I’ve been keeping a journal. I call it, “Life During Quarantine”. Very early on, I predicted "tremendous social
and economic upheaval." We are due. It is undeniable, there are changes that must be
made. One of those issues that can no longer be ignored, is the issue of race. We have a systemic racism problem here in the
US. We have a huge section of the American
population who are living in a dystopia due to the color of their skin and
there is a big chunk of white America that sees no problem at all due to the
comfortable bubble we were gifted and grew up in.
We must recognize this.
There are other things of note that are happening in the
shadow of the coronavirus. A man named George
Floyd was murdered, on video, by a group of four police officers. One of the police officers had his knee
against Floyd’s neck. Floyd is heard
begging on the video to be let to breathe or to have some water, probably to open
his throat again. His words are ignored,
and the officer keeps up the pressure on his neck. Floyd stops talking. Nine minutes pass.
He dies under the knee of this officer.
Did I mention that Mr. Floyd was black?
We have a horrible double standard in this country. It exists.
There are marginalized communities from sea to shining sea and the
majority of them are categorized by the color of their skin. Marginalized for treatment under the law, for
poverty, for opportunity, for healthcare, for everything. The sad truth is most white people have no
idea that there is anything amiss. We have
no idea that we are living on the bright side of dystopia. Blissfully ignorant, tranquilly seduced into
seeing that nothing is wrong with the way things are for me, so it must be alright
for everyone. This is a lie. Suffering is real. Racism is real. Hate is real.
Fear is real. We can pretend that
they don’t exist and stay in our, “Live, Laugh, Love” bubble, but that is all an
illusion.
I’m no different.
I lived my life with rose-colored glasses on never suspecting once that
they were on at all or that I was ever wearing them. I saw cracks appear in the lenses when I was
in my teens when I started to realize that injustice was real and that “and
Justice for all”, only seemed to apply to those who could hire the best attorneys. If you were poor, you get court appointed
representation. Then you live a little
more, see a few more things, and, suddenly, deeply held beliefs in our system
of law, government, and religion are inevitable to miss if your eyes are
open. It is getting harder to see
through the cracks in those rose-colored glasses, but they are still on. You are still a part of that comfortable entitlement
of being white and, to a degree, you always will be—you’re white, after all. You are not automatically thought of as a
threat. Something to fear, something to
hate, something to be kept in place. No,
you have all the possibilities that American society offers splayed before you
to explore. Your future is bright, and
you don’t even know how bright it truly is.
After all, it is your birthright, that blissful tranquility, that
entitlement. But life goes on, you stand
on your own and you open your eyes further, there are too many cracks in the
lenses to see properly now. Since you
can’t see out of them any longer, you now have a choice—you keep them on, try
to buff out some of the scratches, and retreat to your comfort zone or you take
them off.
Suppose you take them off. Time has passes, things have change, you’ve
supported yourself a while now, you’ve met, worked, and befriended a host of
people who are not the same shade of skin that you are. You find that people are people, each with
their own unique set of needs and desires—in other words, just like you. You begin to hear their stories—tales of how
they struggle, how they live, how they make do, how petrified they are for themselves
or their children who may run into the wrong group of white people or, worse, a
police officer who wants to ask them questions.
And their stories horrify you.
After all, you haven’t had the same inherent problems coming up in American
society. Why would you? You’re white—with all the unseen advantages
that brings. What about the police? As a kid, I was told that they were the, “good
guys”, your friends—not the hand of a system designed to keep you where you are,
your oppressors, or your executioners.
This is the dystopian, oppressed, reality for a large section of America. Sure—provisos all around—but the fact is,
those who enforce the law (just or unjust) are part of the machine—good or
bad. They are the enforcers and, in some
cases, the oppressors. There are good
police officers. They are the ones who, “Serve
and Protect”. The ones who want to make
their communities better, safer places for everyone. I must hope that the majority of them have
this creed in their hearts. However, I
can only hope.
The ongoing slaughter of black men is what the, “Black
Lives Matter” movement is about. Black
lives that are threatened by police officers.
Therefore, Colin Kaepernich took a knee.
To protest black men being slaughtered.
This upset an entitled nation of white people. Some of whom went bug-nuts crazy. After all, why should an athlete who is paid to
entertain me have any reason to spoil my fun?
What does HE have to protest? A
great many things, in all reality, a great many things. White people were incensed that something as
trivial as black lives could spoil their football game! They started to take things in other
directions, “It disrespects that flag, is what it does!” or, “I didn’t fight in
the war just so a …football player can disrespect Old Glory!” Ironically, free speech was one of the things
that, we are told, war defends. Oh well,
Mr. Kaepernich pissed off a lot of white people. He was followed by other players—which pissed
off more white people. It pissed off the
police because, how dare the black population be upset at us for killing them
so often? The police formed the, “Blue
Lives Matter” to protest the “Black Lives Matter” protest. Then the entitlement of a white nation kicks
into overdrive for a segment of society that just wants things to remain the same;
people who are all too happy with their own situations to care about someone else’s. Especially if that someone else is a black person. We collectively forget until the next black
man is killed.
Something has to change.
We have a race problem here in America, 2020. It stretches back beyond the slave trade,
which was alive before America existed. Our
system is not set up for justice for all.
It is set up to keep those in power in power, and, shock and awe, that
is a group of old, rich, white men. It
is an injustice that we cannot afford to keep sweeping under the rug. As a society we must take ownership of the
past, the evils that have been done, recognize the wrongs that have been and
continue to be done. We need to recognize
systemic racism so that we can stop it.
We must check our own biases. Realize
where we are and be willing to be the people that we should be. We need to acknowledge this. We need make amends, and we need to move forward. The American experiment is for ALL of us—regardless
of the color of our skin.
Peaceful protests over George Floyd’s death have
escalated to, “rioting”. I am reminded
of the words of Martin Luther King Jr., when he said, “A riot is the language
of the unheard”. Everyone is remembering
that one now—but it needs to be remembered.
It is far beyond time that they were heard. We are all in this together. Let us not give in to the forces that benefit
from keeping us apart. I was moved by
the pleas from Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, the Mayor of Atlanta, Georgia. Her heart breaks for her city.
Peaceful protests have escalated to chaos all over the
country. From sea to shining sea. I have heard community leaders say time and
time again, calling for the violence to stop, and to go home, to fill out the census,
and then go out and vote. “Beat them at
the voting booths”, I heard one man say.
My rose-colored glasses are gone. It was a collection of real-life circumstances
and experiences that scratched the lenses.
I do not pretend to know what it is like for a person of color here in
America. I have some ideas—but they are
only that, ideas. I have a good
imagination, but that only goes so far.
The reality of the situation is that we can no longer turn a blind eye
to racial injustice. We must recognize systemic
racism and stop it.
Yesterday, in the city of Camden, NJ as the protesters approached
a group of police the officers held up their own, “Black Lives Matter” signs
and joined them in their march. There
was another group of protesters from Coral Gables, Florida who when they came
upon police officers both the protesters and the police took knees. There are examples of similar stories
happening all over the country. Unfortunately,
there are bad things happening too. I
can’t condone violence or rioting; however, I agree with the protesters, George
Floyd is where this needs to stop. And,
for the record, I am not anti-cop. The good
ones do a job I could never do. There is
so much pressure riding on their shoulders.
The good ones ‘serve and protect’ for the betterment of their
communities—no matter what shade of skin the people in their districts may
have. The world is a better place
because the good ones are there.
So, how do we stop the riots? We start living by our own ideals—understanding
that, “All men are created equal”, that “We The People” make up this nation, and
that everyone should have, “liberty and justice for all”. Those ideals can’t be for the entitled few—they
must be for all. This is not an us
verses them scenario. We are all in this
together—black, white, & everything in between—police, civilians,
protesters, and community leaders. Times
such as these force us to grow and, God knows, we need to. This is a time for growth. It is long overdue.
