On Race and Police

It may seem cut and dried. From your perspective, the protests, damage, and violence may be anarchic and/or characteristic of a people without morals or civility. It may seem to you that it is simply yet another case of over-reaction fueled by media hype and race hustlers.

You may think that you “know” the whole story and your experiences are adequate to grant you the insight to pass judgment. You just might have a full understanding of the conditions and the mindset and the history that is shared by a segment of the population despite sharing virtually nothing in common.

You might know it all. It’s conceivable that you can put yourself in the shoes of a man or woman of another race in 2023 America and state unequivocally how you would think, feel, and act.

Maybe there is nothing to this. Maybe the number of incidents of violent tragedies involving police is not increasing. Maybe we’re past the times when minorities are profiled and harassed unjustly. Maybe Donald Trump isn't an amoral, corrupt, incompetent pervert.

I, personally, cannot truly understand what it is like to be an oppressed minority with built-in systemic disadvantages to overcome. I can condemn the violence, and I can call for calm and civility. I will not, however, accept that a return to the status quo is the end of the story. The status quo is simply not good enough. The oppressors must accept responsibility in order to improve our shared society. Trust has been broken, and our country needs to be rebuilt with shared goals for all people and not just the privileged and powerful.

Let us all not accept simple memes and dishonest lectures from those who profit over chaos and division. It’s not simple and they are not telling you everything.

If you start with the assumption that the average human is inherently good we can progress. If we believe that each one of us, provided with support and with barriers removed, can contribute to the advancement of the species then we might get somewhere. Otherwise, we have no business saying we are part of a civilisation.

We can do better.