800 Words
Benjamin Franklin said: “Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.”
As a privileged White man, I am part of the problem that led to the killing of George Floyd. The White culture has failed to understand the enormous problem of racism in this country. When we are confronted by racism, many Whites generally turn away believing it will pass; or we lash out at the looters and rioters missing the real issues that are before us. As White Americans, we must learn from our mistakes, have the courage to speak up or stand with our fellow Americans who experience this oppression and fear on a regular occurrence. All lives matter! But we are not all equal.
Some examples….
On August 25, 1959, eight days after the release of his “Kind of Blue” album, Miles Davis was performing at Birdland, recording an Armed Forces Day broadcast for Voice of America. In between sets he had escorted a friend out and put her in a cab and was relaxing in front on the club smoking a cigarette. A police officer approached him and asked him to move on. Davis pointed to the marquee, explaining to the officer that he was performing inside and that it was his name on the marquee. Still the officer persisted, not caring who he was or what he was doing. While Davis was trying to explain to the police officer that he was making a mistake, a detective, drawn by the crowd that was starting gather, blindsided him and hit Davis in the head a few times with a billy club, drawing blood. Davis was then arrested and taken into custody, and after going to the hospital to get his head stitched up was charged with felonious assault on an officer.
In the Fall of 1968, Curtis Lewis entered the second grade at Friends Seminary in New York City. Curtis was the only black student in my class. He was greeted by his classmates with exclusion and fear. We White students pretended to give each other shots in the arm so that if Curtis touched us, we would not become black. Kids can be very vicious. My mother and Mrs. Lewis decided to do something about the situation and set up play dates after school and invitations to each other’s homes on the weekends. Over that year, with the help of two moms, Curtis and I became good friends. But it did not start off that way.
Police were called on George Floyd last week because he allegedly used a forged check at a deli in Minneapolis. One cop knelled on his neck while two others subdued him, as he said, “I can’t breathe.” He died shortly thereafter. Set that against Senator Kelly Loeffler from the State of Georgia. She was under investigation for insider trading on Covid-19 when she offloaded stocks shortly after a classified briefing in January in the Senate. Then, her husband, Jeff Sprecher, chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, sent a $1 million check to the leading pro-Republican super PAC on April 29 of this year. And guess what, the Department of Justice dropped the investigation. Is there any wonder why people of color are getting frustrated, mad, and acting out?
We are all part of the problem. We are all part of the solution.
As White Americans, we must take the time to listen and learn from our African American friends and colleagues what it means to be fearful of going out every day; of having an apprehension and keeping a respectful distance of police; to not be allowed to buy certain property; to be presumed guilty because of the color of their skin. We must pay attention to their cries and take corrective action.
I recently attended the Black Lives Matter rally in Kent. There were probably about a hundred or so people there. It was very orderly and peaceful. When I arrived, an elderly White woman came up to me with some flowers. She said, “I see you don’t have a sign. Would you like some flowers to hold?” I graciously accepted her kind offer. I spoke with several people. Everyone wore masks in a predominantly White crowd.
I stood there in the gathering, with my flowers, for about forty minutes praying and reflecting on words of Martin Luther King, Jr. which he wrote from his Montgomery prison cell: “Our hope for creative living in this world house that we have inherited lies in our ability to reestablish the moral ends of our lives in personal character and social justice. Without this spiritual and moral reawakening we shall destroy ourselves in the misuse of our own instruments.”
Black Lives Matter, at its best, is movement and a desperate cry for hope and improvement for all minorities in this country demanding the same rights and protections that you and I, as White people, have and experience every day. All lives matter was the theme on Saturday; yet we wake up this Monday, and realize that all lives in this country are not equal.
God bless you. God loves all of us. Be safe and be well.
