I’m a white woman, a daughter of immigrants. My great grandparents on both sides immigrated from Scandinavia and Ireland to seek a better life here in America. I’m as white as they come, raised in a quiet neighborhood in St. Paul Minnesota, my father a Lutheran theologian and pastor, my mother an artist, home-maker and tutor coordinator for the local school district. My first crush was at the age of eight or nine, his name was Raymond, and his father was a student of my dad’s at the seminary where my father was a professor. Raymond’s mom was always smiling and so nice, his little sister would follow us around the neighborhood on our various adventures. What I admired most about Raymond was his sense of adventure, and his ability to eat a quadruple decker peanut butter sandwich in a matter of minutes. Honestly, I don’t remember really making a big deal about the color of his skin, I knew that we were different that way, and I was in awe of his being from Africa. He was exotic and different, and I liked that. A few years later, Raymond and his family moved back to Tanzania, and I never heard from him again.
Thinking back on those years, I knew that the color of our skin was different, I had blonde hair and Raymond had short black hair with tight curls, but that really didn’t matter. We had lots of adventures together, flying kites, riding our banana-seat bikes around the neighborhood, finding rocks to polish and paint. What mattered was that we enjoyed each other’s company, and we had fun together. It was as if we were living in our own little world, free of all the baggage that we’re burdened with when we become adults.
Today, our country and our world is in crisis. Over two weeks of protests after the senseless murder of George Floyd by a police officer in my home town of Minneapolis, the ongoing corona virus and rising deaths, 40 million unemployed in the US, a US president who spends his time tweeting about conspiracy theories and poll numbers rather than leading, a somewhat phlegmatic Congress and Senate, white supremacists marching around with semi-automatic weapons, and an administration that is chipping away at the Constitution and our civil rights.
The murder of George Floyd was a catalyst, and it saddens me that it took this man’s death to awaken a sleeping giant. It’s no secret that compared to other countries, more people in the US are killed by police than in any other country. On average, US police officers kill about 1,000 civilians a year, whereas in Britain, police kill two (1), that statistic shows that US police kill civilians 100 times more than in Britain, and 30% of civilians killed by police in the US are African-Americans. This is a sad statistic, since African Americans make up 13% of the total US population.
Now, I hear some white people say, “all lives matter,” and my response is, “it’s not about you, it’s about people of color.” Let’s stick to the subject, people of color are targeted in this country, they always have been and that’s inarguable. White people, stand together with people of color, push back against the legacy of racism that has insinuated itself into every level of American society, it’s time transform our culture and our country. Black lives do matter.
Why, so many years after 1968, and the civil rights movement sparked by Martin Luther King Jr., are we still dealing with racism, discrimination and violence against people of color? Have we learned nothing from the ’60’s? It’s no secret that the current administration in Washington has fanned the flames of racism in this country, the ranks of registered KKK members has greatly increased, and the current president has a long history of discriminating and targeting people of color (2). So a rift has opened up, the reality of white privilege has been exposed in all it’s ugliness, and the fact that white people still fear people of color, fear immigrants, and fear people who are “different” from them can no longer be ignored. The BLM movement is just the beginning, and I applaud all of those people, white and people of color, marching in the streets, crying out for change, crying out for justice, and crying out for equality. The status quo cannot go on, we must change.
In my view, as Americans, we need to learn from, and overcome the sins of our past. Our country has not always “been great.” We have a shameful history of slavery, genocide, interfering with democratic governments in foreign countries, the murder of striking workers, the poisoning of our environment, political gerrymandering, the exploitation of the poor by the rich. The list goes on, and on, and on. It’s no secret that our history of slavery has served as the basis of racism in this country, and that the stereo-type of the black man and woman being dangerous, lazy and violent has it’s very roots in slavery. And, let’s be honest, the Confederate flag, and all those statues of Confederate generals are ugly reminders of this dark past. We can rationalize all we want, but the Civil War was not about state’s rights, it was about enslaving black people because of the color of their skin, pure and simple (3).
Time to change, time to learn from and move past the scars of our ugly past, and start anew. We are all Americans, and there is no room for racism, discrimination and the targeting of people of color. We need to hold our police departments, our governments, our employers in check, and make them accountable. No more standing aside and saying “oh well,” or “what I do doesn’t matter,” or “the ‘man’ is too powerful.” No more excuses. I am hopeful that this movement will gather strength, and that “we the people” will stand up for all humanity, and demand change for a better world, but we can’t let our guard down. Keep the momentum going.
So I think back to all the fun Raymond and I had growing up, we didn’t have any baggage or excuses, we just enjoyed each other’s company and had fun. We were friends, and that’s what really mattered.
And white people, yes, black lives do matter.
Sources
2. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/06/trump-racism-comments/588067/
3. https://psmag.com/education/of-course-the-civil-war-was-about-slavery-26265
Looking forward to hearing from you Carol.
Thanks cousin! We’ll keep in touch!