BACKLASH
On June 15, I wrote about change coming because of the murder by police of George Floyd, an innocent African American man. That change would be a third Reconstruction, as the journalist Charlie Pierce wrote this week.
Racist statues would come down, sports teams would change their racist names, Kaepernick might get a job, and policies would be renewed to wipe away 244 years of institutional, planned, deliberate racism, oppression and tyranny against people of color.
Less than two months later, the backlash is in full-throated bloom.
What about “All Lives Matter?’’
Can we paint the street with “Liberty and Justice for All?’’
What about the cops who have been killed by “thugs rioting in our streets?’’
Black Lives Matter is a terrorist organization.
Protect the police!
What about the Native Americans?
And then the icing on the cake from a sitting U.S. Congressman about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the member of Congress from the Bronx. He called her a “fucking bitch.’’
I get this from people I know, mostly white men (no surprise) but I received it recently from a family member, who thinks the protesters are thugs who should be jailed instead of collecting employment from their couch.
They jump right over 400 years of white terror of black people to an imagined threat now hovering over comfortable American life.
“I love our country the way it is,’’ my family member said. “People who want to rise can rise, but they must work for it. Nothing is free. I feel no sympathy for gangs of black kids who smash stores and steal because they are "poor."
This view deserves a response, not least because it elected Trump and dominates so much of our un-said debate, the stuff that “deep down in places you don’t talk about at parties,’’ as Jack Nicholson said in a Few Good Men.
So many other writers address this better than me - Ta-Nehisi Coates and Rebecca Traister are my two favorites. Read them to change for views for the better. And thanks to Lisa Senecal for the inspiration to take this on via her own opinion piece in the Stowe Reporter.
So here goes my white male, born on third base, try in response to my family member and Guy, Bill, Jay, Bill and all the other white guys who are so angry that we are focusing on black people for a few minutes.
Why do Black Lives Matter?
It’s their turn - that’s why. It’s pay back time. We set up this system. We benefitted from the system. That system for 400 years has been killing black people. We stole their land. We denied them bank loans and mortgages. We put them in housing projects, sold them drugs and poison food. When they had no money and committed crime, we arrested them and put them in prison.
We ruined their families. We refused to let them vote. We beat them up, hanged them from trees. The police murdered them, over and over. And it is still happening.
That’s why Black Lives Matter. Because the time has come to focus on them - not us. We had our turn. We ran the companies, the schools, law firms, the government, the farms, finance, the media, the entire society. When the TV cameras started showing our actions on the nightly news in Selma, we backed off a little. Some of us supported a civil rights bill but it was a major political fight that southern senators and their constituents actually opposed. We said nice things about John Lewis when he died. But then we went right back to arguing for our stuff. Our power.
The more complex part here is the economic piece - the middle class white folks left behind in the Clinton economic boom. The trade deals that sent their jobs overseas and shut down factories in Ohio. Those people are angry too. Trump plays to their fears, even though deep down they know he belittles them. The loss of these voters by the Democratic Party is an unforgivable act that set this country back a generation. (Follow Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown to understand this better)
But today, for a while, it’s time to focus on black people and justice. A policeman killed George Floyd and many other policemen killed many other black men, women and children. We only know about it because it’s being filmed. (Thanks to actor Will Smith for that.) But it’s been going on since the founding of the Republic. Medgar Evers was shot in the back in his driveway in 1963. Breonna Taylor was shot in bed by the police this year.
That’s why people are protesting. That’s why people are angry. That’s why they say defund the police. And that’s why you feel threatened. Because your place and position of superiority over others is being questioned. Despite what Fox News is telling you, we won’t abolish the police. The machine that supports the police is far too powerful. It would be like abolishing Wall Street.
But I think it’s worth debating. We might learn something.
So for a while, I think we need to spend a few years focusing on black lives and how we can make the society more fair after 400 years of it being unfair.
It is time for us to account for our crimes. Regular readers know I support a Truth and Reconciliation Commission as a start.
Yes - I know, they are not YOUR crimes. I can understand why you think you are innocent in all this. But you/we are not. We are not blameless. We benefitted from this system. Obama was right. You didn’t build your business alone. You got a mortgage deduction. You drove to work on taxpayer funded roads and used your public school education that was funded by all of us. And you received a subsidy check from all of us recently during COVID.
None of these advantages were available to a black kid from 1776 to today. They still go to crummy schools because we won’t invest in them. They still live in crummy housing because we won’t invest in that either.
It’s our fault, not theirs. And until we take responsibility and account for our crimes, this will continue to fester.
So guys - give us a couple of years to right some wrongs. Fly your flag and sing God Bless America and honor the police. No problem. But don’t ignore the crimes committed in service of the great American lifestyle you lead - because that lifestyle was made possible by those crimes.
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Sources and Inspiration
https://link.esquire.com/view/5dacf323cdb7ec69f13be37acl40j.5ze/86d971e9
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5j2F4VcBmeom
