Poll shows growing dissatisfaction with Black mistreatment

By Brian E. Muhammad -Contributing Writer- | Last updated: Aug 18, 2015 - 1:00:59 PM

But is anyone willing to try to do anything about the problem?

A Gallup opinion poll shows overall American satisfaction with the way Blacks are treated has declined to a new low of 49 percent.

The report published on Gallup’s website said the fall is significant compared with 2013 numbers when 62 percent of those polled expressed satisfaction with the treatment of Blacks.

The results are from Gallup’s 2015 Minority Rights and Relations poll, conducted in June and July with over 2,000 adults. It attributes the drop to several high-profile and deadly incidents over the last year involving White police officers and Blacks. Observers say the poll places a spotlight on American injustice and the question of what’s next?

“To one degree it’s more of the same,” said Dr. Wesley Muhammad in a telephone interview with The Final Call.

The polls only say that White folks are being forced to acknowledge the reality of what’s going on, said the lecturer and author.

“It should not suggest, because it does not suggest, that White folks all of a sudden have a conscience big enough for them to be willing to do what’s necessary to effect the change,” Dr. Muhammad said. For Blacks the ill treatment is nothing new.

“You have to be a total fool and in total denial to not see that Black America is under assault today in a way that we have not been so openly since Reconstruction,” said Dr. Muhammad, who is a college professor and member of the Nation of Islam.

The poll comes weeks ahead of the upcoming “Justice Or Else!” mass gathering in Washington, D.C., on October 10, 2015 marking the 20th anniversary of the Million Man March. The gathering on the National Mall, called by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam, is to demand justice from the federal government and to begin to use collective Black action to force change. Collective action will include proper use of the 2016 presidential and other elections and a Christmas season spending boycott.

Justice Or Else

Some credit the trend in awareness to the current era of smart phones and technology that allows mistreatment to be instantly documented and placed before the eyes and consciousness of the country. They say activism and technology are widely exposing incidents.

“The reality that we face as Black people is becoming more transparent,” said Hassane Muhammad, who holds a law degree and is chief operations officer with Black Lawyers for Justice, an activist lawyers group.

“Without social media, without all of those outlets, people wouldn’t know or care about the young Black Michael Browns and Eric Garners,” she said.

Now the American people are seeing a constant repeat of unarmed Blacks being shot and terrorized and mysteriously dying in jail cells. There were “six Black women killed while in jail, just in the month of July,” Ms. Muhammad said. The effect on public opinion from such imagery and sound bites moving across new media platforms cannot be discounted, Ms. Muhammad added.

Poll: Americans see wrongs done to Blacks

As organizing and mobilization efforts for “10.10.15” moves forward, a statement from the 20th Anniversary of the Million Man March defines “justice” as a “principle for fair dealing one with another … the law that distinguishes between right and wrong … the weapon that Allah (God) will use in the Day of Judgment.”

According to the poll:

The perception of unfair treatment of Blacks in specific interactions is up: 43 percent said Blacks are dealt with unjustly by law enforcement, particularly during traffic stops—up 6 percentage points since 2007.

Twenty-nine percent polled said Blacks are unfairly handled in retail stores, whether in malls or downtown, which is an increase of 10 points compared to 2007 figures.

Twenty-six percent said Blacks are treated unjustly on the job or at work, up 8 points. The report revealed that the 2015 figures are the highest since Gallup began tracking the trends.

“Blacks, Whites and Hispanics all show significant declines since 2013 in their satisfaction with the treatment of blacks in the U.S.,” said the report. Much of the increase in perceived unfair treatment of Blacks is driven by changes in White opinions about the problem.

The report said in most cases, Blacks showed modest change in these areas since 2007. But “blacks were far more likely then, and now, than whites and Hispanics” to perceive being treated unfairly.

White people aren’t oblivious to the problems, and Black people shouldn’t place false hope in the increase of acknowledgement, said analysts.

“Black life will never matter to White people,” said Dr. Wesley Muhammad. At the end of the day the poll “doesn’t indicate Black life now matters to White people,” he said.

Black males remain a special target for negative perceptions, unfair treatment and injustice. According to national independent school psychologist Umar Abdullah-Johnson, negative trends bear witness to the larger more clandestine problem of White supremacy and its impact on Black people.

“There’s an extermination mandate against Black males. And a mandate is being carried out by both the U.S. government as well as the American social order—the general White public—in this country,” Dr. Johnson said. The mandate is supported by the “lack of infrastructure” in the Black community such as independent education and viable economic opportunity.

“The fact that we do not have our own educational system on a mass scale as well as economic opportunities for our young men, they often find themselves sitting as ready participants in the mass incarceration system and the premature extermination system,” he said.

“The economic problem importance to the overall problem is often divorced from the public narrative … they never get around to discussing the mis-education and they never get around to discussing economic castration,” Dr. Johnson said. That’s because there is no intent to change the situation, he argued.

The Black community will have to fix the problem itself. “If we don’t, we risk seeing the Black men go from endangered species to population of the past,” he said.

The solution is on Black shoulders

“As far as accountability for the solution, we cannot expect White supremacy to play any role whatsoever in the solution for Black people because their only agenda is to cause problems, not to take them away,” continued Dr. Johnson.

It will take Blacks becoming proactive and less reactionary, or rising only after an injustice is done, to fix the problems, Dr. Johnson argued. “The reason we do not pro-act is because we lack the self love and commitment that is necessary that makes one get up and want to do right, simply because it has to be done,” he said.

“The only solution to White on Black terrorism and the only real solution to Black on Black violence is separation. The minute we make efforts and are successful in establishing peace among our warring factions … you see Satan always works to break that peace,” Dr. Muhammad said. “Any truce between the Bloods and the Crips, Satan—the police officers—go to work to break that peace.”

Americans’ stated and declining satisfaction with the treatment of Blacks is specific to Blacks, the poll reported. The poll found no meaningful change in Americans’ satisfaction with the way Hispanics, Asians, Arabs, immigrants and women are treated.

“There is no marching in; there is no hash-tagging White folk to change. There is only one solution, it’s separate or die, quite literally,” said Dr. Muhammad.

The Final Call