Will You Consider This?

Hello, this is a letter to my loved ones. While I believe that everyone who reads my blog would be kind to a black person in a face to face situation, I also believe that I have family members and acquaintances who don’t believe systemic racism is a severe problem in this country, our country. This letter is to you, my family and friends; I beg of you, I am asking you as a personal favor, to please read, reflect, and consider my words, consider the evidence that racism runs rampant in this country that People of Color can not “fix” it themselves.

I believe that all of you have seen the following examples recently: Ahmaud Arbery who was shot in the street in broad daylight by white vigilantes who had been effectively (illegally) deputized by the local sheriff, Breonna Taylor was filled with bullets by undercover police officers while she was sleeping in her own bed — they had the wrong house and the person they wanted had already been arrested earlier that day, and, of course, most recently George Floyd. George Floyd who was slowly and brutally murdered in the street by a police officer, while three other officers threatened any bystanders who tried to intervene to save Big Floyd’s life.

Maybe you think it is only a coincidence that these individuals were all black? I present you with more names. Each of these individuals of color were murdered in the name of “upholding the law” or had the police called on them while peacefully and innocently doing the following described activities. If you are white, do you feel confident that as long as you are not blatantly breaking the law you can move comfortably in public places without interference and questioning by law officials? I do. (I did not create this list, but recognize half of the names from the last few years. If you want to learn more, go ahead and Google each of these names.)

I have privilege as a white person because I can do all of these things without thinking twice:
I can go birding (#ChristianCooper)
I can go jogging (#AmaudArbery)
I can relax in the comfort of my own home (#BothemSean and #AtatianaJefferson)
I can ask for help after being in a car crash (#JonathanFerrell and #RenishaMcBride)
I can have a cellphone (#StephonClark)
I can leave a party to get to safety (#JordanEdwards)
I can play loud music (#JordanDavis)
I can sell CDs (#AltonSterling)
I can sleep (#AiyanaJones)
I can walk from the corner store (#MikeBrown)
I can play cops and robbers (#TamirRice)
I can go to church (#Charleston9)
I can walk home with Skittles (#TrayvonMartin)
I can hold a hair brush while leaving my own bachelor party (#SeanBell)
I can party on New Years (#OscarGrant)
I can get a normal traffic ticket (#SandraBland)
I can lawfully carry a weapon (#PhilandoCastile)
I can break down on a public road with car problems (#CoreyJones)
I can shop at Walmart (#JohnCrawford)
I can have a disabled vehicle (#TerrenceCrutcher)
I can read a book in my own car (#KeithScott)
I can be a 10yr old walking with our grandfather (#CliffordGlover)
I can decorate for a party (#ClaudeReese)
I can ask a cop a question (#RandyEvans)
I can cash a check in peace (#YvonneSmallwood)
I can take out my wallet (#AmadouDiallo)
I can run (#WalterScott)
I can breathe (#EricGarner)
I can live (#FreddieGray)
I CAN BE ARRESTED WITHOUT THE FEAR OF BEING MURDERED (#GeorgeFloyd)

The background story of each of these individuals varies. Many were incredibly upstanding citizens by every possible metric, all were beautiful flawed humans just like the rest of us, and some of them may have in the past participated in petty crimes and nominally illegal behavior, but you know what? It doesn’t matter. They are still human beings who deserve to be treated with integrity. Christian Cooper did not deserve to have a white woman use his skin color against him as a weapon, knowing that the police would believe her over him with her trumped up accusations. Eric Garner did not deserve to be murdered by a police officer for selling cigarettes on a street corner (I can’t breathe). George Floyd did not deserve to be executed on the streets of Minneapolis on May 25th, 2020 (I can’t breathe).

But what if the person was not immediately and passively complying with the police, you might say? It doesn’t matter. The police to do not get to be judge, jury, and executioner. Also, see Breonna Tayler above (asleep in her bed), or Ahmaud Arbery (jogging while black). The police are supposed to be here to protect us, ALL of us; if I were black I would be petrified of any interaction with the police. And if only the police were the problem maybe correcting things would be a bit more manageable, but it’s all of us participating in the system. It’s the person who “gets nervous” in the presence of a large black man and calls the police. Here is another a story, an anecdote recently shared by a man and his wife. Can I confirm the authenticity of this exact story? No, but after years of reading hundreds of stories like these, or hearing them from friends, eventually you have to start believing.

---

“My husband is 31 years old. My husband can proofread a paper to perfection! He makes the best pork chops and neckbones. My husband was raised in an extremely wholesome home where they were not even allowed to watch Harry Potter. My husband has never tried any drugs, not even weed. He has never stolen from anyone, not even a corner store. My husband treats me and our sons like royalty. He serves at our local church faithfully and helps anyone he can. None of this stopped my husband from becoming a suspect in Semmes. My husband wanted to do me a favor one night when he got home late from work. He got my keys and drove around the corner to fill my tank at the gas station. While there, an older white woman was at a pump across from him and he noticed she appeared very nervous and stared at him. He said she got in her vehicle and got on her phone and pulled off to an area near the gas station. Within minutes police cars pulled in and surrounded him. He was questioned about why he was out. He was questioned about his activity earlier in the day. He was told he fit a description. They asked who’s car he was driving. He was told he could not leave. He was told the description was simply a black man. Not a 5 ft 7 inch black man of around 220 lbs who loves WWE, macaroni and cheese, and the Temptations. Just black. The older woman was now watching and the cops revealed she had called in his suspicious behavior of pumping gas. And now he was a suspect because he fit the description of being black. He was humiliated. He was emasculated. He was angry. He was helpless. He was on his way to being cuffed when a white man stepped in. An older white man told the officers they were wrong and that my husband had come from a different direction than the robbery they had mentioned. The officers released my husband after this. Not because my husband told them multiple times he was innocent. Not because there were two car seats in the back of my car. My husband’s voice meant nothing. The only voice that penetrated those badges was a white one. My hard working, kind hearted, silly husband was guilty because of his skin and there was absolutely nothing he could do about it. The sight of him caused a woman to call the police. He said he wanted to scream. He wanted to fight. He wanted yell at the top of his lungs that he was a man and he mattered. If he had, he would be deemed aggressive. He would be resisting so he said he kept telling himself he had to make it home to me and the boys. He knew these men could kill him and justify it. He came home a changed man. I am a changed woman. We cried. We prayed and we have healed since this took place but it changed us. Issues that once felt somewhat distant became our reality. So, when you dismiss the plight of black men in America you diminish the ever present fear within our community. You are willfully ignorant. If you think people make this up or are only apprehended by the police when they deserve it… you are part of the problem. Open your eyes but more importantly open your hearts to the reality of being black in America. We don’t get the luxury of ignoring it because we live it. This picture of my precious family looks threatening to some people. My boys are cuddly and cute until they aren’t anymore and then they become a threat too. My heart aches for our country and I feel so helpless. Lord, please heal the hearts and minds our land!” ~ written by Deltha Katherine Harbin

---

I’m a scientist, how about some data? I love data. Approximately 6% of the US population consist of black men, but almost 40% of the prison population is made up of black men (information taken from government sources online). Wow! Now I suppose you could say that black men have some innate character flaw that makes them overwhelmingly more likely to commit crimes, but I’ll assume that no one reading this would be so overtly racist, instead we need to consider the subtleties of systemic/institutional racism and white privilege.

We would like to believe that Black Americans have had equal opportunity since the Civil Rights Movement and the Voting Rights Act (1965). Right, just pull yourself up by your bootstraps and make something of yourself; it’s the American Way. However, centuries of being denied personhood, culture, homeland, dignity, and education does not go away overnight. And more to the point of continuing systemic racism, black people did not suddenly have equal opportunity just because a law on paper claimed they had equal rights. Do you know about redlining? Briefly, it is a term coined in the 60s where a line on a map was literally drawn around black and immigrant neighborhoods to denote areas that should not be invested in by banks and other (government) agencies that could inject capital in an area. The long-term implications of redlining are still apparent: it is more difficult to get a loan, insurance, health care, or a decent grocery store in these regions. Note, these were not simple financial decisions because often neighborhoods with lower average incomes, but made up primarily of white people, were not redlined. Lawsuits involving redlining have been settled as recently as 2015. How can you have health, education, and a career if you can’t get fresh food or medical care? Home ownership is one of the greatest sources of capital in the United States, how to you grow that capital in your family if you are ineligible for a home loan? Obviously this paragraph only includes a couple of examples of barriers in place in our system, a quick Google search will reveal a wealth of information on the topic if you are willing to read more.

Let’s talk about the protests/”riots”. There seems to be a theme that emerges: a grievous injustice occurs that most of us can agree was wrong, there is no justice*, people protest (as to be expected), damage to property and theft occurs, white people start to claim that now they can’t support the protestors. Say it with me loud and clear: Property damage is not equivalent to human life. Right? Can we agree on that? It’s just stuff being damaged. So how about not worrying about the “rioting” and focusing on the murder? That’s all I’m saying.

As an aside about rioting. Have you ever been incredibly frustrated and impotent in a situation, so much so that you felt angry and like you wanted to strike out in anger? I imagine so; personally I am very uncomfortable with anger and violence, and yet at times in my life I have felt this way. Now imagine your entire life being lived in a high density pressure cooker of challenges and injustice and perhaps you can feel some empathy for how this might happen. And, in this particular situation their is very strong video evidence that outside provocateurs not there to support the protest, but to derail them with violence, initiated the window breaking and fires. I try to be very clear when I am sharing fact from inconclusive evidence, this is currently inconclusive evidence, but it is a distinct possibility. However, my initial point remains, the presence or absence of violent protest should not alter your desire to help fix a broken, dangerous, and unfair system.

If your heart is open to learning more about the challenges faced by Black Americans, please consider reading When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matters Memoir by Patrisse Kahn-Cullors and Asha Bandele. This book is an amazing combination of personal narrative and factual information and I deeply believe it should be required reading for all Americans. I believe this so strongly that if you are willing to consider reading this book I am personally happy to mail you a copy, seriously, just say the word and I will make sure this book gets to you. I learned so much from it.

Maybe you agree that there is a systemic problem but feel helpless to change things? I know that feeling all too well, but many guides have been written on how to help. I will link some below, but for now I would encourage that you to start to seek out articles and news sources willing to grapple with racism, read about and be willing to talk about institutional racism with others, and perhaps make financial donations to groups trying to effect change. The Southern Poverty Law Center is a great place to send a few dollars and keep up to date on hate crimes by being on their mailing list. If we as a white people continue to be silent and think that as long as we personally are “nice” to people of color in one-on-one interactions we are doing our part, nothing is going to change. No one is colorblind, and the days of pretending to be colorblind as good enough are behind us. We must change the systems that contribute to trapping people in cycles of poverty and incarceration. We must stop killing black men and boys in the street. I know that reading about concepts like White Privilege and Institutional Racism is uncomfortable, but not nearly as uncomfortable as a police officer’s boot on your neck. Let’s do this. I’m definitely not an expert, but I have an open heart and mind to learning and doing better, will you walk with me?

And if music speaks to you more than text, listen deeply to the lyrics of this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VftPiNjaas

Ways to make a difference:

Google Doc of Anti-Racism Resources Link

https://medium.com/equality-includes-you/what-white-people-can-do-for-racial-justice-f2d18b0e0234

I recognize that this barely scratches the surface in describing the breadth and depth of the problem, but I’m neither a historian nor social scientist. I’m just a fellow human being whose heart breaks wide open in response to the constant suffering inflicted on others in the name of maintaining systems and privileges I’ve always had and known. Will you please be brave enough to join me on a path to doing better, even if it is uncomfortable and confusing at times?

Thank you for reading.

*firing the officers was not justice, and the murder charge did not come until after the protests had begun