the abolition or defunding of police forces across America, that specific demand is political dogma for Black Lives Matter and many protesters associated with the movement who view the police as systemically racist.
Republican Utah Sen. Mitt Romney marched in support of Black Lives Matter over the weekend, earning him President Donald Trump’s derision on Monday.
A roster of Hollywood and other celebrities have recently joined the movement and a former press secretary to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has also joined the chorus.