Written last year after the Dallas Shootings...
Like many of you, I am incredibly frustrated, disheartened and sad about the events of last week. It is difficult to understand how someone gets angry enough to take a life, much less plan the death of another human being.
It is beyond words to explain what appears to have been a planned murder of white police officers by a black man. Based on news reports, he took the lives of the officers solely because they were white and they were there.
Many of you have posted prayers and concerns for the Dallas police officers and their families, and it is encouraging to see the outpouring of love and support for them. I appreciate that many of you are able to appropriately express both outrage and sympathy for the fallen victims of what appears to be a heinous crime.
It is encouraging to see the support for the officers, but I am also discouraged. I am not on Facebook a great deal, but it has been easy to see and find support for the police officers, and appropriately so. It is however discouraging to see the dearth of posts expressing sympathy for the two black men who were killed last week and their families.
I do not know what the details are, and I do not pretend to understand all which has transpired in the investigations nor that transpired the night(s) of the encounters. I am not trying to gloss over any wrong these black men may, or may not, have done. Nor am I trying to justify the actions of the police officers involved in these two incidents.
Possibly the posts I have seen are the result of the demographic of my Facebook friends. Most of my Facebook friends, and my friends generally, are white. The police officers and their families are white, and so it is natural we (white people) would tend to side with them.
It is encouraging that many black people have also come out in support of the Dallas officers and their families.
Are there white people coming out in support of the two black men who died? I am sure there are, in some form or the other. Possibly if I read a medium which was predominantly black, I would see the postings which are lacking in my Facebook feed.
Possibly.
It also creates a question, however. Isn’t the lack of expressed sympathy for the two black men and their families in my Facebook feed a possible symptom of the problem?
The problem we are all saying we want fixed? Is it possible the problem we want fixed isn’t “out there” but staring at us in the mirror?
Let me reiterate, I am not taking the side of the two black men killed, one in Minnesota and one in Louisiana, nor am I taking the side of the police officers who shot them.
I am most definitely not taking the side of the shooter in Dallas.
I support law enforcement officers across this country. I know you need it and deserve far more recognition than you receive for the great good you do.
However, I do not know details and I do not know what happens, but I do know too many people are being shot.
I do not understand why people who encounter the police cannot simply do what the man says. If he says ‘Lay down,’ then lay down. If he says, ‘Stand on your head,’ then stand on your head.
You get his badge number, go home and file an incident report. The key here is you go home. Alive. (I understand that many believe neither the Louisiana nor the Minnesota shooting involved resistance, and the visual evidence I have seen supports that belief. I do not know, however because I have not seen all the evidence. Please don’t draw conclusions until you have.)
I do not understand why there are a disproportionately large number of young black males in prison. (This fact is not debatable, but the reasons for it may be.)
I do not understand why generally, black Americans have a significantly different experience when stopped by a policeman than white Americans do. (Black Americans have asserted this as a truth for years and recent data has confirmed their anecdotal beliefs.)
I do not understand why we cannot acknowledge as failed, the policies, both governmental and personal which have contributed to the environment which only serves to incubate the feelings of hopelessness and anger. The emotions which are pointed to when these events take place.
I do not understand where my own racism comes from.
I do not understand why when black people are not present, white people talk about them differently, as if they were different. Nor do I understand why more white people don’t stand up in these groups and call out the racism and bigotry. I have stood up, but why don’t I stand up more often?
So for all of us,
Can we acknowledge the possibility (the possibility) that the experience black Americans have with police is generally different than the experience white Americans have?
Can we acknowledge the possibility that this difference may have contributed in some way to the recent shootings of black men by police officers?
Can we acknowledge the possibility that the police officers were acting appropriately?
Can we acknowledge that the vast majority of cops (black & white) do want to act appropriately and work to do their best every day?
Can we acknowledge the possibility that while there are complex and multi-layered problems around the black American experience, liberal government policy has contributed to the conditions which breed the frustration, anger and sadness associated with the acting out we have witnessed?
There is good data to support this affirmation.
Can we all agree that taking another human being’s life is deplorable and should be denounced?
Can we all agree that more violence in response to injustice and violence is wrong?
Can we all agree to confront our own racism?
Can we all make an effort to be intentional about making a friend of someone who is black or someone who is white and (in time and if the relationship allows) discuss theses events openly and honestly? Can we do this and be open and honest (yet respectful) about our feelings?
Can we agree that only God can cure my own racism and your racism?
Can we agree to let him do it? (maybe through the relationship mentioned above?)
Don’t change the world, let God change you. Start by making a friend of a black/white person, and don’t just invite a white/black person to your lunch table at work with your friends. (I’m looking at you white people.).
Engage with him or her one on one and spend time with them.
Have them in your house and go to their house.
Let your kids play together.
Go to a ball game or a concert together.
Have fun and get to know one another as people. Get to know one another as part of the human race.
And read Benjamin Watson’s book, Under Our Skin. You won’t agree with everything he says, but it could start a dialogue. I wrote this after reading his book, and it mirrors some of what he says. So HT to you Benjamin Watson. I don’t know you but wish I did.