Growth, Reality, and Owning Up

A little more than 5 years ago, I wrote an episode called ALL LIVES MATTER. At the time I wrote those words, I was speaking directly about other Peoples of Color. I was not being flip or dismissive. Just the opposite: I was saying BLM did not go far enough.

38th Street and Chicago Avenue, MPLS

I could not have predicted the impact of the BLM movement or the horrific increase of police brutality and murder caught on video. We could see racism in action; we were there, on the spot, to witness through cell phone or body cams the events in real time. That changed everything for everyone; racism was no longer hearsay. We were hearing what they were saying. We cannot turn away.

Racism is the reality for those who are not white, just as white privilege is a stark reality for a whole bunch of the rest of us. We can debate about all sorts of things in both those categories, but what is not open to debate is the inherent inequality of our justice system, economic opportunity, and education availability. That which is afforded to white people is all too often not available to the Black community. The playing field is never level.

None of this is news. The first enslaved Africans to arrive in the North American colonies are thought to have arrived in Jamestown on The White Lion in 1619...401 years ago. Slavery may have been abolished with the passage of  the 13th Amendment in 1865, but racism, discrimination, segregation, and inequality before the law certainly has not disappeared. Progress may have been made in the 1960s with the advent of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, but almost 60 years later, we have progressed little. There is still segregation, there is still discrimination, and there is absolutely inequality before the law. 

You can attempt to justify it all you want. You can say George Floyd wasn't exactly a model citizen...but Philando Castile was. It didn't make a difference. They're both dead at the hands of a cop. No one can justify murder by badge. It cannot and must not be tolerated. And it must stop here, and in every other city, town, and state in this country.

Even if the Toddler-in-Chief is a flaming asshole who dogwhistles violence and is threatening to send the military into the streets for "law and order," We, the People cannot stand by in silence, lest we become the new Tiananmen Square. We cannot harangue the rest of the world on human rights when our own army is shooting protesters. We lose the moral high-ground. American Exceptionalism takes on an entirely different meaning....Except Us. I'm not willing to accept that.

Black Lives Matter is kind of a catch-all phrase for the anger. It becomes more than an identity, it becomes a slogan, and the slogan becomes a rallying cry. Since little has changed on the ground in over 40 years, Black Americans have every right to be angry and frustrated. Do not conflate that with rioting and looting. I'm talking about taking back the streets for the sake of the community so the community prospers. 

Black Lives Matter is about so much more than pointing a finger at police; it's about pointing at systemic racism and demanding that tacit hatred stop. It's about getting the white population to take a long hard look at itself, as a group and as individuals, in order to ask ourselves the really hard questions. And that's the easy part. Asking is easy, answering will probably be painful. Listening is also hard. Shutting up and seriously listening to the Black community will not be easy because it points out our own privileged short-comings. No one wants to self-flagellate, but it has to be done if we are ever to forge a common community. 

White privilege is a cocoon we weave around ourselves. For the record, it doesn't just push away the Black community. it pushes everyone who is not white away. I hold firm to what I said in the original blog about the Indigenous People and invisibility. You don't hear much about them other than what casinos they own, but the IP community took huge hits during the rioting and looting. They will need help to rebuild, but their plight isn't so well known or popular. They need a seat at this table.

But right now, the focus is solidly on the Black community where death by cop is becoming a too frequent occurrence. In March, Breanna Taylor, an EMT, of Louisville, KY, was murdered in her bed by cops in the wrong place. Two days before George Floyd was murdered in Minneapolis, Maurice Gordon was murdered by a New Jersey State Highway Patrolman. He was unarmed, stopped for speeding, he was not arrested, not detained; his car wouldn't start after the cop pulled him over. What could that man have possibly done to make the cop empty his revolver into him? 

While defunding or dismantling the Minneapolis Police seems fraught with danger, it probably has to be done. That department is not a matter of a few rotten apples, but rather a system rotten to the core. Chief Arredondo is not a bad chief, not by a long shot, but he cannot possibly do what needs to be done with a union defending cops who brutalize at will. I am sure nothing will be instant, the streets will not go unprotected, but something other than what that city has must be put in place. The streets are not safe for all communities of color, and that just cannot go on.

And briefly, on the subject of Antifa, some of my readers insisted Antifa is a real organization because Feckless Leader says so. So let's perfectly clear about this:

ANTIFA means Anti-Fascist.

Just so you know exactly what ANTIFA is, I thought I would show you some pictures of some of my favorite Antifa terrorists:

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

Want a fun, easy project?

Go to the post office of your choice and buy a 10 pack of stamped postcards. 

It'll set you back $3.90

Address them to 

DONALD J. TRUMP

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue,

Washington, DC 20500

For the return address, put

1600 Black Lives Matter Plaza

Washington, DC. 20500

And in the message space, 2 words:

YOU'RE FIRED

Not only are you postcard bombing the White House,

you are helping the USPS to survive.

And that's a good thing.