The denial is staggering. My colleagues are weighing in, one by one and then in a rush, commenting on Facebook and e-mails and in messages about their conversations with white parishioners who don’t get it, who are sunk up to their knees like quicksand in white privilege and denial and a worldview that wants to assume that this doesn’t just happen and he must have done something and you don’t know everything and did you read the report? and did you read it as thoroughly as I did, because if you did you wouldn’t be so upset, you wouldn’t be sick and snarling and enraged and disgusted with humanity right now, you’d be the nice, comforting minister I expect you to be.
Forgive me, or don’t. I am indeed sick and disgusted and although a beautiful colleague of mine wrote this afternoon about the need to take hands and sing, I cannot sing and I am keeping my hands to myself because I want to punch something. But my feelings and my comfort and my inability to sing are not what matter. What matters to me tonight is a man named Eric Garner who sold loose cigarettes on the street and as the cops confronted and harassed him this summer, yelled at them to leave him alone. Yelled at them to leave him alone because he wasn’t doing anything. I can’t quote Mr. Garner exactly, but as I remember that he said something about how you all (meaning the police) were looking to make trouble with him, looking to arrest another black man. He was irritated and agitated and then they surrounded him like sharks in the water, methodically and murderously taking him down.
I can’t breathe, he said.
I can’t breathe.
And they held him down and one officer strangled him from behind and they held onto him until he was dead. Someone called it a lynching and I can’t see the difference myself.
He became a martyr in that moment, if you hadn’t considered that possibility. Eric Garner was a prophet who spoke truth to power and that power pulled him down to the sidewalk and killed him right then and there.
And they got away with it.
Brainy white analytical types want this to work somehow in their minds, as they have no life experience by which to process this cognitive dissonance as reality. Â There must be a reason for this. I can practically hear the gears whirring as I watch them try to make sense of what does not make sense for white people, even though one particularly lurid and egregious case after another of police brutality against black men has been paraded out in front of us for months. Â We are Romans sitting in the arena watching gladiators kill slaves (I know that’s not historically accurate – it’s a metaphor) and questioning the dead as they’re dragged away. Â Now, what strategic move did you not make that would have allowed you to avoid that fatal blow? There must have been something. Think.Â
The fatal blow is systemic racism and the compliance and complicity of white America. You think I have any answers? I don’t. I only pray that liberal white Americans can examine their own intellectualized response at this moment and challenge each other to see how harmful it is — how distancing, disrespectful and unfeeling it is.
No one who hasn’t lived it has a sturdy soapbox to stand on from which to pontificate and opine. We only have the perspective of our own context and location, which for most of us is well removed from Ferguson, Missouri. It is not a time for analysis. It is a time for empathic imagining, for humility and sorrow.
Where in America would a white 12-year old boy walking around on a cold afternoon in an unpopulated area and idly waving a toy gun be shot by a police officer literally two seconds after that cop got out of his squad car? Two seconds on the clock. Imagine that happening in your neighborhood.
When it came out in the news today that the officer who killed Tamir Rice had been poorly evaluated by a previous supervisor for his “dismal performance with a handgun,” white Americans said, “Ohhhh.” A dead black child wasn’t enough proof for some of them, you see. They had to have the Officer Timothy Loehmann’s gross ineptitude confirmed by a white authority figure.
White men wave real guns around crowded areas in America and are taken into custody alive. Â Tamir Rice, carrying a toy gun in an open carry state, wasn’t white. His parents are apparently not law abiding citizens, so one Ohio resident suggested to me yesterday (and this is a quote) that it was a good thing that Tamir was “put down before he got a real gun.” Â I fail to see a significant emotional and spiritual difference between the callous bigot who celebrates the murder of a kid and the white liberal who says it’s all really sad, but he shouldn’t have been waving around a gun. Both responses are distancing and victim-blaming: one pathological and the other quite ordinary and therefore, often unquestioned and uncommented upon.
“He shouldn’t have punched a cop,” is what a white man said in the sushi bar tonight about Mike Brown. Â So he obviously deserved to die. I didn’t say it. I didn’t want to start a brawl at the sushi bar.
He shouldn’t have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. He shouldn’t have been big and scary. He shouldn’t have been black.
In my call for empathic imagining, I am going to ask, again and again, under what circumstances, exactly, would any of us accept an 18-year old member of our congregation to be shot dead by the police and left in the street for four and a half hours? Under what circumstances would we not move heaven and earth to get answers from a police chief after such a horrific occurrence? Under what circumstance can any of us imagine tolerating hearing one of our sons described as a raging hulk, would stand for the characterization of our child as some kind of beast by a police officer whose “injuries” sustained at our son’s hands are a pink mark barely visible to the naked eye?
On what planet do we really think it’s acceptable for a police officer to kill a teenager who may or may not have stolen a few cigars from the corner store, who may or may not have behaved in a belligerent way and then have the police chief and governor respond to our community’s outrage over his murder with tanks and tear gas? How would we feel, how would we respond, what would we demand, if there was no official comment or information for the an entire day after one of our teenagers was shot dead in the street?
Oh, they looted.
Oh, they burned down their own property. How stupid is that.
Oh, this guy really knows what he’s talking about. He is so spot on in his scathing critique of the violent and destructive response in Ferguson. Tsk, tsk.
Bad and destructive choices made by some people in Ferguson or anywhere affected by police brutality does not excuse white people from allying themselves with African Americans in the struggle for justice. When justifiably enraged black people take to the streets in violent ways in protest, or in crime sprees or to kill each other, that is not white people’s cue to retire to our armchairs, light our pipes and descend into the comfortable form of white superiority that manifests as condescending intellectual curiosity.
If Johnathan Gentry wants to speak to his own African-American community about the stupidity of looting and the futility of civil rights songs, that is his privilege. There is a conversation that is happening within the African-American community that no white person is entitled to comment on.
I have tried to avoid providing a lot of links to articles that support my points in this post because I know that someone who disagrees with me will only post their own links in retort, and that is a game that white people can afford to play while black men die in the streets. We need to have more respect, for God’s sake.
I realize that this post was a bit confusing. I started with Eric Garner and then I segued to Tamir Rice and then I referenced Mike Brown. Cleveland, Ferguson, Staten Island — who can keep up with it? It all blends together and I have compassion fatigue. I know. I do, too. I have outrage fatigue. But to sit back in the armchair because we’re too tired of reading articles does not honor the witness being borne by the African-American community right now. Perhaps taking to the streets is not your style, or is not possible for you. For many white folks, the longest and most important distance to travel in our claims to be an anti-racist, justice-seeking people may be from our heads to our hearts. Our longest march may be the one that takes us down from the dais of of competitive debate and rational inquiry to the common ground of listening, witnessing, mourning and embracing.
Put down the newspaper and the computer. There are caskets going by.
“I only pray that liberal white Americans can examine their own intellectualized response at this moment and challenge each other to see how harmful it is — how distancing, disrespectful and unfeeling it is.” WTH? How does this have anything to do with white liberal Americans? Democrats are not the political party who hates everyone and everything – that’s Republicans! And it’s been every republican I know who have defended the cops to no end and completely deny that it’s a racial issue or that there is a racism problem in the US. While THIS white liberal American has been outside freezing my buns off protesting against racism! The idea of “Compassionate Conservatives” is dead. The new republican motto is: “I’ve got mine, so screw the rest of you.” It’s AMAZING to me how many republicans don’t know anything about their own party. Or about how their congressmen vote – against the middle class, the working class, the poor, against women, against children and veterans… But they certainly vote to line the pockets of big oil companies and Wall Street. Answer this… what political party is the KKK associated with? The Republican party. If you said “democrats”, then you do not know your history and what happened to the political parties during the civil rights movement. You had me following along with your article until I came across the “white liberal Americans”. You’re pointing your finger at the WRONG group of people.
I, too, am horrified and hurt. I am not having the same experience with my other white liberal friends, but your points are valid, thoughtful, powerful tools in the conversations we need to have with our friends and family who perceive that this is not their issue or their problem. You pose unbearable and critical questions.
We must be willing to have the difficult and awkward conversations; we must march; we must lobby; we must persist. We must be stalwart allies in the battle to reform this institutionally racist system.
Being furious and sick to my stomach and shedding tears seems to get me no where. My adult children are married to non-whites and have beautiful children. My fear is that things will never improve until more white privileged people have “brown” babies and grandchildren. After all it’s all theoretical until “and then they came for me”!!!!
I understand your frustration and I share your pain over this chain of events. It was over 30 years ago that “Blaming the Victim” was assigned reading in a college class. It’s hard to believe we haven’t seemed to move from that place. I ask this, however.
Please don’t confuse calm discussion with lack of concern. For many of us it is an intentional, strategic decision. We know our contexts. We know that in a congregation full of people raised in a primarily passive-aggressive culture we will change more hearts with reason than with righteous indignation. I serve a church in farm country. Here we understand that the seed one plants looks nothing like the plant that bears the fruit.
If I were to use much of the shaming and blaming rhetoric I’m seeing from my colleagues my congregation would immediately tune out. Some would leave permanently, thus ending all chance for dialogue. Others would crawl into themselves in shame and be afraid to do anything to make a change.
So whether you think it’s appropriate or not, I will continue to address all issues of oppression and racism as I have done; by telling stories and asking people to think beyond the sound bytes of opposing self-righteous commentaries. They are intelligent people with huge hearts and, yes, many need their eyes opened. I simply believe that their hearts will hear more if they aren’t always on the defensive about who they are.
PB, Ernie’s first paragraph is spot on: None of this is specific to liberals.
M. Busch echoes this observation. And I’ll triple it.
You wrote a good essay but it would have been an excellent essay had you not unnecessarily confined it to “liberals”. Reading this accusation towards “white liberals” throughout your post is distracting, and leading your essay with the title will turn off a large segment of the population who actually should read it. What you’ve written applies to white PEOPLE, not just white liberals.
One more suggestion… Do yourself a favor and don’t knee jerk respond to comments like Ernie’s second two paragraphs. Elevating yourself by ‘not mentioning’ your Reverend Doctor title and all your educational accomplishments in your lengthy retort comes across, frankly, as ‘intellectually condescending’, and reads a lot like some of the very things you counsel against in your essay (sitting in your comfy armchair behind the safety of a computer screen speaking out on a subject that you’ve declared yourself morally superior on by virtue of your credentials). It detracts from your message.
Here in the comment section is a micro universe to begin to apply some of the things you counsel for: empathic imagining.
It seems to me you’re more upset by your UU minister colleagues apathy and non-action on this issue. That’s no excuse to rant on lesser educated individuals who are critical of your point of view or don’t present their point of view in as polished a way as you did. Unlike the bar where you were afraid to speak up and start a dialogue, this is actually a forum where it can safely be done. And dialogue is where we must begin if we are to accomplish ANY change.
Best, AC
Excellent post (and an excellent reply to Ernie). In re ‘liberals’ being horrified or not…I think that these days there are people who would identify or describe themselves as ‘liberal’ but really are just a little bit left of center, which, in my book does not make one a ‘liberal.’
Another point I’d like to make is that we need to be thinking about the kinds of people who are selected for Grand Jury duty. These are people who, when confronted with evidence that any reasonable person would see as enough *to indict* – I did not say “convict” – still choose not to indict. I think there is something about being on that *Grand* Jury that causes people to think in totally different ways when they realize what power they have.
Painful and uncomfortable to read, and for that reason, necessary. Thanks for posting.
I have been struggling to articulate these same things for a blog post. This morning I bit my wonderful, broad-minded, liberal husband’s head off for trying to “understand” Torii Hunter’s expression of discomfort about homosexuals. This rage I’m feeling is eclipsing my ability to reason, which is helping no one. Thanks for re-encouraging me to get these things onto “paper” and out of my head so I can even look rationally at how to be a positive force for change in all of this.
Thank you so much for this. I could not have spoken more eloquently about my horror and outrage.
Great post! It’s just sad that race has to play such a front row spot in this debate. I’m not saying it isn’t a great factor that plays into these conflicts between citizen and police, but I think more people would be united if race was left out. If only the focus was more on the overall abuse of power by police and injustice in the system, I think more people of all color, would aligned themselves in the center. I think a lot of people feel like, because of race, that this fight isn’t their fight. I think the comments towards whites’ ignorance drives out the unification that this fight against injustice needs.
All the mothers of young white, black, latino, asian, who have been unjustly persecuted by the system or abused by police force would unite in one message if race was left out of the injustice. I really feel this post in most aspects. I think it’s a fantastic way to bring the perspective into other communities. Now all we have to do is fight the institutionalized abuse of power for all races.
Thank you for this heart felt post.
Wonderful post.
The only disagreement I have was already expressed by M. Busch. I couldn’t understand why your post kept referring to *liberals*, for that definitely is not my experience. Indeed, the liberals with whom I “pal around” (a fun Palin reference to make us all wince) do NOT make excuses for the heinous actions we’ve witnessed go un-indicted.
So it made me especially sad to read your follow up comment to M. Busch. Really? You’re hearing these statements from UUs (in my experience the most liberal of all Christian denominations)? No wonder you wrote this piece specifically targeting your peers.
For the life of me, I cannot fathom why so many are incapable of empathy. How in the world so many people can also blame “the media” for inflaming the situation. No. The only culpable media that I am aware of are the right wing radicals who carp on the red herring of “black on black” crime or otherwise basically say these people asked for the violence inflicted upon them.
But I’ve come to realize that when people blame “the media,” my sense – unbelievably – is that they are also arguing that the fire of this outrage is being fanned by the few liberal media outlets (such as MSNBC), a claim to which I vehemently disagree.
We need compassion. We need the realization that this is a human issue. We are not our races; we’re just people. The profound stupidity of judging people based upon their skin color or ethnicity is so overwhelming that it boggles my mind that (white) people cannot simply be honest with themselves and be grateful that they don’t have to live in constant fear of being treated in a way they, themselves, cannot even fathom. All that that honesty would require is that they stand up – and stand alongside with – their brothers and sisters of multiple hues and say, “ENOUGH. No more.”
thank you and thank you again. I’m turning the computer off now.
I understand the rioting and looting. I may not agree with it, but I understand it. After hundreds of years of struggle and dismissal simply by the color of your skin, the frustration and feeling of invalidation has to be overwhelming. I get angry with a rude store clerk. Imagine, EVERY DAY, having to stand your ground and try to retain your dignity to some bigoted, uninformed, elitist ass simply because of your skin color. It makes no sense. The pendulum must swing, and the actions of the people of color are bringing attention to a long standing horror. If you won’t listen, then I’ll make you notice. White people have a lot to answer for.
I, too, was confused by your reference to “brainy” white people and “liberals.” As a professor, I fit into both of those categories and am nothing short of disgusted by the structural and personal racism that these murders have revealed to all with eyes willing to see it. If UU ministers in your social circles are justifying, in any way, the slaughter of young black men for the crime of being black, shame shame on them (and on us). I don’t get this vibe from the UU congregation where I’m a member, but I am willing to believe that I cannot see into men’s and women’s hearts. It just makes me want to scream and weep and demand a different world.
Yes Michael Brown was shot by a police officer with a gun. Eric Garner was killed by an officer of the law trying to subdue him because he was resisting arrest. Were these deaths necessary? The answer is no anyway you view it. The question is, why were the two black men breaking the law and resisting arrest? Neither of them would have been executed for stealing cigars or selling boot leg cigarettes so why did they resist the police officers? Both officers and both black men were at fault. If a need is to blame someone, blame the appropriate parties. The ones enforcing the law and the ones breaking the law. I’ve read both sides of the arguments and none of the arguments make sense to me. The answer seems to be, don’t be a cop and don’t break the law. Don’t sugar coat the facts to suit your point of view.
Okay,
I am a Christian. I am also a health care professional, and I am black. And I admit I don’t get it. I don’t get it at all. It is a beautifully written blog, but I still don’t get it.
I grew up in public schools telling me that racism was wrong. Then I went to college and I was told that everyone was racist. Then I went to the army and the only was race was made up of green people. Everyone was my brother or sister and everyone had my back. Usually.
Is there an epidemic of black people going to jail and being shot? The numbers say yes. But why does that happen and how do we fix it? Do you abolish the police? Do you change the law? Take away their guns all you want, police can still use lethal force if they feel threatened. Something I learned through blood and tears is that any human, if backed into a corner will defend himself, this is understood universally. Why do you expect the police officer to do any less when he or she feels his life is threatened?
I don’t rush to blame white people. Isn’t that rush to judgment just another form of prejudice? I don’t blame cops either. If you look at the evidence, Mike died fighting. Why is it that a police officer with a spotless record has less credibility than someone who just robbed a liquor store 1o minutes earlier? If you say it is because he is white I am going to say that statement is racist.
Are you trying to say that regardless of the specific evidence the media has been covering you are more concerned with the plight of young blacks as a whole. That is a problem that we can work through together. But if your aim is to chastise the police for doing their jobs. You may as well be trimming bed sheets with the clan, because its the same us versus them reasoning.
Thank you. Very well said.
Breaking the law – and in these two cases, since the two people are dead and there are no trials, we will never know – is not an excuse for the police to shoot someone dead on the street or torture or brutalize them. Regardless of color. But, the statistics and facts are so clear that African Americans experience such extreme unequal treatment. If someone says they believe in the law, prove it, demand that officers do their job which is ‘apprehend’ the suspect and go to trial. Not execute on the street. Anything less is racism. We’ve witnessed racism.
Ouch.
But thank you for holding up a mirror.
Thank you for this. I have grown fatigued in trying to make the very same point that you have raised to those who just don’t want to see. Unfortunately the people who probably need to read this the most are so entrenched in their positions of denial that they probably never will.
One of the most heartbreaking moments in the litany of heartbreaking moments in the last few weeks was watching Lesley McSpadden, Michael Brown’s mother, explain in public of her husband’s “burn” exhortations, “He was angry.” Of course he was angry, angry beyond all limits — that SHE should have to explain this, in the midst of her own grief and anger! How can any person with even a sliver of human empathy not understand and sympathize with this anger? Thank you for this beautiful post – I hadn’t known of your blog before.
I love the way people spin facts! I hate that any of these children or men died. My heart goes out to their families and friends. My heart also goes out to these police officers who must live with the fact that they took a life. The public must look at the whole picture and not spin the facts. Garner was on bond for 2000.00 on one charge of selling untaxed cigarettes and marijuana, anther 1000.00 for an additional charge for selling untaxed cigarettes and this was actually his third charge. Its not like the police had not been having problems with this guy. Simple crimes not worthy of death for sure. However, a known criminal! Now, the leading officer who gave the instruction to “take Garner down” was a female black officer. Garner was over 300lbs! None of the officers present where close to his size. They are also instructed, when taking someone down, do it quickly to subdue injury, scuffle, and resistance. Watch the TV show Cops, the same scenario happens time and time again with the same force and hold time and time again. Black suspects, White suspects, Latino suspects, White cops, Black cops, Latino cops… Suspects yell, “I cant breath”, “you are hurting me”, “I wasn’t doing anything”, yet almost every American knows the theme song and they laugh and make jokes about the shows and how suspects act. Garner did not die from being choked. The man was overweight, and died from a HEART ATTACK. Unlike the post states, the police did NOT hold him until he died. Garner died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. The problem with all these white cop killing black people is media spin! It make money for the media and civil rights groups. If racism or police brutality were to stop today these guys would go broke! Politicians would lose stuff to run on and stir voters. The fact is that Brown should not have robbed a store, walked down the middle of a street, attacked a police officer or tried to take a cop,s gun. He may have gotten away with the robbery if he had only moved his ass to the sidewalk and let the cop go to his call. He may have been out of the hospital and jail today if he had only stopped charging at the officer. Garner on the other had was obviously ready for a heart attack at any time. But, he probably would be alive today if he had only stopped breaking the law, not resisted arrest, or just listened to the cops and not argue and pushed the cops hand away. These men brought this on themselves, our police departments and society. What if it had been you store where Brown ruffed you up and stole from you then rioters destroyed everything you worked for. What if it was you child Garner had been selling untaxed cigarettes to and possibly marijuana. Do you really think Brown ask anyone for an ID? In both cases the death of these men is sad. The fact that a message of “Look where crime leads”, not being blasted could destroy this nation and the future of our children. If this continues, pretty soon you will not be able to walk down the street because criminals of big or small crime will know they are without consequence for their actions. This shit is why we are seeing crimes, victims of crimes, including victims who committed the crime, become younger every day.
“There is a conversation that is happening within the African-American community that no white person is entitled to comment on.” Your post is addressed against “white liberals”. I’m a white socialist revolutionary, I worked with the Socialist Workers Party when they were sponsoring the forums and publishing the speeches of Malcolm X long before his words became ubiquitous, I am against all racism and I have far more to say of relevance to working class Blacks than Black liberals. Get off the race baiting and start looking at the class war in America as the determining factor. The ruling class benefits from your sectarian and divisive position. Comrade, most of what you say is correct but it is self-defeating to ignore the need to build a coalition of multi-racial freedom fighters.
oops I meant “a multi-racial coalition of freedom fighters.”
please edit that in for me
I am white. I am upper-middle class. I am not a “liberal.” I have two children who are not allowed to have any kind of weapon, toy or otherwise. This is so because of what it might infer to the public eye, both to the law and otherwise. Because of horrific incidents in our schools, public gathering spaces, and goverent buildings. Why is it wrong of me to feel that the notion of not allowing our children to role-play violence should be a nobrainer?
I cannot speak on the subjects of Ferguson or Tamir Rice. About Eric Garner, he was conducting illegal activity and not cooperating with police. (Is it “right” to conduct illegal activity and then tell police that he/she is not doing anything wrong? Is it right to conduct illegal activity and not be accountable for one’s own actions?)
Eric Garner should NOT have died. The police officer should NOT have executed a choke procedure on him or acted in any way that would cause Eric physical pain, much less death.
The NYPD were WRONG. Eric was also WRONG. They were both WRONG in their actions.
Where as a society do we go from here?
I must take head my own statement of not following the Tamir Rice developments and acknowledge that I based my lede above on the tragedy.
Garner and the two young boys should NOT have died.
This statement plays repeatedly in my head over and over, unprompted.
Then my gut clenches and thoughts repel up and down my spine:
I follow the letter of the law.
When I make a mistake, known or unknown, I try to make amends. To be accountable for my actions.
For I am an adult, and I take responsibility for my place in a lawful society (keeping in mind BOTH the law and the unlawful, Tamir aside.)
I am not trying to provoke an argument. I seek simply to present a white, privileged account of the measures I and my family take to make positive contributions to our community.
“Always do the right thing” is my family’s motto, both 40 years ago when I was a child in an impoverished, single-parent household, as it is today, after decades of struggle to climb the ladder of success.
I believe this sentiment applies to both sides of the struggle.
The question is: Now what?
First off, I’m just blown away by the eloquence of this piece. I wish it was a little shorter, because I KNOW I’m not going to get many of the very people who need to read it, to do so. I too, have been flummoxed by the number of people whom I thought should know better, voicing some of the same excuses you repeat above. The amount of latent racism (especially) the Ferguson killing has exposed has me questioning much of my acquaintance base…even some dear friends and family.
That said, the one place I have NOT heard anything like that, is within my circle of fellow Unitarian Universalist congregants. I understand that UUs and UU congregations are as different as snowflakes in a blizzard; but I’m more than a little puzzled that any of them would make excuses for murder. I guess we got lucky…..
For me, this is a no-brainer. As a white liberal, I’ve never commented on the rioting following the GJ, and I don’t plan to. Where it gets tricky, however, is when I’m told, by you, and at least one other person, that rational inquiry is off the table when it comes to matters of race. There is no way to reach any level of understanding when simple questioning is perceived as racism. I’d like to draw a parallel to something else here, but I know that too is off-limits. It’s beyond frustrating.
yes.
I don’t know what to say and I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to say the wrong thing, and I don’t want to say something just so I can say, “Look, I said something. I care.” I do care, I just feel paralyzed. Until I can figure out the next step, I think I should hold my tongue. Thank you for speaking up.
I whole-heartedly agree with this.
But, I also agree with the posts above regarding confusion of the term “liberal” – You are referring to a left-wing political tendencies, right?
Because in that case, we are the ones that are standing with you – we are the feminists and the gay rights advocates and the other minorities that are closer to understanding the plight and struggle that blacks (especially black men) face. I guess I just worry about your terminology because the majority of people that I would deem liberal (and perhaps the majority of the nation due to the term’s general use) are those that ARE angry, that are protesting, and that are forced to bite their tongues while the opposite group (what would be the proper terminology, conservatives?) continue to preach (no pun intended) that there is no such thing as privilege.
I am not religious – I was raised Catholic but am Agnostic. I’m also privileged in my education – I attend an Ivy league university for my doctoral degree. I have also been called a part of the liberal elite because of this, despite being an Hispanic immigrant that grew up underprivileged. Yes, I am liberal. But I am not a member of the “aristocracy” that turns a blind eye to systemic racism day in and day out, mainly because my family and friends experience it daily, as I have myself. I am also a feminist that actively attempts to equalize the academy for women scholars and students. I can also say that most of the people that I know who ARE part of the “liberal” university system are also of the same mentality – we are careful with our words and actions because we know the systemic evils of our society.
Just my two cents. Thanks for listening!
I’m glad you are confronting your congregation with this situation. I recently had a conversation with my mother — one of the two people in the world who is most responsible for shaping my own values — in which I had to point out to her that jaywalking is not a capital offense, and that a failure to indict means they never will get their day in court and their opportunity to weigh the evidence. She was upset that the news was all about Ferguson, Ferguson, Ferguson, when what she really wanted to know was how they weathered the storm in Buffalo. So I have to say I am resonating with your experience of white indifference, even though many of the people in my social circle are, indeed, as outraged and horrified as I am. My own *mother*! Fer cryin’ out loud, she has black *grandkids*! She should know better.
I have said it elsewhere, but it bears repeating: if you never wrote another true word, you wrote it all here. Thank you. I’m glad to be in ministry with you.
Great post! Although, I don’t see the word “liberal” making any sense here, either. I am a pretty serious liberal: pro-gay rights, pro-choice, environmentalist, and a woman who helped change the law in my very conservative small town so I could have some sweet backyard chickens. I agree with everything you said, and yet all of the liberals I know are flabbergasted, heartbroken, and shaking our heads at the continued injustice we see occurring toward the black citizens of our country. I was actually called a racist the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, and it made my blood boil. Other than the word liberal being used to describe some group of white people, I could not agree with this piece more.
Haha wow what a stretch attributing all of that to “liberals”! Hahah what a ridiculously weak article.
Thank you.
It’s not your duty to tell me what to do about it, beyond protesting and sharing insights like yours (yes, even if that requires me to sit at the computer), but if you have any ideas, I am ready for some concrete action or some patient listening or some screaming at anyone who will listen, but I fear the people listening aren’t the ones who can change things.
The rage, frustration and confusion expressed here is not the stuff of intellectuals. It is the stuff of broken hearts caused by an abrupt awakening to a darkness in our social order. We all need to get out of our heads to approach this level of community suffering, and feel something.
It’s ok to rage against injustice. It’s ok to be confused by what you thought was an issue of the past. Its also ok to feel ashamed because it happened all around you and you never noticed…never cared.
But now really allow yourself to feel something, To awaken to what you thought was rightfully dead. You cannot heal this type of suffering without gnosis brought about through intimate relations. The American contagion of “racism coupled with denial” is a virus of such epidemic proportions that it has blinded us to its profound effects. Now “WAKE UP.” We have all got to wake up if we want to contribute to healing the affliction of racism and its resulting rage.
Pretending the typical inbred “conservative” rednecks vomiting this bile are really “liberals” doesn’t make it so. Tell the truth: not one of these statements came from the people who elected Barack Obama. They came from the teabilly crowd who have been saying the same racist BS about HIM for the last six years.
The mention of these three in a single post is not the least bit confusing, and I shudder to think that it might be for anyone.
Amen.
Brava. From your gut to mine. We need to rage, rage against hateful bigotry. It’s open season on black men, and I’m glad for the thousands who are taking it to the streets! Those hurtful comments need to be challenged, not silently tolerated. Thanks for sharing your rightful anger and anguish. I feel it too.
The inaccurate “liberal” association is perplexing and takes away from the power of this piece. (I have instead found a grasping tendency of conservatives to want to believe police are infallible and deserve to be assumed as acting with appropriate force in all situations.) That said, who cares – liberal or conservative do not matter when mass injustice is present. The problem you point out so well here is that too many white people do not see the injustice, do not acknowledge that it is real, and do not take action to end it.
If you cannot do something (for whatever reason, we don’t have to judge), then support the ones who can. Volunteer to clean for free at your nearest ACLU office. Donate to the Southern Poverty Law Center. Donate blood to help those who have been injured by police actions or in the riots. You don’t have to carry a sign to provide support.
When you wrote “the longest distance many of us need to travel our claims to be anti-racist, justice loving people is from our head to our heart ” is just what we need to hear, repeat and embrace. And then act.
Thank you.
Yeah, white liberals are the problem.
Every single white liberal on my Facebook page has condemned the grand jury verdict.
And you don’t cite to any specific statement — just general comments by “brainy” white people (I hear you saying that in the “white nerd” voice).
I resent the bullshit title of this piece.
White privilege is real. But white liberals are across the board admitting that whites can’t understand what blacks go through, and that that’s a big part of why white cops kill so many innocent blacks.
This piece is hella condescending. That’s what that word means.
Thank you for your powerful words. Being able to sit back and justify human beings shot down in the street (“he shouldn’t have resisted arrest/run/played with a toy gun/taken out his wallet”) is almost exclusively a luxury belonging to those who know it will never happen to them or to someone they love. And if it did, they sure would *never* stand for it.
Thank you for this. Don’t punch anything – you might hurt your typing hand; keep up the struggle – we can open people’s eyes one at a time. Too slow? Yes. But I don’t know any other way.
Thank you.
Thank you for this. In my family are a large number of young men who are police officers. It is a point of great pride that these young people work and sacrifice to serve their communities. That pride comes with blinders that cannot seem to allow any other perspective — any admission that what is happening is wrong. I have been struggling with how to explain to them my despair over these headlines in such a way that they might be able to hear. I want to say to them that their own souls are on the line…the souls that we have worked hard to instill with a sense of compassion and justice.
On Veterans Day I was with a friend who is a Viet Nam vet. He was so quiet as people thanked him for his service. Finally, he spoke up and said, “On this day I am thankful for forgiveness. I did so many things in war that I had to beg forgiveness for, and pray that somehow God would see fit to grant it.” So many years later, his soul is deeply scarred by his actions as a young soldier.
They may emerge from all of this alive in body, but the souls of these young men I cherish are in danger of being forever scarred by actions that they are told are necessary and acceptable.
I get it. I remember when I first read about Trayvon Martin. My first thought was should I take my 16 year old grandson to Florida on vacation next year??? I was furious. I actually was one of the first to write to the Martin family via the FB page someone had set up for them before the responses got so numerous they had to shut it down. In the email I asked if there was anything I could do for the family and whoever replied, a neighbor, I think .. said that his mother was resting but devastated. I couldn’t imagine. You see, I know how racist Southerners are at heart. I’m an average looking 65 year old retired white woman. In other words .. I look like one of “them” and you wouldn’t believe some of the things they will say among their own. It is only when I make it obvious that I do not share their way of evaluating a situation or person in no uncertain terms that I am looked at like I’m the biggest traitor since the beginning of time. Because most of the ones that say these things are little old ladies like me. If it should happen to be a macho Southern male I take to task, he just gets belligerent. With Georgia’s new anyone can carry and shoot you laws, I am a little more careful about the males I spout out against. Because some will shoot you.
So some of us who look like the last you would want to speak openly to do get it. Not many, I agree. But a few.