I’m struggling to find the words to express my thoughts as I watch the aftermath of George Floyd’s needless death, and the needless deaths of other black people. I feel the need to say something because I’m personally vested in the issue of race relations in our Country, and because so much of what I see is by people who aren’t, at least in the same way I am.
I have two sons. They have brown skin. They are beautiful, and anyone who knows them will say so. I’m wrestling with the realization that one day when, god willing, they grow into men, they won’t be seen in that way, especially to people who don’t know them. When they encounter someone they don’t know, especially someone in a position of authority, they won’t be asked who their parents are, where they grew up, or anything about their background and history. They will be immediately, and in some cases permanently, judged for one thing: their skin color. That’s at best. At worst, they will be seen as threats.
You may be thinking “but you’re white, what do you know about this?” I’ve listened a lot recently. I know I still have a lot to learn and I know I haven’t been perfect when it comes to race; far from it. But what I’ve learned is the problem of race in this country needs to be solved by the people who created it. I’ve learned that the definition of privilege is knowing, not that your life will be perfect or that you will be handed things because you are white, but that whatever problems you have in your life are not caused by the color of your skin. I’ve also observed that, as we unfortunately do in this Country, we immediately drew battle lines after George Floyd’s death. You were either for the looters or you were for the police; for lawlessness or for law and order. Those are false choices and false equivalencies. I don’t want the police harmed in doing their job anymore than I want to see them needlessly, and in some cases illegally, cause harm. I don’t condone looting, but it doesn’t justify violence against peaceful protesters, nor does it wipe away the injustice done to George Floyd and so many others. When you say “pray for the police” but don’t also say “and the protesters” you’re picking sides. Looting is a crime and those guilty of it should be punished, pure and simple. But to gloss over the root issue of violence and injustice to black people just because of your abhorrence to looting is to ignore the problem and make it worse.
I don’t have the answers, but I do think we need to talk about the problem, and that is, as I see it, whatever is in us that triggers fear at the sight of a black man. What causes a white woman to frantically call the police on a black man who is bird watching in the same park where she is walking her dog? What is it that causes two white men, who aren’t law enforcement officers, to track down and kill a black man because he may have walked through a construction site? We have to get to that issue. Again, I don’t know how we do it. What I do know is laughing at protesters who get hit in the streets while protesting, or choosing to ignore the tragedy and injustice that is occurring because a few bad actors have taken the opportunity to commit bad acts, is not helping. And in my mind if you’re not part of the solution you’re part of the problem. In a Country where people have been enslaved, imprisoned, hanged and shot for the color of their skin, we can’t expect this to be solved overnight. But we can’t keep making the same arguments, using the same excuses, making the same false equivalencies or expecting the black community to fix it themselves. If I’ve made you think, good. If I’ve made you uncomfortable, o.k. But this is for my sons.