Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. the white establishment.

1967		R. Conot Rivers of Blood 34: He was cynical about the motives of the white power structure—the Whips!
1972		T.M. Kochman ‘The Kinetic Element in Black Idiom’ in Kochman Rappin’ and Stylin’ Out 163: Policemen are ‘headbreakers’ and the white power structure is the ‘whips,’ the latter an acronym derived from white power structure.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 60: Even more graphic and derogatory labels, cracker, peckerwood, [...] and the whips, while characterizing whites as animal-like, brutal, or evil, do not ‘picture’ whites very extensively.

2. the police.

1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 260: whips, the [...] 2. Police.
1992		R.C. Cruz Straight Outta Compton 29: Brothers and sisters cursed the cops and called them whips and pinks.
2002		‘Touré’ Portable Promised Land (ms.) 157: We Words (My Favorite Things) [...] The mix. The mack. The shit. The whips.