Friday, June 5, 2020
We March Together
I have written and rewritten this post several times. How do you put into words what is going on in this country right now? How can we continue to pretend that race is no longer an issue and continue to make excuses? I am disgusted by what is happening and has been happening to the Black community. The time for action is now. I am white. This is not a privilege that I have earned. I was born with it. I have never had to truly consider what it means to be a white person in America. It means that I can go about my life without the fear that assumptions will be made. Assumptions that could change my life forever. Living that way should not be a privilege, it should be a right. The Black community in America does not have the privilege of living this way. That is wrong. A wrong that needs to be righted. Equality is equal. There are no caveats. There are no excuses. We can’t continue to explain away racial issues. The time to take real action and make real change passed long ago and we missed it. America pretended it was fixed. Pretended that change had really happened. But instead racism was left to grow and fester throughout society. However it is not to late. It is time to admit we were wrong. That we are the problem. Racism exists. It is time to say out loud that systemic racism exists. We didn’t fix it. We made people forget that it was a problem in the first place. It is time to band together, hand in hand, and march towards the light. You may ask what can I do? Acknowledge that racism exists. Stop making excuses. Talk to your friends and neighbors. Learn and grow. Educate yourself and the community. Vote. Call out injustice when you see it. Have compassion for your fellow human beings. Have even more compassion for those around you who may not have the privileges you do. We all need to do what is right. We march together.
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Please define systemic racism. I don't believe it exists. Racism? Sure, it exists. But the vast majority of Americans are not racist. While what happened to George
ReplyDeleteFloyd was horrible, most police officers are good people and do their jobs well.
Let's not go over the deep end here. History is replete with bad actors. Presently
we have many bad actors. And in the future we will have them as well. But again, they
are the exception not the rule. We should call them out and they should be punished
accordingly. We should not be exaggerating and/or pointing out a problem that does
not exist. Systemic racism? Really? How about systemic hating on President Trump? How
about systemic hating on religious people? How about systemic hating on Jews? How
about systmic hating on folks who simply have a different opinion than you and your
ilk do? Stop this nonsense now. Stop whining. Stop your own excuses. Start holding
yourself accountable for your own actions. How about we start with the fact that most
black homicides are committed by blacks. Yes, blacks killing blacks. Where is Black Lives Matter on the weekly/daily killings that go on in Chicago? One bad white cop
kills a black man and all hell breaks loose. But weekly/daily killings of black people by bad black people elicits crickets. Systemic racism? How about systemic
killing of black people by black people. How about systemic abortions of blacks? How
about systemic broken/dysfunctional families among blacks? Systemic racism? Really?
I think you are unfortunately missing the point. It is this very type of response that is the problem. Offering up other examples of hate as a justification for hateful actions is the reason for the cycle we are in. Drawing moral equivalency between hateful actions will not solve any problems. I agree with you that there is too much hate on the world. There are groups of people an individuals who receive more hate than others. That is a problem that should be solved. Especially is that hate is misdirected or based on uniformed assumptions. Systematic racism is when those assumptions are built into the social and political systems that exist in our country. That racism is the most dangerous as many people operate in it with very little awareness of its very existence. Acknowledging problems that exist and moving to make change in those systems is at the very core of what is going on in our country right now.
DeleteI am voicing my support for those who seek to create change and solve problems that we as a culture are facing. I do not pretend to have the answer to those problems. However I am not going to deny that they exist. I can see that this is not going to be a productive platform for this discussion. Th purpose of this blog and the post I wrote was to spread a message of unity. I am not going to allow this post to become a place for the expression of hate.
ReplyDeleteOnce again playing the role of pompous, self righteous, talk down to, hyprocrite. Who is the one expressing hate here? You should not have written the first post showing
ReplyDeleteyour hatred towards those who have a different, not wrong, just different, opinion
than you and your ilk. You and yours always shy away from true substantive discussions. And when someone challenges you, you change to topic, in this case talking about the expression of hate of others instead of your own hatred. Look inward my friend. You are the hater. You still skirt the real issues I've highlighted
twice now. I'm voicing my support for the innocent bystanders whose lives have been
adversely impacted by the riots across the country. I'm voicing my support for those
poor black residents whose neighborhoods have been destroyed and looted through no fault of their own. I'm voicing my support for the police, the vast majority who are
good, decent human beings. I'm voicing my support for dealing with the nation's real
problems within our ghettos, broken dysfunctional families, meager educational systems, drug running, gang-banging, etc. I want to spread a message of unity to address these issues. But no. You and your ilk are too guilt-ridden to tackle these
real problems. I don't know why. I can't explain you and yours feelings of guilt. My pragmatic mind just can not relate to your emotional and irrational response to race
relations in this country. Why must you practice avoidance? Does it hurt too much to
face reality? What makes you think the way you do? Is it the guilt? If so, where is this guilt coming from? If not, what then? What is going on inside your brain? I realy, truly want to understand you and your ilk. I have no hate for you and yours. I
simply don't get you. When the discussion gets tough, you and yours always change the
topic or walk away. Why? If you are convinced of your position, don't pick up the ball and go home. Stand and deliver. I want to be convinced. You just have use consistent logical, rational arguments, not empty platitudes. Come on Lee. I've been
following you for a while. I know you can write logical statements. Make your case.
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ReplyDeleteLee, I thought your response to" Simply Disagree" on June 13 , " I am not going to allow this post to become a place for the expression of hate" was highly unfair. Yes it was apparent that the poster was angry and frustrated but so were you. Too often these days any disagreement is met with accusations of some character flaw. Denigrating the person instead of addressing the argument is not a valid argument. The basis of a functional progressive society is freedom of speech. It's unfortunate that the terrible incident in Minneapolis in which virtually everybody agreed deserved punishment and reform has devolved into such destruction and devisiveness.
ReplyDelete