The only real way to honor George Floyd — take action. The responsibility’s on all of us.
This is not supposed to be controversial. This is not intended to be so hard to comprehend. This isn’t a matter of being democratic, republican, political, or apolitical.
This is about wanting REAL CHANGE with how black people are treated in America. Yet, in George Floyd’s case, in Ahmed Aubrey’s case, and in thousands of other instances over the last decade, we can’t seem to do anything that matters as a country. We just can’t.
Spare yourself of discussing of how a few bad police don’t represent the overwhelming majority of good-hearted police. Or how we cherry pick bad incidents that don’t display the real net positive impact police have on maintaining ‘order’ in society.
A systematic overhaul needs to happen.
The gut-wrenching stories speak for themselves. It’s been 6 years since Michael Brown’s death happened and the citizens of Ferguson, Missouri asked for fairer policing in their city and across the country. The Justice Department’s scathing investigation revealed levels of unchecked and unprecedented constitutional violations made systematically in Ferguson over the last several years. As a predominantly black city, Ferguson’s black population desperately brought to light how racially prejudiced the police and legal system were. This effects how communities live drastically.
When one doesn’t feel safe or is always on edge, there’s a level of constant stress that consumes how you operate as a human. Parents are put in a complicated bind; as Dwayne Casey, Coach of the Detroit Pistons, said on the Lowe Post, “My wife and I make it clear to our kids: when you’re pulled over by the police, they’re in control. Not you. But I’d be hard pressed to say that they’re totally safe even following the law.”
That, is genuine fear. When an African-American parent can’t say with 100% certainty that even perfectly obeying the law and following protocol can sometimes lead to bad outcomes, it’s actually devastating.
Systematically entrenched fear.
While the rest of us take safety for granted, the black population has overwhelmingly faced apparent racism by police departments across the nation since the inception of our country.
The primary thing black people are asking for is basic humanity. Fair policing. How much more straightforward can that be?
Protests are raging, looting is happening at alarming rates, property is being dismantled, fires are burning across the city — just like Ferguson, Missouri. 6 years have passed since that. We’re here again.
It’s as if we collectively fail to understand as a society what it means to have accountability in our justice system. Time and time again, we witness incidents like the murder of George Floyd, school shooting of Sandy Hook, Walmart shooting of El Paso leaving 22 dead… and we become numb to everything. We’re normalized to the carnage of innocent lives here in America. It’s a cycle of incident occurring, mourning, political polarization between Republicans and Democrats, social media posts to express your sadness/anger, and moving on a week later.
Hopefully not this time. This is a revolution. The dams have burst, and people are tired of the pain and misery of losing lives at the means of police brutality. This feels different. People care. But caring isn’t enough. The responsibility falls on each and everyone of us in our day to day lives.
Work in any type of business and have control of hiring? Make sure you don’t fall privy to implicit biases programmed into you since childhood and pass up a candidate for being black. See someone making derogatory statements about black people in ANY context? Speak out and ask about why they’re saying what they’re saying. Understand first, educate second. Notice black students receiving less attention in the classroom or being dealt with differently by the school system? Ask questions. Get to the bottom of it.
Move the needle forward. Every action leads to some result — however tiny or large.
One of the most frustrating things I’ve noticed throughout my life is the ironies of the entertainment culture in America and its relationship between performers and viewers.
I would be hard pressed to know a single young person who’s attended a party and hasn’t sang along or danced to a hip-hop/r&b track by a black artist. Between Travis Scott, Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Kanye West, Beyonce, Megan the Stallion, and Kid Cudi… a night out in the average American bar or club means listening to at least one and if not all of those artist’s songs being played.
Within the sports circle that we embrace so religiously in America, especially in basketball and football, most athletes are black. In the NBA, approximately 75% of athletes are black as of 2017. In the NFL, nearly 70% of players are black as of 2019. The same trends follow in most division one collegiate circles of basketball and football.
Unsurprisingly, we witness the ugly following event multiple times: fan next to you at the arena or at a bar passionately follows their favorite team/player for a NBA/NFL/NCAA game. They cheer on black athletes with fervor and intense enthusiasm. Yet, the minute they leave the game or sports bar, they isolate their positive feelings/view of black people to that sport. The normal offhanded, water-cooler racist remarks are made at the office, classroom or the police station the next day.
People have gotten quite skilled at hiding their racism or implicit prejudices towards black people and minorities as a whole. But most have failed to get better at being anti-racist. And most of us are undeniably guilty in some way, shape, or form at some point in our lives.
We talk proudly about how America is a melting pot, how it’s open to all cultures, how anyone has an equal opportunity. These are empty words when our actions don’t match up.
Some of our untold history in this country is ugly. The forceful taking of Africans who arrived on boats against their will, to Jamestown in 1619 begins the chapter of indentured servitude on American soil. 20 slaves off-boarded onto North American land and began the barbaric history of slavery in America that stayed until 1863. But the Emancipation Proclamation didn’t change much.
As MLK eloquently gets across in this video, black people weren’t afforded any economic or social ground to stand upon. They were left to fend for themselves and ultimately fall behind in all modern metrics of American society:
“When white Americans tell the negro to lift himself by his own bootstraps, they don’t look over the legacy of slavery and segregation. Now I believe we do all we can to lift ourselves by our bootstraps. But it’s a cruel jest to say to a bootless man, to lift yourself by the bootstraps.” — MLK
Take a good hard look at some of these figures that we should all be aware of:
These numbers paint the picture of a vivid, blatant systematic failure we’ve witnessed in our policing and legal systems. There is no more running from the facts. No more running from the stories we see on the news. No more avoiding the fact that the deck has always been stacked against the black population in America.
“There is an upside to ignorance, and a downside to knowledge. Knowledge makes life messier. It makes it a bit more difficult for a person who wishes to shrink the world to a worldview. — Michael Lewis
Being ignorant is comfortable. Being exposed with the beliefs passed onto you by your family, community, and echo chamber is extremely common. That is not your fault. We are all products of our surroundings while young. But it is our duty in 2020 America is to empathize, listen closely (not just hear), understand, and become aware of the struggles of Black Americans.
Only once a majority of the American population acknowledges our cruel past towards black citizens as well as our present day systematic failures, will we be able to make the dent of much needed progress.
Protests work. Activism behests awareness. Petitions signal unity to policymakers.
But all of this doesn’t matter in the long run if we can’t sustain actionable change on a personal level and then extend it to our spheres of influence and our communities. It’s time to be anti-racist. It’s time to seriously look in the mirror and have the difficult conversations with loved ones that leads to impactful change — now and in the future.
