Modern policing has its origin in colonial violence. The University of Chicago has long played a part in cultivating, promoting, spreading, and normalizing the tools of such state violence.
Most Americans now grasp that violence was essential to the functioning of slavery, but a new book excavates the lesser known brutality of everyday Black life in the Jim Crow South.
In the mid-19th century, a pro-slavery minority — encouraged by lawmakers — used violence to stifle a growing anti-slavery majority. It wasn’t long before the other side embraced force as a necessary response.
What if all our schools required training in skilled, non-violent conflict resolution as a form of peace literacy and moral awareness for their students. Would that not be one of the most useful education skills for life that we could give them?
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