I've been paralyzed this week after the murder of George Floyd.
At first, I wanted to turn away. I wanted it to not have happened. I wanted to not have to deal with it. Denial stage of grief? Or maybe that was my white privilege talking to me. Ancient voices of, "not my problem."
But it is my problem. It's your problem. White people, it's our problem.
Then, I felt I must face it. I thought to myself, "I've got to try to process this."
But there is no way to process it. To "process it" means that there is some way to make sense of it, to make it comprehensible. But it is incomprehensible. It is unacceptable. It's atrocious. There really are no words.
If I have no words, think of the black people who face this every single day of their lives.
Without words, some folks have been acting on their anger. From coast to coast the oppressed are finding their voice in violence. Instead of tsk-tsking the looters, how about stepping back to understand why?
I am sympathetic to them. For over 400 years of our nation's history, the oppressed have had no voice.
You want non-violent protest? Then listen to it. Listen to Colin Kaepernick when he and his colleagues take a knee. Listen to the peaceful marchers at Black Lives Matter protests. Listen to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr who worked for non-violent change and YET HIS LIFE WAS SNUFFED OUT BY VIOLENCE.
The voices of the oppressed have always been smothered. Their voice in court, their voice at the polls, their voice in business, their voice on the screen, their voice on their knee on the football field. Why are you surprised that they have found their voice in violence? The voices against them have always been violent.
It's not "racism" – it's a systemic, deep and wide system of oppression that has been wrought upon people of color from the beginning times of this country. "Racism" is an inadequate word. "Racism" is an individual trait. We need a new word for the mechanizations of brutalization that black people have endured since they were brought to this country.
The brutality has never ended. It has simply changed form.
WHITE PEOPLE! YOU NEED UNDERSTAND THAT THIS YOUR PROBLEM AND YOU NEED TO FIX IT!
Here's what to do.
Know their names. In just the few years, these people have been murdered by us. By all of us. The police are citizens; citizens are the police. White people made the systems that foster racist law enforcement.
Know their names. Know their stories.
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| From NPR's Code Switch. Just some of the black citizens killed by police in the last six years. |
Learn. See through a black person's eyes.
Our criminal "justice" system has nothing to do with justice and everything to do with systemic racism.
- Read. Here are some books to start with. (Remember to buy from your local independent bookseller!)
- How to Be an Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi
- The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
- Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine
- Find more here from a list by Ibram X. Kendi
- For the teens: Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi or The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
- For little kids: Here is a list of books to start, and here is another one.
- Watch "13th" on Netflix and face the fact that racist machinations are embedded into our Constitution.
- Watch "The Central Park Five" or "When They See Us."
- Listen to Season Three of Serial for a snapshot of the criminal justice system in one American city.
- Listen to In the Dark, Season Two and learn about the truly rotten justice system in Mississippi.
- Learn how "colorblind" "reverse racism" and "all lives matter" don't help and are actually subtle racist phrases and are quite harmful to the movement to rid our lives of systemic racism. Speak out to people who use those phrases.
- Face your white privilege. You may not want to. It will make you uncomfortable. But you must see it to change it. Here is my piece from a year ago about white privilege. Read it, follow the links, and learn. Goddamn it, learn!
- STOP BEING A WHITE VICTIM. YOU ARE NOT A VICTIM. YOU ARE PRIVILEGED TO MOVE ABOUT THIS WORLD WITH EASE AND IN SAFETY.
- Step back and look at the bigger context when looting arises. Learn how looting is the last language of the oppressed. Here is an article that came out after Michael Brown's murder in Furguson, Missouri.
- Here is Trevor Noah talking about Minneapolis. The whole thing is worth watching, but he talks about the act of looting starting at about 8:13.
Get angry.
You should be angry. Feel that anger and let it spur you to action. I'm at the anger stage of grief. But I doubt that I will ever get to the acceptance stage, until this thing that can change does change.
Listen to black people!
Here's a start:
Read Steve Locke's experience being detained for being black.
From Tyler Merritt:
Or how about this 68-year-old lady who, along with her son, was falsely accused of stealing a TV from Sam's Club and were assaulted by police, even after the store employee told them they had bought the TV?
These stories are everywhere, every day in America. Get angry about it.
Act.
- Respond to the George Floyd murder. Here's is an action list. Pick one. Do it.
- Be an ally. Here's how.
- Fix voting laws - enfranchise people of color. Support Stacey Abrams's organization, Fair Fight, which is working to stop voter suppression.
- Donate money.
- VOTE
- Reject the current "president," who not only condones violence against people of color, but instigates it. Vote as if our lives depend on it. Because they do.
- Pressure your local communities to be rid of law enforcement officers who display racism. Make agencies more accountable. Be involved at your local level.
- Talk to kids. Stop racism early.
- STOP the "all lives matter" shit in its tracks.
Face the horrible truth about systemic racism in our country and work to fix it now.
#RESIST
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